belt of heavy timber, and nearer the hills the prairies were of the
richest verdure. One of the oxen was killed here for food.

We reached the ford of the Kansas late in the afternoon of the 14th, where
the river was two hundred and thirty yards wide, and commenced,
immediately, preparations for crossing. I had expected to find the river
fordable; but it had swollen by the late rains, and was sweeping by with
an angry current, yellow and turbid as the Missouri. Up to this point the
road we had traveled was a remarkably fine one, well beaten, and level--
the usual road of a prairie country. By our route, the ford was one
hundred miles from the mouth of the Kansas river. Several mounted men led
the way into the stream to swim across. The animals were driven in after
them, and in a few minutes all had reached the opposite bank in safety,
with the exception of the oxen, which swam some distance down the river,
and, returning to the right bank, were not got over till the next morning.
In the mean time, the carts had been unloaded and dismantled, and an
India-rubber boat, which I had brought with me for the survey of the
Platte river, placed in the water. The boat was twenty feet long and five
broad, and on it were placed the body and wheels of a cart, with the load
belonging to it, and three men with paddles.

The velocity of the current, and the inconvenient freight, rendering it
difficult to be managed, Basil Lajeunesse, one of our best swimmers, took
in his teeth a line attached to the boat, and swam ahead in order to reach
a footing as soon as possible, and assist in drawing her over. In this
manner six passages had been successfully made, and as many carts with
their contents, and a greater portion of the party, deposited on the left
bank; but night was drawing near, and, in our anxiety to have all over
before the darkness closed in, I put upon the boat the remaining two
carts, with their accompanying load. The man at the helm was timid on