camp, having left his command at our camp of the preceding night on the Red Water. His regiment had left Fort Laramie on the 2nd of August and came through the Black Hills, striking our trail whilst we were yet in sight. On the Cheyenne grass was very scarce but water plenty. In the bluffs there were some evidence of coal, yet no pure outcroppings.

From the Cheyenne I moved up one of its tributaries to its head, thence down a small stream to the Little Missouri River, over a comparatively level country, but with little water, however. Timber covered all the ridges and cedars filled the canons. Scurvy had now began to develop itself, and one of the command died of this disease. One of my Pawnee guides also died of apoplexy or some kindred cause. At the point where I struck the Little Missouri River (a) grass was to scant that it was a matter of extreme difficulty to find enough to even scantily feed my animals, this sparseness continuing as I moved down the valley. So short were my animals fed that I kept scouting parties out all the time in search of grass, which on the third day was found in plenty. Many trails, evidently five or six days old, of parties of from five to fifteen Indians, were here seen; older and heavier trails, tending down the valley, were observed, denoting this one of their highways. My own judgment would have prompted me to push down the river, but my orders strictly confined me to moving to Powder River and Panther Mountain. Whilst lying by one day to graze and rest the wearied animals and to make some necessary repairs, I sent a scouting party to the westward to discover some practicable route in the direction of Powder River. They proceeded as far as Box Elder Creek, a tributary of the Little Missouri River, to which point I moved on the following day, over a route made easy for trains with but little labor.

In the valley of the Box Elder there was a moderate quantity of grass, its timber consisting of box elder, cottonwood, On the bluffs adjacent there were many pines and cedars. This stream was not running, but water in pools was standing in the bends. During this days' march great quantities of fossil bones of large size were seen lying in beds in different localities. Much of the fragmentary rock exposed among the passes was apparently volcanic in its origin. Moving from here westward up the valley of a small creek, a tributary of the Box Elder, I camped on its head, with scant grass obtained by scattering the stock over a considerable area of country. Scurvy had now become prevalent in the command, and the absence of anti-scorbutics made it desirable to discover something as a substitute for the ordinary vegetables. One of the men now fortunately discovered that the yellow, washed clay on which we were camped a contained a small bulbous root, which on examination proved to be a species of onion, not so large as the common white army bean and possessed of a less pungent flavor, yet they had a good effect upon the men, who dug and ate them with avidity. At this camp there was no timber, save small willows along the stream, but the bluffs at some distance were covered with pines. From here to the westward I moved over a gently undulating country, without water save that in a couple of holes, which, with its brackish taste and thick consistency, was almost for use. Nearly night the head of the column arrived at the edge of a cliff in sight of Powder River, distant about six miles across a strip of "Bad Lands," which was a part of "Les Mauvaises Terres" of the Yellowstone River Valley. This cliff was hundreds of feet in height, and no

a This point was a short distance below what is laid down on the map as the "Three or Little Missouri Buttes. "