Fort Kearny was an old post in Nebraska. It is now a thriving town and the capital of the county of the same name. The trail from this point led westward for 200 miles along the Platte River to Julesburg, in the northeastern corner of Colorado, then to Fort Laramie, whose gray ruins stand to-day in southeastern Wyoming, fifty miles west of Cheyenne. Next, over the foothills to the northwest, and through the famous South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, by Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City. This completed the long ride over the eastern division. From Salt Lake, the express rider strained every nerve to Fort Churchill, 50 miles away, thence to Rush Valley, or old Camp Floyd, Deep Creek, Ruby Valley, Smith’s Creek, Fort Churchill, over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and so on through points that have been already named, to Sacramento, whence the mail was carried by boat to San Francisco. A glance at the map will show that this long run――not quite two thousand miles from St. Joe――was across and through the wildest portion of our continent. Rugged mountains, inaccessible to the ordinary traveler, had to be crossed, and only he who was familiar with the route could do it. Tumultuous torrents had to be forded or swum, where horse and rider were often hurled far down stream before the animal could clamber up the rocky bank on the other side. Those desolate solitudes were swept by furious storms of sleet, hail and rain, vast valleys were turned into swirling lakes, and the driving snow often blinded horse and rider, so he could not see twenty feet beyond the nose of his animal. There were stretches of plain where the panting pony and his master could not get a drop of water for hours. When they plunged into the mountains in the depth of winter, the temperature was often far below zero, but the undaunted rider kicked away the snow on the lee side of some boulder, kindled a fire of dead limbs, when he could find such sparse fuel, but more often he had nothing of that nature. The tough little pony was wrapped about by his blanket, the master inclosed his iron body in another, or partly in the same one, lay down and slept, with never a dream to disturb his rest. But he could not forget his duty, which was so impressed on his mind that he awoke to the minute he had set for awaking. Probably the first faint streakings of morning were showing in the east, when he flung his blanket aside, remounted and dashed off again.