They could trace the course of the Platte, and number the streams they had crossed, and others which they had before passed near, by the slight fringing of timber or bushes which margined their banks, and by an occasional glimpse of their streams shining like quicksilver, and interrupting and varying the continuity of the plain as they pursued their serpentine course. The atmosphere was remarkably serene, small clouds were coursing over the surface of the heavens, casting their swiftly moving shadows upon the earth, and enhancing the beauty of the contrast which the long lines of timber afforded to the general glare of light. After contemplating for some time the beauty and extent of the scene, their attention was attracted by a moving point, which occasionally became visible by reflecting the rays of the retiring sun. This object was our white flag, waving in a gentle breeze, and revealing the position of our camp, the only spot in the boundless landscape where the eye could rest on the work of human hands. The descent towards the river from this pinnacle was so precipitous, that much caution was requisite in attempting to gain the river towards which they now directed their course. Upon a step or resting place were several ponderous masses of rock, which, by the application of a little force, were readily overturned down the steep; and {197} we were amused by marking their impetuous and rapidly increasing motion as they rolled and bounded onward, until a surge and wide-thrown spray announced their reception into the bed of the river. Arriving at the river, it was found necessary to pass along in the stream, the margin not admitting sufficient foot-hold; this mode of progression, however, soon proved too painful and laborious, as the very unequal rocks with which the bottom was paved, were invested with a slime, and refused repose to the foot, the uncertain motion of which was only arrested by the opposition of an angular fragment, or the intervention of an interstice; we therefore again ascended the mountain side, and at length regained the plain. [146] The words "of the same day" should here be inserted; so reads the Philadelphia edition.—ED. Astronomical observations were attempted at camp, but in the middle of the day the moon was found to be too near the sun, and in the evening the sky was cloudy. The sickness experienced by almost all the party was probably occasioned by eating of currants, which were abundant about the camp. It is not to be supposed this illness was caused by any very active deleterious quality in the fruit, but that the stomach, by long disuse, had in a great measure lost the power of digesting vegetable matter. Several continued unwell during the night.