. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. not toolarge, cuts had been taken out. In other places the largetimber had been bridged by piling up smaller logs, rottenchunks, brush, or earth, so that the wheels of the wagoncould be rolled over the body of the tree. Usually threenotches would be cut on the top of the log, two for thewheels and one for the reach, or coupling pole, to passthrough. In such places the oxen would be taken to the oppositeside, and a chain or rope would be run to the end of thewagon tongue. One man drove, one or two guide
. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. not toolarge, cuts had been taken out. In other places the largetimber had been bridged by piling up smaller logs, rottenchunks, brush, or earth, so that the wheels of the wagoncould be rolled over the body of the tree. Usually threenotches would be cut on the top of the log, two for thewheels and one for the reach, or coupling pole, to passthrough. In such places the oxen would be taken to the oppositeside, and a chain or rope would be run to the end of thewagon tongue. One man drove, one or two guided thetongue, others helped at the wheels. In this way, withinfinite labor and great care, the wagons would graduallybe worked over all obstacles and down the mountain in thedirection of the settlements. But the more numerous the difficulties, the more deter-mined I became to push through at all hazards, for thegreater was the necessity of acquainting myself with theobstacles to be encountered and of reaching my friends toencourage and help them. Blazing the Way through Natchess Pass 117. In the beiut of a Cascade forest. Edward S. Curtis 118 Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail Before me lay the summit of the great range, the pass, atfive thousand feet above sea level. At this summit, abouttwenty miles north of Mt. Rainier in the Cascade range, isa small stretch of picturesque open country known as Sum-mit Prairie, in the Natchess Pass. In this prairie, during the autumn of 1853, a camp ofimmigrants had encountered grave difficulties. A shortway out from the camp, a steep mountain declivity laysquarely across their track. One of the women of the partyexclaimed, when she first saw it, Have we come to the jump-ing-off place at last.*^ It was no exclamation for effect, buta fervent prayer for deliverance. They could not go back;they must either go ahead or starve in the mountains. Stout hearts in the party were not to be deterred frommaking the effort to proceed. Go around this hill t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectoverlan, bookyear1922
