. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. -^ ih X. <^- \W. ; # ¥ Nooning on the Plains. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX REVIVING OLD MEMORIES OF THE TRAIL The sight of Sweetwater River, twenty miles out fromSouth Pass, revived many pleasant memories and somethat were sad. I could remember the sparkling, clearwater, the green skirt of undergrowth along the banks,and the restful camps, as we trudged along up the streamso many years ago. And now I saw the same channel, thesame hills, and apparently the same waters swiftly where were the camp fi
. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. -^ ih X. <^- \W. ; # ¥ Nooning on the Plains. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX REVIVING OLD MEMORIES OF THE TRAIL The sight of Sweetwater River, twenty miles out fromSouth Pass, revived many pleasant memories and somethat were sad. I could remember the sparkling, clearwater, the green skirt of undergrowth along the banks,and the restful camps, as we trudged along up the streamso many years ago. And now I saw the same channel, thesame hills, and apparently the same waters swiftly where were the camp fires? Where was the herd ofgaunt cattle? Where the sound of the din of bells? Thehallooing for lost children? Or the little groups off on thehillside to bury the dead? All were gone. An oppressive silence prevailed as we drove to the riverand pitched our camp within a few feet of the bank,where we could hear the rippling waters passing and seethe fish leaping in the eddies. We had our choice of acamping place just by the skut of a refreshing green 195 196 Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail. The old trail across the prairie; the deeper part of the trail is stillalmost seven feet below the genersJ level of the prairie. brush with an opening to give full view of the river. Ithad not been so fifty-four years before, with hundredsof camps ahead of you. The traveler then must take whathe could get, and that in many cases would be a place farback from the water and removed from other conven-iences. The sight and smell of carrion, so common in CEimp-ing places during that first joiu-ney, also were gone. Nobleached bones, even, showed where the exhausted dumbbrute had died. The graves of the dead pioneers had allbeen leveled by the hoofs of stock and the lapse of time. The country remains as it was in 52. There the trailis to be seen miles and miles ahead, worn bare and deep,with but one narrow track where there used to be a dozen,and with the beaten path that vegetation has not yetrecove
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectoverlan, bookyear1922
