. The argonauts of 'forty-nine, some recollections of the plains and the diggings. Ourparty, however, braved it through overland from be-ginning to end. Nor did we indeed have much choicein the matter, for it so happened that we were outfrom home bvit a few days when all the hard cash inour compan3s exchequer mysteriously took were frequently compelled to make wide detours,avoiding the roads altogether, so as to escape thefloods and bottomless lowlands. Many of the streamswere out of their banks, and the bridges (if there hadbeen any) were washed away. At LaSalle, Illinois,we were wate
. The argonauts of 'forty-nine, some recollections of the plains and the diggings. Ourparty, however, braved it through overland from be-ginning to end. Nor did we indeed have much choicein the matter, for it so happened that we were outfrom home bvit a few days when all the hard cash inour compan3s exchequer mysteriously took were frequently compelled to make wide detours,avoiding the roads altogether, so as to escape thefloods and bottomless lowlands. Many of the streamswere out of their banks, and the bridges (if there hadbeen any) were washed away. At LaSalle, Illinois,we were water-bound for a week or more by theswollen Little Vermillion Creek. We made an effortto cross by swimming a yoke of oxen over and at-taching a line from them to a wagon on the oppositebank. The wagon made the passage well enough;. NOT A JUNKET. 7 but it had not occurred to us to lash down the box,and the vehicle had scarcely reached the current when the box lifted from itsplnce, and dashed away onthe foaming torrent asgail}as if on a holida}jaunt. Luckily, the jollycraft lodged at the aque-duct of the canal severalmiles below, and was thusprexented from being lostin the Illinois Ri\er, whichwas rushing by at flood-stage. Our goods hadbeen removed from thebox before we made theexperiment. We tinally, as a last resort, were com-pelled to swim our oxen across, drag our wagonsthrough the aqueduct,and carry our luggageover on the heel-path, thetoe-path being on the op-posite side. At Burling-ton, Iowa, we had a sim-ilar detention. The bot-toms of the Mississippiwere inundated for miles,and ferriage for a t i m ewas wholh tinall} we wereenabled to make the pas- WILLIAM S. GOOD.(FROM A DAGlERREOTVPE, 1S52.)
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbusines, bookyear1894
