Another means of keeping in touch with travelling parties in advance was the accounts that were frequently found written on the bleaching skulls of animals, or on trunks of trees from which the bark had been stripped, or yet again, on pieces of paper stuck in the clefts of sticks driven into the ground close to the trail.  Thus each company left greetings and words of cheer to those who were following.  Lost cattle were also advertised by that means, and many strays or convalescents were found and driven forward to their owners.

Early June afforded rarest sport to lovers of the chase, and our company was kept bountifully supplied with choicest cuts of antelope, deer, and elk meat, also juicy buffalo steak.  By the middle of the month, however, our surroundings were less favorable.  We entered a region of oppressive heat.  Clouds of dust enveloped the train.  Wood became scarce, and water had to be stored in casks and carried between supply points.  We passed many dead oxen, also a number of poor cripples that had been abandoned by their unfeeling owners.  Our people, heeding these warnings, gave our cattle extra care, and lost but few.

Through the kindness of the Hon. Allen Francis, U.S.  Consul at Victoria, British Columbia, for a long term of years, and in his earlier career editor of The Springfield Journal, I have in my possession two letters written by my mother for this paper.  They give a glimpse of the party en route.  The interval of time which elapsed between the date of writing and that of publication indicates how much faster our trapper letter-carriers must have travelled on horseback than we had by ox train.

The following was published on the twenty-third of July: 

    NEAR THE JUNCTION OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH PLATTE, June 16, 1846

    MY OLD FRIEND: 

We are now on the Platte, two hundred miles from Fort Laramie.  Our journey so far has been pleasant, the roads have been good, and food plentiful.  The water for part of the way has been indifferent, but at no time have our cattle suffered for it.  Wood is now very scarce, but “buffalo chips” are excellent; they kindle quickly and retain heat surprisingly.  We had this morning buffalo steaks broiled upon them that had the same flavor they would have had upon hickory coals.

    We feel no fear of Indians, our cattle graze quietly around our
    encampment unmolested.

    Two or three men will go hunting twenty miles from camp; and last
    night two of our men lay out in the wilderness rather than ride
    their horses after a hard chase.