Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have been retained.

THE PRAIRIE TRAVELER.

A HAND-BOOK FOR OVERLAND EXPEDITIONS.

WITH MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND ITINERARIES OF THE PRINCIPAL ROUTES BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE PACIFIC.

By

RANDOLPH B. MARCY, CAPTAIN U. S. ARMY.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1859.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The different Routes to California and Oregon. Their respective Advantages. Organization of Companies. Elections of Captains. Wagons and Teams. Relative Merits of Mules and Oxen. Stores and Provisions. How packed. Desiccated and canned Vegetables. Pemmican. Antiscorbutics. Cold Flour. Substitutes in case of Necessity. Amount of Supplies. Clothing. Camp Equipage. Arms. 15

CHAPTER II.

Marching. Treatment of Animals. Water. Different methods of finding and purifying it. Journadas. Methods of crossing them. Advance and Rear Guards. Selection of Camp. Sanitary Considerations. Dr. Jackson's Report. Picket Guards. Stampedes. How to prevent them. Corraling Wagons. 44

CHAPTER III.

Repairing broken Wagons. Fording Rivers. Quicksand. Wagon Boats. Bull Boats. Crossing Packs. Swimming Animals. Marching with loose Horses. Herding Mules. Best Methods of Marching. Herding and guarding Animals. Descending Mountains. Storms. Northers. 71

CHAPTER IV.

Packing. Saddles. Mexican Method. Madrina, or Bell-mare. Attachment of the Mule illustrated. Best Method of Packing. Hoppling Animals. Selecting Horses and Mules. Grama and bunch Grass. European Saddles. California Saddle. Saddle Wounds. Alkali. Flies. Colic. Rattlesnake Bites. Cures for the Bite. 98

CHAPTER V.

Bivouacs. Tente d'Abri. Gutta-percha Knapsack Tent. Comanche Lodge. Sibley Tent. Camp Furniture. Litters. Rapid Traveling. Fuel. Making Fires. Fires on the Prairies. Jerking Meat. Making Lariats. Making Caches. Disposition of Fire-arms. Colt's Revolvers. Gun Accidents. Trailing. Indian Sagacity. 132

CHAPTER VI.

Guides and Hunters. Delawares and Shawnees. Khebirs. Black Beaver. Anecdotes. Domestic Troubles. Lodges. Similarity of Prairie Tribes to the Arabs. Method of making War. Tracking and pursuing Indians. Method of attacking them. Telegraphing by Smokes. 183

CHAPTER VII.

Hunting. Its Benefits to the Soldier. Buffalo. Deer. Antelope. Bear. Big-horn, or Mountain Sheep. Their Habits, and Hints upon the best Methods of hunting them. 230

ITINERARIES. 253