Note 46 — Chapter I · Why I went to Great Salt Lake City.—The various Routes.—The Line of Country traversed.—Diaries and Disquisitions. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The Arabo-Spanish “arroyo,” a word almost naturalized by the Anglo-Americans, exactly corresponds with the Italian “fiumara” and the Indian nullah.
[47] The word “cedar,” in the United States, is applied to various genera of the pine family. The red cedar (J. Virginiana) is a juniper. The “white cedar” of the Southern swamps is a cypress.
[48] The Mormon emigrants usually start from Council Bluffs, on the left bank of the Missouri River, in N. lat, 41° 18′ 50″, opposite Kanesville, otherwise called Winter Quarters. According to the “Overland Guide,” Council Bluffs is the natural crossing of the Missouri River, on the route destined by Nature for the great thoroughfare to the Pacific. This was the road selected by “Nature’s civil engineers,” the buffalo and the elk, for their western travel. The Indians followed them in the same trail; then the travelers; next the settlers came. After ninety-four miles’ marching, the Mormons are ferried across Loup Fork, a stream thirteen rods wide, full of bars, with banks and a bottom all quicksand. Another 150 miles takes them to the Platte River, where they find good camping-places, with plenty of water, buffalo-chips, and grass. Eighty-two miles beyond that point (a total of 306), they arrive at “Last Timber,” a station so called because, for the next 300 miles on the north side of the Platte, the only sign of vegetation is “Lone Tree.” Many emigrants avoid this dreary “spell” by crossing the Platte opposite Ash Hollow. Others pass it at Platte-River Ferry, a short distance below the mouth of Laramie River, while others keep the old road to the north.