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For this onward band, which so near are allid?

’Tis He who makes water spring out of the rock,

Abundance shall follow—He cares for His flock.

Then onward, brave pilgrims, your Canaan is near,

You’ll soon cross the Jordan [cascades] with hearts full of cheer.

On advancing up the Platt a distance of about 445 miles to Sweet Water, one of its tributaries, and near to the dividing point, the country becomes more barren all around, being more within that portion of the continent where the sun’s influences are not hindered by rains, or even dews, for a great portion of the year. Here, no soil is formd by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter, for none exists with which to make soil except the wild sage and a few other useless shrubs.

Few animals of any kind dwell here, for want of the means of sustaining life. It may justly be calld a desert country. It should, however, be remarkd that within the distance from Platt to Sweet Water, nearly all the present buffalo range is comprisd, and if the country is a barren waste, how do they receive their support? Along the bottom lands of the Platt and its tributaries, are seen occasional tracts coverd with grass, but these are few compard with the great extent of country over which the buffalo is obligd to ramble for his support. At one season of the year he is seen on Platt and at another on Sweet Water, a distance of more than four hundred miles in extent.