Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country: Embracing Lincoln Douglas Adams and Franklin Counties State of Washington (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country: Embracing Lincoln Douglas Adams and Franklin Counties State of Washington<br><br>We reached the top of the bluffs which are here about 540 feet high by going up through a long gulch greatly beaten by cattle. The soil is dry and is ground to powder by the feet of the cattlewherever they make a path and is not well suited for a road. We however found a short distance down the river a gulch up which to ascend to the top of the bluffs easy and gradual. From the summit the country spreads out gently roll ing as far as'' the eye could reach to the northeast and east. To the north and northwest a small mountain chain devoid of timber stretched itself from east to west across our way. It is called Saddle Mountain. The country was covered with a luxuriant growth of bunch grass with here and there a tract of sage brush. The soil is of firm and excellent quality. Quite a large number of cattle were seen all of which had to descend to the river for water. Proceeding somewhat to the northeast to skirt Saddle Mountain we soon found our selves getting into a country''more sandy and more rolling and our mules and horses had greater difficulty in getting along. Inthe afternoon being on the look out for water we made for a green looking spot off to the east hoping it was a spring. In this we were dis appointed and we continued on our way until nine o''clock at night when not finding any-water we un loaded and made ourselves as comfortable as possible without it. The next morning before daylight we took up our laborsome march through the sands of the desert and traveled until about two in the afternoon. When as our animals were suffering intensely from thirst and as we were uncertain about what lay before us we concluded to strike to the westward as from all the indications it was more likely to give a supply of water. About three o''clock we came to the old road which gave indications of having at one time been well trav cled and we turned and followed it to the northward trusting that it would take us to water.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.