Few camps were as orderly as the one at Wood River above. The
wagons are neatly arranged in corral; the oxen appear satisfied amid
plenty of good grass. Once you were past Pawnee country, there was no
particular danger from Indians (though the fear of them rode with you
always); the principal danger lay in the subtle pressure of sun and
dust and sky upon the nerves; the sickness incident to a diet of "hog
and hominy" only slightly varied by an occasional taste of raccoon, or
wild onions; the dreaded cholera of that year; and the dysentery
brought on by drinking the waters of mineral springs. Sometimes at
night there was a grand illumination; the prairie grass would flame up
in an ever-widening semi-circle of fire.
