In their march, across the level prairie of this high table-land, they encountered a squall of rain, with vivid lightning and heavy peals of thunder.

One blinding flash was accompanied by a bolt, which struck the prairie but a few hundred feet from their line, sending up a column of sand.
A march of about twenty-three miles brought them to the waters of the majestic Platte river.

Here they found a very delightful place of encampment near Grand Island.

They had now travelled three hundred and twenty-eight miles from the mouth of the Kansas river.

They had fixed the latitude and longitude of all the important spots they had passed, and had carefully examined the geological formation of the country.
They were working their way slowly up this beautiful valley, to a point where it was only four miles wide.