The old world whirls on, blazing a trail across the wilderness of space, yet probably the path it moves along has been worn smooth by vagrant worlds still moving on before.

Having traversed this part of the wilderness

with a pack horse several times, it was quite natural that one should look for easier modes of conveyance. Thus it was that in the early spring of 1830 two years before Captain Bonneville made his journey up the Platte, William Sublette set out with a party of trappers from St. Louis.

He had ten wagons, each laden with about a ton of merchandise and drawn by five mules, two light vehicles drawn by one mule each, and eighty men mounted on mules. With the caravan were twelve cattle, and one milch cow. The cattle were for food until they should reach the buffalo country.

They moved up the Missouri river to the mouth of the Platte, and followed the north bank of the Platte into the mountains.

It was in June that the first wagons on the Overland Trail passed through the Scotts Bluff country. They traveled at the rate of about fifteen miles a day through the prairie country, slowing down when reaching the mountains.

About the middle of August the wagons laden with peltries, returned through the valley, and arrived at St. Louis early in October.

Speaking of this trip, Smith, Jackson and

I IIS TORN' OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Sublette wrote a letter in October, 1830, to Chouteau, which found its way into the Conggressional Record. It covers a wide variety of subjects. The feasibility of carrying on traffic by wagon trains to the Columbia river country comes in for a liberal share.