They picked up every kernel of corn they could find and then obliterated the burying place and the tracks to and from the wagon by smoothing the sand.

Some weeks later, on their return, they found that some of the wasted corn had not been recovered, and that there was a row of growing corn from the wagon tracks to the cache at the top of the blowout, thus clearly pointing out to any chance passerby where the provisions and feed were hidden. The cache, however, had not been disturbed.

Something over forty-two years ago a sudden snowstorm swept down upon them while in Sheridan county, and while resting under the lea of a rock waiting for it to ease up before they returned to their camp, Dull Knife,

then on his famous raid, made a run between them and the camp, with a bunch of soldiers in hot pursuit. The recalcitrant Indians were soon thereafter captured.

The Burning Prairies Some distance south of the present site of Chadron, in Dawes county, a prairie fire came .sweeping down upon them in a high wind from the northwest. As it topped the ridge from Chadron creek, it presented a wonderful but fearful sight. It was the worst ever witnessed by the veteran surveyor, and only rapid work back-firing and the assistance of a natural ridge of rock saved the outfit from destruction. They were running a "base line" to the west and had to continue for several days. The burnt prairie did not offer an inviting condition for feed for their horses and mules. But it so transpired that some natural obstruction had broken the progress of the flames at nearly every natural camping place, leaving a spot of unburned prairie. In one place the grass had been flattened down by a herd of cattle that had bedded there for a night, and this did not burn.