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292. of the horses. In passing over the Plains you find that only some of the streams are bridged. The bridges however appear to one who is new to the country to be very inadequate to what is required of them. they generally consist of two long pine trees laid from bank to bank, or of the stream is unclear from pier to pier, & then covered with a cording of cross pieces, sometimes a little unclear; the interstices are filled up with prairie hay which is strewed over the whole structure. To save material, & cartage? these briges are made just wide enough for the wheels of the Coach. I do not think there are six inches to spare on either side. There is no side railing of any kind. The driver, with four or six horses as it may happen generally takes them at his best pace. Any hesitation, or a false step, or any kind of unclear in any of the horses wd lead to a mishap, But then mishaps never occur, or only so seldom as just to show that such things are not impossible. This, however, is a momentary affair & by the time one has noticed that the cross pieces are not fastened, but are starting & banking under the feet of the horses & the wheels of the Coach, the other side is reached. In the Mountains I saw a specimen of American Sewing that wd. have astonished our old stages of the Exeter, on the north road. We were crossing one of the inner ranges, & had been slowly toiling up a big hill, at a rate I suppose of not more than four miles an hour. At last we reached the summit of almost naked