he says: "On the 22d of May we began one of the most arduous and important trips undertaken in modern times." The first camp, at Elm Grove, on account of its strange picturesqueness, produced a strong impression upon the mind of Burnett, as it probably did on others. "I have never witnessed a scene," he says, "more beautiful than this. Elm Grove stands in a wide, gently undulating prairie. The moon shed her silvery beams on the white sheets of sixty wagons; a thousand head of cattle grazed upon the surrounding plain; fifty campfires sent up their brilliant flames, and the sound of the sweet violin was heard in the tents. All was stir and excitement."
Electing officers; division of the company. By the time they had crossed the Kansas River (June i) a good many others had joined the company, which now numbered one hundred and twenty wagons, nearly one thousand persons of all ages, and more than five times as many animals. Stopping to complete the organization, Peter H. Burnett was chosen captain, J. W. Nesmith orderly sergeant, and nine others designated to form a council. A few days later, however, Burnett resigned, and the company was divided into two parts. Each division had sixty wagons; but one was composed mainly of those who had few or no loose cattle, and called "the light column "; while the other contained the owners of the herds, large and small, with which this emigration was encumbered, and took the name of "the cow-column." There was a separate captain for each.
