distance below American Falls at $2.50 per wagon. At Fort Boise they had to recross at $8.00 per wagon. 34
By far the most fatal of all perils encountered was the cholera, which ravaged the plains from the Missouri to-the Rockies in 1849 and the early fifties. One estimate places the number of deaths in 1849 at 2,000, 35 another places those of 1850 at 5,000. 36 The latter is probably too high but it illustrates the terrible mortality. "In the Fifties the Asiatic Cholera crawled in upon the Plains, and like a gray wolf followed the wagon trains from the 'River' to the Rockies. In the height of the migration, from 4,000 to 5,000 emigrants died of this pestilence; and if there was a half-mile which the Indians had failed to punctuate with a grave, the cholera took care to remedy the omission." 37 With the exception of the fact that the Indians are probably credited with too many scalps this is a vivid picture of the destruction wrought by the dreaded disease.
At St. Louis, at the outfitting towns in Western Mis- souri, and on the steamboats the cholera wrought fearful havoc. In May, 1849, one steamer was abandoned and left tied to the shore of the Missouri River. 38 From Missouri to the region of the Sweetwater strong men succumbed to its fearful attacks. A few hours after being attacked they would be resting in a shallow grave by the roadside, probably to be dug up by the wolves as soon as darkness settled over the prairie. Those in the vanguard escaped the work of the scourge. 39 Those who followed the north bank of the Platte suffered much less than their neighbors across the river, 40 yet even on that side in 1852 a train
34 D. B. Ward, "Across the Plains in 1853," The Washington Historian, Vol. II , pp. 176-178.
35 McMaster, op.c it., Vol. VII, p. 602 .
36 Meeker, op. cit., p. 67.
37 Charles F. Lummis, 'Tioneer Transportation in America, Mc- Clure's Magazine, Vol. XXVI, p. 83 .
38 Report of Major Cross, op. cit., p. 128 .
39 Delano, op. cit., p. 112 .
40 Langworthy, op. cit., pp. 70-71, also Paxson, op. cit., p. 166.
