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[[underlined]] to Gail & beyond 5 miles [[/underlined]]  

[[underlined]] May 26 [[/underlined]]  The Colorado river has fallen 12 feet during the night.  We crossed easily with water only to horses bellies.

Climbed easily onto higher prairie & kept on open, grassy plain most of the way to Gail.  Mesquite becames more abundant in the lower ground & scarce on higher.  Opuntia arborescens is abundant & just now in height of flower.  It is brilliant.  O. Davisii is less common & has inconspicuous yellowish flowers & sheathed spines.  O. engelmani is small & not very numerous.  O. missouriensis (?) is fairly common - so are Salwacactus & [[?Wannielaria]].  Grass is abundant till 3 miles of Gail - then very short & scant the rest of the way.

A heavy rain night before last is the first rain of the spring near Gail so the grass has hardly started.  Prairie dogs & rabbits find poor picking & have gnawed the bark from much of the small mesquite & from the Opuntia arborescens.  Saw a few dead prairie dogs near Gail drowned by the rains & freighters told us of seeing hundreds dead along the road.