West of Old Phalon's Bluffs, Squire Lamb drove from the station at his place to Fort Kearny. He changed his teams at Wood River Center where he usually put on four big grey mules, which he drove through the Platte River. When the river was at full bank it made a dangerous crossing, but he never touched the reins or used a whip on the animals while they were passing through deep water. He guided the mules by the throwing of little stones that he carried in the front booth, and when he did whip the mules it was done with a trace chain. When he desired the animals to go up stream he would throw stones and rattle the trace chain and they would get into the collar in a hurry. The channel next to the last channel on the south, which is called ox channel, was very dangerous, and in high water it was very deep and the current very swift. More or less stock was drowned in this channel at different times, and passengers on the stage would get wet. The stage company at Omaha finally built a sand wagon with five inch tires on the tread, and between seven and eight feet high, its steps going up from the behind. This wagon was sent out by the company for this Platte River crossing. The drivers would leave the stage on the north side and the passengers' trunks would be put aboard the sand wagon.

I was sent up with Squire Lamb on the sand wagon on the first trip through the river, and the passenger crossed in safety without getting wet. I sat in the front booth with the driver. Going into Ox channel the

mules were obliged to swim for about 50 feet at one stretch, and all we could see of them was their ears, their entire bodies being submerged. I remarked to the driver that the mules would drown, and he replied that so long as their ears were two feet, six inches out of water they would not drown, and that they got their breath throught their ears. I never knew before that mules breathed through their ears.

All stage lines came into the stage barns at Kearney about the same time, hardly ever any one being more than an hour late. If they were late, it was usually on account of snow drifts or swollen streams. The stage barns were located across the road from the Fort where they kept extra horses, mules, stage coaches, and other accessories, and when there was an overplus of passengers for the west, they would put on an extra stage on the Overland route. West of Kearny, the Pony Express was put in. They paid $50.00 and board for working on these stages. A dollar in those days looked as big as a wagon wheel. The limit to weight of persons driving a stage was 135 pounds, and when measured and weighed at Kearney I filled the bill. My parents thought $50.00 was too little and the route too dangerous, but I kept at it and was considered a good and easy ridrer, and I never heard of a Pony Express rider being held up, although they carried the most valuable parcels.