midday sun
Three dozen broke train and pulled out independently for the West , ahead of Wingate , mule and horse transport again rebelling against being held back by the ox teams . More and more community cleavages began to define . The curse of flies by day , of mosquitoes by night added increasing miseries for the travelers . The hot midday sun wore sore on them . Restless high spirits , grief over personal losses , fear of the future , alike combined to lessen the solidarity of the great train ; but still it inched along on its way to Oregon , putting behind mile after mile of the great valley of the Platte . The grass now lay yellow in the blaze of the sun , the sandy dust was inches deep in the great road , cut by thousands of wheels . Flotsam and jetsam , wreckage , showed more and more .