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 Helen Sharp
Tracy Hall (Eds.)

Agile Processes
LNBIP 251

in Software Engineering
and Extreme Programming
17th International Conference, XP 2016
Edinburgh, UK, May 24–27, 2016
Proceedings
Lecture Notes
in Business Information Processing 251

Series Editors
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Eindhoven Technical University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
John Mylopoulos
University of Trento, Povo, Italy
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Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Helen Sharp Tracy Hall (Eds.)
•

Agile Processes
in Software Engineering
and Extreme Programming
17th International Conference, XP 2016
Edinburgh, UK, May 24–27, 2016
Proceedings
Editors
Helen Sharp Tracy Hall
Computing and Communications Computer Science Department
Department Brunel University London
The Open University Middlesex
Milton Keynes UK
UK

ISSN 1865-1348 ISSN 1865-1356 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
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 Preface

Agile software development continues to be adopted widely, and the submissions to

XP 2016 reflected a diversity of concerns. Alongside challenges that have traditionally
been the subject of discussion and research such as scalability, UX design, and agile
measurement, this year’s submissions included an increased focus on domains that
originally shied away from agile working, such as safety-critical systems and other
regulated environments. In addition, submissions considered agile sustainability, both
across a software system’s life, and within the organizational context.
The XP conference attracts a large number of software practitioners and researchers,
providing a rare opportunity for interaction between the two communities. In order to
leverage this opportunity, a new Empirical Studies track was introduced this year. In
this track, researchers who wanted to collect empirical data from practitioners during
XP 2016 were invited to submit their research plans. Accepted plans were then
associated with accepted industry and practice sessions to collect empirical data live
during XP 2016 sessions. Accepted study plans are included here; papers resulting
from the studies appear in a later special section of the Information and Software
Technology journal.
These proceedings contain full research papers, experience reports, empirical study
plans, and doctoral symposium papers. All of these submissions went through a rig-
orous peer-review process commensurate with their track. In all, 42 research papers
were submitted; each was reviewed by three members of the Program Committee, and
14 were accepted (an acceptance rate of 33 %). Experience reports were initially
submitted as two-page outlines, and after initial screening, they were then shepherded
to produce the papers seen in this volume. Empirical studies papers were reviewed and
ranked by the track chairs and discussed with the industry and practice chairs in order
to ensure suitable sessions were available to run the planned empirical study. Of the 12
study plans submitted, five were accepted (an acceptance rate of 42 %).
Together, the papers presented here represent a set of high-quality contributions to
the literature on agile research and experience addressing a wide range of contemporary
topics.
The conference program featured a rich set of session topics and session types that
extend beyond the papers contained in these proceedings. Sessions focusing on prac-
tical hands-on activities, on teaching agile in academic and industry settings, and
coping with change were complemented by ad hoc lightning talks and a vibrant Open
Space track. Materials from all of the sessions are available on the conference website
at www.xp2016.org.
XP 2016 attendees were also treated to a number of high-profile keynote speakers.
Elisabeth Hendrickson spoke about “XP at Scale,” Mary Poppendieck discussed the
role of “Software Engineering in a Digitized World,” and Professor Lionel Briand
explained that “Documented Requirements Are Not Useless After All.” Finally, Steve
VI Preface

Freeman and Nat Pryce battled it out as “The Odd Couple,” considering how good code
should be, and what to do about poor-quality code.
Over 330 submissions were received across all of XP 2016 tracks, excluding
workshop papers, and it was a mammoth effort to review these and bring them together
into a coherent program. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this
effort including paper authors, session presenters, track chairs, Program Committee
members, shepherds, volunteers, and sponsors. Without their support the event would
not have been as successful.

March 2016 Helen Sharp

Tracy Hall
 Organization

Organizing Committee
General Chair
Seb Rose Claysnow Limited, UK

Academic Chair
Helen Sharp The Open University, UK

Scientific Workshops
Katie Taylor University of Central Lancashire, UK
Peggy Gregory University of Central Lancashire, UK

Industry and Practice Track

Giovanni Asproni Asprotunity, UK
Andrea Provaglio andreaprovaglio.com, Italy

Experience Reports
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock Wirfs-Brock Associates, USA
Ken Power Cisco, Ireland

Teaching Agile Track

Bruce Scharlau University of Aberdeen, UK
Chris Murray University of Sheffield, UK

Empirical Studies Track

Tracy Hall Brunel University London, UK
Nat Pryce Technemetis Ltd., UK

Posters
Ville T. Heikkilä Aalto University, Finland

Research Papers
Helen Sharp The Open University, UK
Tracy Hall Brunel University London, UK
VIII Organization

Doctoral Symposium
Darja Smite Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
Brian Fitzgerald Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre, Limerick,
Ireland

Open Space
Charlie Poole Independent, USA
Andy Mell Independent, UK

Bridging Research and Practice

Morten Elvang Nordea, Denmark
Nils Brede Moe SINTEF, Norway

Program Committee (Research Papers)

Barroca, Leonor The Open University, UK
Bjarnason, Elizabeth Lund University, Sweden
Counsell, Steve Brunel University London, UK
Digsøyr, Torgeir SINTEF, Norway
Erdogmus, Hakan Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Fitzgerald, Brian Lero – Irish Software Engineering Research Centre,
Ireland
Garbajosa, Juan Universidad Politecnica de Madrid/Technical
University of Madrid (UPM), Spain
Goldman, Alfredo University of São Paulo, Brazil
Greer, Des Queens University Belfast, UK
Gregory, Peggy University of Central Lancashire, UK
Hall, Tracy Brunel University London, UK
Hoda, Rashina The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Holmström Olsson, Helena Malmö University, Sweden
Kelly, Tim University of York, UK
Lassenius, Casper MIT, USA
Madeyski, Lech Wroclaw University of Science and Technology,
Poland
Marchesi, Michele DIEE – University of Cagliari, Italy
Marczak, Sabrina PUCRS, Canada
Mishra, Alok Atilim University, Turkey
Moe, Nils Brede SINTEF, Norway
Noble, James Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Paasivaara, Maria Aalto University, Finland
Petersen, Kai Blekinge Institute of Technology/Ericsson AB, Sweden
Prechelt, Lutz Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Pries-Heje, Jan Roskilde University, Denmark
 Organization IX

Rolland, Knut H. Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication

and Technology, Norway
Rumpe, Bernhard RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Schneider, Kurt Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany
Sharp, Helen The Open University, UK
Smite, Darja Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
Tonelli, Roberto University of Cagliari, Italy
Van Solingen, Rini Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Wang, Xiaofeng Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Yague, Agustin Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain

Reviewers and Shepherds (Experience Reports)

Wirfs-Brock, Rebecca Wirfs-Brock Associates, USA
Power, Ken Cisco, Ireland
Eckstein, Jutta IT communication, Germany
Yoder, Joseph The Refactory, Inc., USA
Poupko, Avraham Cisco, Israel
Passivaara, Maria Aalto University, Finland
Zuill, Woody Independent, USA
Hvatum, Lise Schlumberger, USA
Ville, Heikkilä T Aalto University, Finland
Kelly, Allan Software Strategy Ltd., UK
Rothman, Johanna Rothman Consulting, USA

Reviewers (Industry and Practice)

Asproni, Giovanni Asprotunity, UK
Barbini, Uberto gamasoft.com, UK
Braithwaite, Keith Zuhlke Engineering Ltd., UK
Brown, Simon Coding the Architecture, UK
Chatley, Robert Develogical Ltd., UK
Clapham, John Cotelic, UK
Dalgarno, Mark Software Acumen, UK
Eckstein, Jutta IT communication, Germany
Freeman, Steve M3P, UK
Gaillot, Emmanuel /ut7, France
García, Vicenç Valtech, UK
Hellesøy, Aslak Cucumber, UK
Holyer, Steve Steve Holyer Consulting, Switzerland
Larsen, Diana FutureWorks Consulting, USA
Lewitz, Olaf trustartist.com, Germany
Mell, Andrew Independent
Milne, Ewan IPL, UK
Murray, Russell Murray Management Services Ltd., UK
Nagy, Gaspar Spec Solutions, Hungary
X Organization

Provaglio, Andrea andreaprovaglio.com, Italy

Rose, Seb Claysnow Limited, UK
Skelton, Matthew Skelton Thatcher Consulting Ltd., UK
Vandenende, Willem QWAN, The Netherlands
Webber, Emily Tacit, UK
Wloka, Nils codecentric AG, Germany

Sponsors
Crown Jewels Sponsor
Sky Plc

Chieftain Sponsors
JP Morgan
Cisco
Head Resourcing

Tartan Sponsors
Amazon
Cucumber
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Munro Sponsors
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 Contents

Full Research Papers

Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Silvia Bordin and Antonella De Angeli

Agility Measurements Mismatch: A Validation Study on Three Agile Team

Assessments in Software Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Konstantinos Chronis and Lucas Gren

Scaling up the Planning Game: Collaboration Challenges in Large-Scale

Agile Product Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Felix Evbota, Eric Knauss, and Anna Sandberg

The Lack of Sharing of Customer Data in Large Software Organizations:

Challenges and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Aleksander Fabijan, Helena Holmström Olsson, and Jan Bosch

TDDViz: Using Software Changes to Understand Conformance to Test

Driven Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Michael Hilton, Nicholas Nelson, Hugh McDonald, Sean McDonald,
Ron Metoyer, and Danny Dig

Minimum Viable User EXperience: A Framework for Supporting Product

Design in Startups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Laura Hokkanen, Kati Kuusinen, and Kaisa Väänänen

Team Portfolio Scrum: An Action Research on Multitasking

in Multi-project Scrum Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Christoph J. Stettina and Mark N.W. Smit

Quality Assurance in Scrum Applied to Safety Critical Software . . . . . . . . . . 92

Geir K. Hanssen, Børge Haugset, Tor Stålhane, Thor Myklebust,
and Ingar Kulbrandstad

Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software

Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Kati Kuusinen, Helen Petrie, Fabian Fagerholm, and Tommi Mikkonen

Minimum Viable Product or Multiple Facet Product? The Role of MVP

in Software Startups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Anh Nguyen Duc and Pekka Abrahamsson
XII Contents

On the Impact of Mixing Responsibilities Between Devs and Ops. . . . . . . . . 131

Kristian Nybom, Jens Smeds, and Ivan Porres

Arsonists or Firefighters? Affectiveness in Agile Software Development . . . . 144

Marco Ortu, Giuseppe Destefanis, Steve Counsell, Stephen Swift,
Roberto Tonelli, and Michele Marchesi

Insights into the Perceived Benefits of Kanban in Software Companies:

Practitioners’ Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Muhammad Ovais Ahmad, Jouni Markkula, and Markku Oivo

Key Challenges in Software Startups Across Life Cycle Stages. . . . . . . . . . . 169

Xiaofeng Wang, Henry Edison, Sohaib Shahid Bajwa,
Carmine Giardino, and Pekka Abrahamsson

Experience Reports

Mob Programming: Find Fun Faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Karel Boekhout

Agile Testing on an Online Betting Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Nuno Gouveia

Pause, Reflect and Act, the Pursuit of Continuous Transformation. . . . . . . . . 201

Sandeep Hublikar and Shrikanth Hampiholi

Smoothing the Transition from Agile Software Development to Agile

Software Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Stephen McCalden, Mark Tumilty, and David Bustard

University of Vienna’s U:SPACE Turning Around a Failed Large Project

by Becoming Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Bernhard Pieber, Kerstin Ohler, and Matthias Ehegötz

The Journey Continues: Discovering My Role as an Architect

in an Agile Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Avraham Poupko

Lessons Learned from a Failed Attempt at Distributed Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Mark Rajpal

Tailoring Agile in the Large: Experience and Reflections

from a Large-Scale Agile Software Development Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Knut H. Rolland, Vidar Mikkelsen, and Alexander Næss

Hire an Apprentice: Evolutionary Learning at the 7digital

Technical Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Paul Shannon and Miles Pool
 Contents XIII

How XP Can Improve the Experiences of Female Software Developers . . . . . 261

Clare Sudbery

Pair-Programming from a Beginner’s Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Irina Tsyganok

Empirical Studies Papers

Empirical Research Plan: Effects of Sketching on Program Comprehension . . . 281

Sebastian Baltes and Stefan Wagner

The 4+1 Principles of Software Safety Assurance and Their Implications

for Scrum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Osama Doss and Tim Kelly

Development Tools Usage Inside Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Marko Gasparic, Andrea Janes, and Francesco Ricci

Pitfalls of Kanban in Brownfield and Greenfield Software

Development Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Muhammad Ovais Ahmad, Jouni Markkula, and Markku Oivo

Towards a Lean Approach to Reduce Code Smells Injection:

An Empirical Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Davide Taibi, Andrea Janes, and Valentina Lenarduzzi

Doctoral Symposium Papers

Towards a More User-Centred Agile Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Silvia Bordin

Responding to Change: Agile-in-the-large, Approaches

and Their Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Kelsey van Haaster

Hybrid Effort Estimation of Changes in Agile Software Development . . . . . . 316

Binish Tanveer

Planned Research: Scaling Agile Practices in Software Development . . . . . . . 321

Kathrine Vestues

Architecting Activities Evolution and Emergence in Agile Software

Development: An Empirical Investigation: Initial Research Proposal . . . . . . . 326
Muhammad Waseem and Naveed Ikram

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Full Research Papers
Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development

Silvia Bordin ✉ and Antonella De Angeli

( )

Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento,

via Sommarive 9, 38123 Trento, Italy
{bordin,antonella.deangeli}@disi.unitn.it

Abstract. The integration of user-centred design and Agile development is

becoming increasingly common in companies and appears promising. However,
it may also present some critical points, or communication breakdowns, such as
a variable interpretation of user involvement, a mismatch in the value of docu‐
mentation, and a misalignment in iterations. We refine these themes, emerging
from both literature and previous fieldwork, by analysing a case study performed
in an IT company that adopts both software engineering approaches, and we
further extend the framework with a new theme related to task ownership. We
argue that communication breakdowns can become focal points to drive action
and decision for establishing an organisational context acknowledging the value
of user involvement: to this end, we suggest the adoption of design thinking and
the active engagement of the customer in embracing its values.

Keywords: Communication breakdowns · Organisational culture · Case study

1 Introduction

In recent years we have witnessed a growing interest in the integration of Agile meth‐
odologies with user-centred design (UCD), in order to achieve a more holistic software
engineering approach. In fact, UCD and Agile show some complementary aspects: on
the one hand, UCD does not address how to implement the software, while Agile
provides large flexibility in accommodating changing requirements; on the other hand,
Agile does not directly address user experience (UX) aspects, although valuing customer
involvement in the development process.
However, even though the integration of UCD and Agile appears promising, it also
presents some issues and no fully satisfactory approach to it has been found yet. In
particular, three communication breakdowns [4] hampering such integration have been
identified [5], namely a variable interpretation of user involvement, a mismatch in the
value of documentation, and a misalignment in iteration phases. In this paper, we refine
this framework by discussing a new case study looking at the practices of a software
and interaction design company. To support our analysis, we define the main actors
involved and how they are mutually linked in a communication network, comparing the
latter with the one resulting from the case study presented in [5]. Despite the differences
in the two working contexts, the three themes manifest anyway and an additional point,
related to task ownership, emerges. We conclude by discussing how these

© The Author(s) 2016

H. Sharp and T. Hall (Eds.): XP 2016, LNBIP 251, pp. 3–15, 2016.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-33515-5_1
4 S. Bordin and A. De Angeli

communication breakdowns can become focal points to support action and decision in
companies adopting UCD and Agile; moreover, we argue that possible solutions to these
issues need to be backed by a supportive organisational culture that recognises the value
of user contribution and actively endorses it with the customer.

2 Related Work

User-centred design (UCD) is an umbrella term used to denote a set of techniques,

methods, procedures that places the user at the centre of an iterative design process [25].
The benefits of involving users in systems design are widely acknowledged [1, 14, 16, 18]:
they include improved quality and acceptance of the system [11], and cost saving, since
unnecessary features or critical usability issues are spotted early in the development
process [23]. In recent years, there have been several attempts at integrating UCD with
Agile software development, as witnessed for instance by the literature reviews in [15, 26].
Despite the large common ground that the two approaches share, there are at least three
themes on which their perspectives diverge [5]: we frame these themes by drawing on the
concept of communication breakdown, that is a “disruption that occurs when previously
successful work practices fail, or changes in the work situation (new work-group, new
technology, policy, etc.) nullify specific work practices or routines of the organizational
actors and there are no ready-at-hand recovery strategies” [4]. Although originally
discussed with respect to global software development, we believe that this concept can
support a reflection on the synthesis of different software engineering approaches: we
argue, in fact, that it refers to issues occurring at “work practice level” that are due to an
“underdeveloped shared context of meaning” [4], which could also be interpreted as the
incomplete establishment of a common ground [10] between designers and developers of
the same company.
The three communication breakdowns in the integration of UCD and Agile were
formalised during a field study carried out within the Smart Campus project [5], where
UCD and Scrum were integrated in a process of mobile application development for a
community of users, namely students of the University of Trento campus. The goal of
this R&D project was to create an ecosystem fostering students’ active participation in
the design and development of mobile services for their own campus [12]; more details
about the aims and results of the project can be found in [6, 12, 34]. In the following,
we will illustrate the three communication breakdowns identified by drawing on the
literature review that supported the findings of the Smart Campus field study.

User Involvement. In UCD, user involvement can range from informative, to consul‐
tative, to participative [11]. In Agile instead, the emphasis is rather put on the customer
[1], who acts as a representative of users, but may or may not have direct and regular
contact with them [27, 28], to the point that some authors question the extent of such
representativeness [30] and others recommend that the customer role is supported by
members of the project team [9].

Documentation. Both UCD and Agile encourage frequent communication among

team members; however, there can be issues in the communication between designers
 Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development 5

and developers [1] and in the role of documentation in this respect. In fact, UCD suggests
the use of several artefacts such as personas and prototypes to record requirements and
design rationales [28], while Agile promotes face-to-face conversation as the most
effective means of communication in its fundamental principles [3], to the point of
incorporating the customer in the development team.

Synchronisation of Iterations. There are different schools of thought about whether UCD
and Agile should be merged into a unified software engineering process, leveraging on their
common practices [19, 35, 37], or should just proceed in parallel [20, 24, 33].

3 H-umus

We will now discuss a field study performed in H-umus, presented in their website
as a “software and interaction design company”. Born in 2007 in one of the most
well known Italian venture incubators, H-umus designs and develops mobile sales
tools for the fashion industry and now belongs to a large Italian software and serv‐
ices business. The personnel include a CEO, a CTO, four project managers (two of
whom are also interaction designers), and five developers. The company adopts a
customised version of Scrum for the development and follows a loose interaction
design approach. At present, H-umus offers two main products to an established
customer portfolio: a B2B merchandising platform and a time and expenses
accounting tool. The company also follows some ad-hoc projects for more occa‐
sional customers: we consider here the development of a mobile tool for a leading
fashion brand that we will call FashionX.

3.1 Field Study Methodology

The field study was carried out by one of the authors and is summarised in Table 1: it
consisted of 20 h of observation of working practices, semi-structured interviews,
attendance to meetings. Furthermore, artefacts used to support work were examined,
while interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed [29].

Table 1. Summary of field study activities performed at H-umus.

Day Activity Duration
October 26th, 2015 Attendance of sprint planning meeting; inter‐ 7h
views with the CEO, a project manager, a
designer and a developer
November 20th, 2015 Interviews with both designers and the CTO 6h
December 14th, 2015 Attendance of sprint planning meeting; inter‐ 7h
views with two developers, a designer,
and a project manager
6 S. Bordin and A. De Angeli

3.2 Communication Network

This section will illustrate the actors involved in H-umus and how, possibly through
some artefacts, they are connected in a network, as shown in Fig. 1. The dialogue with
users is completely mediated by the customer, usually represented by the IT department
of a large fashion business. The customer in turn communicates with H-umus through
a project manager of this company, who is often also an interaction designer; such
dialogue is supported by a series of artefacts such as requirements documents, proto‐
types, and cost or time estimates, which will be described more in detail in later para‐
graphs. The project manager is then usually the only point of contact between the inside
and outside of H-umus: he collaborates with the management (i.e. the CEO) in the early
stages of an approach to a new customer, with the CTO in the definition of the technical
analysis, and with developers during the implementation. Internal communication is also
supported by a range of artefacts. Finally, the owner group refers to the management for
products developed on their behalf.

Fig. 1. Communication network in H-umus.

3.3 Artefacts

A variety of artefacts are used in H-umus to support communication, both internally and
with the customer. In this paragraph, we will describe the most relevant ones.

Mockups and Wireframes. In the case of enhancements to already consolidated prod‐

ucts, designers prepare high-fidelity mockups relying on the existing interface; in the
case of software built from scratch instead, they prepare wireframes, representing inter‐
action flows and layouts. Mockups and wireframes are then iteratively discussed with
the customer: this allows to check that requirements have been correctly understood, to
ensure that the customer is aware of project status and will not change his mind later,
and to skip formal validation steps at the end of each sprint.
 Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development 7

Briefs. Prototypes and requirements are integrated in documents called briefs, which
crystallise the requirements; they are then iteratively revised with the customer to ensure
that both parties share the same understanding of requirements and status of advance‐
ment.

Roadmaps. For each project, the relevant project manager keeps a chart showing the
evolution of the product at a high level, including milestones to be delivered to the
customer. This chart is often linked to other documents reporting, for instance, more
extensive descriptions of functionalities or specifications of the customer’s target plat‐
forms. Roadmaps are used internally, at management level: the CEO, the CTO and
project managers refer to them to supervise the status of each project. However, if the
customer requires so, roadmaps are also used to provide long-term visibility on the
articulation of the project.

Technical Analysis. The CTO elaborates this document for each project: it includes
finalised interface mockups, a description of the data flow and of the data structure, cost
and time estimates, and a finer-grained breakdown of development tasks. The technical
analysis serves two purposes: internally, it is a reference for developers to determine
what to implement in the next sprints; externally and if needed, it can provide the
customer with a detailed understanding of the implementation process.

3.4 Findings

In the following, we discuss the results of the interviews with the H-umus staff, cate‐
gorising the narratives according to the three communication breakdowns constituting
our framework. Citations in the next paragraphs will be attributed to interviewees as
follows: Dev for developers; Des for designers; PM for project managers who are not
designers; Mgmt for the CTO and the CEO.

User Involvement. The distinction between customers and users is very sharp and
project managers usually communicate only with the customer, who can be represented
by different employees at different stages of the same project. Especially when the
customer is a large company, its most appropriate representative to liaise with can be
difficult to identify and often changes over time:

Dev2: “The most difficult thing in communicating with the customer is understanding
who you should be talking to.”

In general, the customer representative is the IT department:

Mgmt2: “You would not believe how conservative IT departments can be. Whatever
change may affect their working routine, it’s a no-no.”

There are, however, exceptions to this situation: for example, a few demos were
arranged with business and sales representatives of FashionX, i.e. with a sample of final
users, in order to collect feedback that could supplement the requirements provided by
8 S. Bordin and A. De Angeli

the IT department of the company. Yet, this only happens occasionally: usually, and as
shown in Fig. 1, the customer completely mediates user needs, requirements, and feed‐
back. This causes some concern in the H-umus management:

Mgmt2: “Then it is difficult to determine how to handle the feedback we receive and
how relevant it actually is with respect to the customer or with respect to the needs users
may truly have. […] Sometimes I wonder whom we should really satisfy. Is it the business
department or the IT department? We usually speak only to the latter. I believe this
causes a large drop in the value we deliver with our products.”

H-umus designers acknowledge that it would be desirable to apply a proper user-

centred design methodology, involving real users in requirement gathering and interface
evaluation. However, this is very hard to achieve in practice, because of two main
reasons: first, the time for design is constrained; second, it is difficult to gain access to
users. In fact, the customer is not always interested in being actively involved in the
design of the commissioned product: sometimes H-umus may only be asked to prototype
a new graphical interface for an existing software. The customer may even believe that
users are not able to provide any sensible contribution:

Dev1: “I do not have any contact with users […] Sometimes they are even described to
me as being as dumb as an ox, so it is paramount to design products that are very easy
to use, and I guess this is a major challenge for designers.”

Documentation. The staff has a small size and is co-located in the same open space:
hence, most coordination occurs face to face or at most through instant messaging, both
among developers and between developers and designers. This leads to a scarcity of
documentation for internal use. However, in order to avoid knowledge gaps in case
someone leaves the company, pair programming is adopted when a part of the code
needs to be modified: the task is in fact assigned both to the developer who already
worked on that code and to a “fresh” developer at the same time. In this way, in the long
run everybody will have at least an overview of all the code produced. Working in pairs
is also a common practice in the early stages of a new project, where a designer and a
developer cooperate in order to shape the design space quickly and based on an under‐
standing of what can be technically feasible.

PM1: “Everybody has an overview, but also a specific responsibility.”

Documentation is instead actively and carefully maintained to support the relation‐

ship with the customer. Despite the Agile principle [3] of “embracing change”, the
management highlighted the need of making the customer responsible for his require‐
ments and committed to them. The CTO and the project managers in fact insisted on
their strong need to shield H-umus from sudden, important changes in customer require‐
ments; being the company so small, this could cause a lot of work to be wasted and not
paid, causing in turn potentially severe financial issues.
 Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development 9

PM1: “H-umus is a small company. If the customer first says he wants a mobile app,
and then after six months he comes and says that now he wants a standalone applica‐
tion… We cannot afford that. Unless the customer is paying for the extra time, of
course.”

Des2: “We do not have much development capacity. It can become a big issue if I draw
the mockup and then we have to go back and change fundamental parts of it.”

This protection is achieved by using several artefacts that are admittedly not typically
Agile: documents such as requirements lists and technical analyses are shared with the
customer, iteratively discussed and then signed off.

Mgmt1: “We make the customer sign the requirements document, so nobody can come
up and say: “This is not what we agreed upon”. Whatever extra, we discuss it and it is
billed on top.”

Des2: “Being able to tell the customer: “Look, this is what we suggested and you
approved it” is something that can cover our back when we need to ask for more funding
or when we just say that something is not feasible”.

The strong perception of documentation as having a purpose mainly in relation to

the customer emerges very clearly also in relation to other themes:

Mgmt1: “I’ll show you the technical analysis we did for FashionX […] Please write
down in your notes that to me this is complete nonsense. The risk estimates and the
planning poker and stuff… It is obvious that these numbers are meaningless. Yet the
customer wants to have a long-term perspective on the project, so here it is.”

Synchronisation of Iterations. Given the small size of the company, designers and
developers work together, so synchronisation is handled through constant, direct
communication. Indeed, there is no separate process for design and for development:
for instance, design tasks such as prototyping are listed as regular user stories in the
Agile management tool in use:

Des1: “UX aspects are regarded as common functionalities.”

Despite a general awareness among the staff of the company transitioning towards
a more design-oriented culture, the overall attitude appears to be still strongly technical.
For instance, sprint meetings only involve developers:

Mgmt1: “We are born as a data-driven company […] Sprint meetings are too technical;
designers would waste time attending them.”

Furthermore, a different theme emerges, related to the recognition of designers’

expertise in a technically dominant environment. Several times designers referred to
their competence in UX as being interpreted as common sense in the company:
10 S. Bordin and A. De Angeli

Des2: “Why should the CEO’s opinion be more relevant than mine, if I designed the
interface from the beginning? Sometimes [Des1] and I refer to it as a class conflict with
the developers”

Des2: “Everybody feels entitled to comment on the design, just because each of us is a
technology user, while nobody would comment on the code unless competent. So [devel‐
opers] bring in their own use cases, but we are not developing, say, Instagram, which
only has a couple of functionalities: it is totally different. Sometimes the comments are
just “I don’t like it”. I can take it from the customer, if he pays for the extra time needed
to rework the design, otherwise I’d expect some sounder feedback.”

The rest of the team perceives this issue as well, although in variable ways:

Dev1: “Interfaces are subjective […] usability is subjective too: you need to design stuff
that is comfortable for the user, more than functional. [Des1 and Des2] do a great job
in my opinion in this respect.”

PM1: “The best way to work shouldn’t be to tell the designer how to do the things, but
just what you need; unfortunately, the customer is often unable to articulate what he
wants, and anyway we must give priority to the development to save time.”

Dev2: “We all give our opinion, but in the end it is the designer who decides.”

4 Discussion

Despite a positive attitude towards UCD, H-umus found objective difficulties in inte‐
grating it with Agile in practice. These difficulties were partially overlapping with the
communication breakdowns identified in Smart Campus [5], although the working
context of the latter was quite different from the H-umus one as illustrated by Fig. 2,
which represents the main actors in Smart Campus and their communication network.

Fig. 2. Communication network in Smart Campus.

The analysis of the H-umus case study allowed us to refine our framework, broad‐
ening the scope of identified communication breakdowns as follows.
 Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development 11

User Involvement. In Smart Campus, the customer and the user community were two
clearly differentiated actors; most of the team had direct contact only with the users
through a variety of communication channels such as a forum. However, the perception
of user involvement appeared to be variable between designers and developers, denoting
an underlying mismatch in the understanding of this concept: while designers struggled
to promote a participative role of the user community, developers intended such role as
informative or at most consultative instead [11]. In H-umus, the extent of user involve‐
ment remains problematic, although with a different flavour: the customer completely
mediates the interaction with the user, so the role of the latter is practically less than
informative [11]. Therefore, we can argue that the understanding of the extent of user
involvement should be shared not only inside the company (among designers, devel‐
opers, managers), but also outside, by the customer.

Documentation. In Smart Campus, documentation did not appear to have an intrinsic

value as a communication tool for developers; however, it became increasingly relevant
to keep the development team aligned when the latter became more distributed due to
the introduction of interns working at variable times and often remotely. Yet, how to
effectively support the need for a shared knowledge base remained an open point,
particularly referring to design artefacts, although the team tried to adopt a variety of
articulation platforms. In H-umus instead, the team is co-located: in this case, besides
being a tool for tracing the history of the software and the rationale of related design
and development choices, documentation can also have an instrumental function in
balancing the power relationship with the customer, protecting the company against
unsustainable changes in requirements.

Synchronisation of Iterations. The Smart Campus project was oriented towards a

large and strong user community, whose feedback escalated quickly and was not medi‐
ated (for instance by a customer). This caused severe difficulties in synchronising the
iterations of UCD and Agile: designers struggled to elaborate requirements and provide
suggestions in a timely manner that could fit the development pace, while developers
often took the initiative of fixing interfaces regardless of the overall UX vision. In
general, designers resorted to several ad-hoc interventions, elaborated together with the
developers requesting them. In H-umus instead, the team is co-located and quite small,
so synchronisation can easily occur through face-to-face communication. Furthermore,
the existence of signed documents prevents the customer from changing requirements
with the same frequency witnessed in Smart Campus with the user community.

Task Ownership. An additional communication breakdown strongly emerged from

the interviews conducted in H-umus. Several interviewees argued that, in order for an
effective communication to occur, it is advisable that the whole team shares a common
language. Additionally, our observations suggested that the team should also share a
common understanding about who is responsible for each task, especially in the case of
UX activities, and in particular for taking final decisions over it. This will help avoid
situations in which a technically predominant environment interprets UX as mere
“common sense”, which are not conducive to endorsing the added value that UX can
provide to a product and which seem to reflect a long-lasting contrast between soft and
12 S. Bordin and A. De Angeli

hard sciences. To this end, we point to the concept of boundary objects, i.e. mediating
artefacts that allow knowledge sharing and promote collaboration since their interpretive
flexibility facilitates “an overlap of meaning while preserving sufficient ambiguity” for
different groups to read their own meanings [2]. The briefs used in H-umus can be
considered as boundary objects in this sense, as they gather mockups from designers,
technical specs from developers, and business requirements from the customer, and they
act as a common reference point for monitoring the evolution of the product.

5 Conclusion

In this paper we have discussed four communication breakdowns that may affect the
integration of user-centred design and Agile development and that emerged from an
analysis of working practices in companies. Possible solutions can derive from discount
usability techniques [e.g. 13, 22] or more recent research on automatic usability evalu‐
ation tools [e.g. 21, 31]. However, we remark that communication breakdowns are
manifested at the work process level [4, 5]: hence, we suggest that their solution could
be found in a supportive organisational environment [5, 8, 11, 17], whose fundamental
importance is reiterated by the present study. As seen in H-umus, not even having
designers play the role of project managers is enough to fully endorse the UCD compo‐
nent of the working process. To leverage the full potential of the integration of UCD
and Agile, the management should actively counteract the so-called “developer mindset”
[1, 14], i.e. an approach that is overly focused on technical aspects rather than on
customer and user satisfaction, and commit to an explicit inclusion of UCD in company
goals and financial allocation [36].
We claim that the four communication breakdowns discussed in this paper can
become focal points to drive action and decision in companies, facilitating communi‐
cation between designers and developers and supporting management in the construc‐
tion of a favourable context. Our current research is addressing the development of
specific guidelines concerning how to apply such focal points in practice through addi‐
tional case studies. Nonetheless, and as already suggested in [5], we believe that design
thinking [7] can be an appropriate methodology in this respect: grounded on a “human-
centred design ethos”, it advocates a “designer’s sensibility” pervading the whole organ‐
isation, so that also technical personnel (be it part of the development or of the manage‐
ment) can be aware of the importance of meeting users’ needs with what is technolog‐
ically feasible. Inspired by design thinking, the organisational culture is likely to
empathise more with the user and to share the ownership of the UX vision among all
members of the company: this is in turn also likely to address the task ownership theme
introduced above.
However, the benefits of this internal culture may be limited if the customer does
not share its same values, preventing access to users or completely mediating the
communication with them. A direct contact with users can allow the company to deliver
a product that, although requiring a possibly longer design period, will be more suited
to the needs of people ultimately using it and will therefore bring more value to the
customer for its money. Even after many years from [23], we still need to address the
 Focal Points for a More User-Centred Agile Development 13

“developer mindset” [1, 14] and persuade the customer and the technical personnel (at
least partially) of the positive cost-benefit trade-off of devoting time to user studies and
usability [32]. We insist that attainable benefits should be clearly presented to the
customer in order to win its buy-in of the principles of design thinking, its acknowl‐
edgement of the advantages of involving the users and its active collaboration in this.
We point out to the research community that however, to this end, a set of actionable
measures that can more objectively assess the positive impact of user involvement on
the quality of produced software [18] is still lacking, together with a set of less resource-
intensive practices to put such involvement in place.

Acknowledgments. Smart Campus was funded by TrentoRISE. The present work has been
possible thanks to the funding granted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and
Research (MIUR) through the project “Città Educante”, project code CTN01_00034_393801. We
wish to thank the Smart Campus team, the students who contributed to the project, and the H-
umus team for their kind support.

Open Access. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
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which permits any noncommercial use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in
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the work’s Creative Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory
regulation, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or
reproduce the material.

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 Agility Measurements Mismatch: A Validation
Study on Three Agile Team Assessments
in Software Engineering

Konstantinos Chronis1 and Lucas Gren1,2(B)

1
Chalmers and University of Gothenburg, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
[email protected], [email protected]
2
University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508–090, Brazil

Abstract. Many tools have been created for measuring the agility of
software teams, thus creating a saturation in the field. Three agile mea-
surement tools were selected in order to validate whether they yield sim-
ilar results. The surveys of the tools were given to teams in Company
A (N = 30). The questions were grouped into agile practices which
were checked for correlation in order to establish convergent validity. In
addition, we checked whether the questions identified to be the same
among the tools would be given the same replies by the respondents.
We could not establish convergent validity since the correlations of the
data gathered were very few and low. In addition, the questions which
were identified to have the same meaning among the tools did not have
the same answers from the respondents. We conclude that the area of
measuring agility is still immature and more work needs to be done. Not
all tools are applicable to every team but they should be selected on the
basis of how a team has transitioned to agile.

Keywords: Validation · Agile measurement · Empirical study

1 Introduction

Agile and plan-driven methodologies are the two dominant approaches in the
software development. Although it has been almost 20 years since the former
were introduced, the companies are quite reluctant in following them [1].
Software development teams started adopting the most known agile method-
ologies, such as eXtreme Programming [2], Feature Driven Development (FDD),
[3], Crystal [4], Scrum [5] and others. Most companies use a tailored methodology
by following some of the aforementioned processes and practices which better
suit their needs. Williams et al. [6] report that all XP practices are exercised
rarely in their pure form, something on which Reifer [7] and Aveling [8] also
agree based on the results of their surveys, which showed that it is common for
organizations to partially adopt XP. The most important issue that tends to be
neglected though, is how well these methodologies are adopted.


c The Author(s) 2016
H. Sharp and T. Hall (Eds.): XP 2016, LNBIP 251, pp. 16–27, 2016.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-33515-5 2
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 REV. STEPHEN B. L. PENROSE,
President of Whitman College.

The commerce of the country, aside from its furs, was scarcely worth
mentioning. The author, in 1851, bought what few salted salmon
there were in the market, and shipped them to San Francisco, but
wise and prudent advisers regarded it as a risky venture. He would
have been considered a wild visionary, indeed, had he even hinted of
the shipments of fish now annually made to all parts of the civilized
world.
It was then known that the rivers were filled with fish. In the spring
of the year, the smaller streams, leading away from the Columbia,
were literally blocked with almost solid masses of fish on their way
to their spawning grounds. The bears along the Columbia, as well as
the Indians, had an unlimited supply of the finest fish in the world,
with scarcely an effort to take them. An Indian on the Willamette, at
the foot of the falls, could fill his boat in an hour with salmon
weighing from twenty to forty pounds.
In the spring of the year, when the salmon are running up the
Willamette, they begin to jump from the water a quarter of a mile
before reaching the falls. One could sit in a boat and see hundreds
of the great fish in the air constantly. Multitudes of them maimed
and killed themselves jumping against the rocks at the falls.
The Indian did not wait for "a rise" or "a bite." He had a hook with
an eye socket, and a pole ten feet or more long. The hook he
fastened to a deer thong, about two feet long, attached to the lower
end of the pole. When ready for fishing the pole was inserted into
the socket of the hook, and he felt for his fish, and by a sudden jerk
caught it in the belly. The hook was pulled from the pole, and the
fish had a play of the two feet of deer thong. But the Indian never
stops to experiment; he hauled in his prize.
The great forests and prairies were a very paradise for the hunters
of large game. Up to the date of 1842-3, of Dr. Whitman's ride, but a
single hundred Americans had settled in Oregon, and they seemed
to be almost accidental guests. The immigration in 1842 swelled the
list, and the caravan of 1843 started the tide, so that in 1850, as we
have seen, the first census showed an American population of
13,294.
In 1890, in contrast, the population of Washington was 349,390;
Oregon, 313,707; Idaho, 84,385, and five counties in Southwestern
Montana and one in Wyoming, originally Oregon territory, had a
population of 65,862, making a total of 813,404. Considering the
difficulties of reaching these distant States for many years, this
change, in less than half a century, is a wonderful transformation.
The Indians had held undisputed possession of the land for
generations, and yet, as careful a census as could be made, placed
their number at below 75,000. In 1892 the Indian Commissioner
marks the number at 21,057.
The great changes are seen in the fact that in 1838 there were but
thirteen settlements by white men in Oregon, viz.: That at
Waiilatpui, at Lapwai, at the Dalles and near Salem, and the Hudson
Bay Forts at Walla Walla, Colville, Fort Hall, Boise, Vancouver,
Nisqually, Umpqua, Okanogan and the settlement at Astoria. The old
missionaries felt thankful when letters reached them within two
years after they were written.
Mrs. Whitman's first letter from home was two years and six months
reaching the mission. The most sure and safe route was by way of
New York or Montreal to London, around the Horn to the Sandwich
Islands, from which place a vessel sailed every year for Columbia.
The wildest visionaries at that time had not dreamed of being bound
to the East by bands of steel, as Senator McDuffie said: "The wealth
of the Indies would be insufficient to connect by steam the Columbia
River to the States of the East." Uncle Sam seems to have been
taking a very sound and peaceful nap. He did not own California,
and was even desirous of trading Oregon for the cod fisheries of
Newfoundland.
The debt of gratitude the Americans owe to the men and women
who endured the privations of that early day, and educated the
Nation into the knowledge of its future glory and greatness, has not
been fully appreciated. The settlers of no other States of the frontier
encountered such severe tests of courage and loyalty. The Middle
States of the Great West, while they had their hardships and trials,
were always within reach of the strong arm of the Government, and
felt its fostering care, and had many comforts which were wholly
beyond the reach of the Oregon pioneers.
Their window glass for years and years was dressed deer skin; their
parlor chairs were square blocks of wood; their center tables were
made by driving down four sticks and sawing boards by hand for
top, the nearest saw mill being four hundred miles off. A ten-penny
nail was prized as a jewel, and until Dr. Whitman built his mill, a
barrel of flour cost him twenty-four dollars, and in those days that
amount of money was equal to a hundred in our times of to-day.
The plows were all wood, and deer thongs took the place of iron in
binding the parts together. It was ten years after they began to raise
wheat before they had any other implement than the sickle, and for
threshing, the wooden flail. It was in the year 1839 the first printing
press reached Oregon. It may be marked as among the pioneer
civilizers of this now great and prosperous Christian land.
That press has a notable history and is to-day preserved at the State
Capital of Oregon as a relic of by-gone days in printing. Long before
the civilization of Oregon had begun in 1819, the Congregational
Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands had imported this press around
the Horn from New England, and from that time up to 1839 it had
served an excellent purpose in furnishing Christian literature to the
Kanakas. But the Sandwich Islanders had grown beyond it; and
being presented with a finer outfit, the First Native Church at
Honolulu made a present of the press, ink and paper to the Missions
of Waiilatpui, Lapwai and Walker's Plains.
The whole was valued at $450 at that time. The press was located at
Lapwai, and used to print portions of Scripture and hymn books in
the Nez Perces language, which books were used in all the missions
of the American Board. Visitors to these tribes of Indians twenty-five
years after the missions had been broken up, and the Indians had
been dispersed, found copies of those books still in use and prized
as great treasures.
Another interesting event was the building of the first steamer, the
Lot Whitcomb, in the Columbia River waters. This steamer was built
of Oregon fir and spruce, and was launched December 26th, 1850,
at Milwaukee, then a rival of Portland. It was a staunch, well-
equipped vessel, one hundred and sixty feet in length; beam,
twenty-four feet; depth of hold, six feet ten inches; breadth over all,
forty-two feet seven inches; diameter of wheel, nineteen feet; length
of bucket, seven feet; dip one foot eight inches, and draft three feet
two inches. It was a staunch and elegantly-equipped little vessel; did
good service in the early days, making three round trips each week,
from Milwaukee to Astoria, touching at Portland and Vancouver, then
the only stopping places. The Whitcomb was finally sent to
California, made over, named Annie Abernethy, and was used upon
the Sacramento River as a pleasure and passenger boat.
These two beginnings, of the printer's art and the steamer, are all
the more interesting when compared with the richness and show in
the same fields to-day. The palatial ocean traveling steamers and the
power presses and papers, scarcely second to any in editorial and
news-gathering ability, best tell the wonderful advance from
comparatively nothing at that time.
The taxable property of Oregon in 1893 was $168,088,095; in
Washington it was $283,110,032; in Idaho, $34,276,000. The
manufactories of Oregon in 1893 turned out products to the value of
$245,100,267, and Washington, on fisheries alone, yielded a product
valued at $915,500. There has been a great falling off, both in
Oregon and Washington, in this source of wealth, and the eager
desire to make money will cause the annihilation of this great traffic,
unless there is better legal protection. Washington, in 1893, reported
227 saw mills and 300 shingle mills and 73 sash and door mills, and
a capital invested in the lumber trade of $25,000,000. A wonderful
change since Dr. Whitman sawed his boards by hand as late as
1840.
The acres of forest yet undisturbed in Washington are put down at
23,588,512. During President Harrison's term a wooded tract in the
Cascade Mountains, thirty-five by forty miles, including Mount
Rainier, was withdrawn from entry, and it is expected that Congress
will reserve it for a National Park. The statistics relating to wheat,
wool and fruits of all kinds fully justify the claim made by Dr.
Whitman to President Tyler and Secretary Webster—that "The United
States had better by far give all New England for the cod fisheries of
Newfoundland than to sacrifice Oregon."
Reading the statistics of wealth of the States comprising the original
territory of Oregon, their fisheries, their farm products, their lumber,
their mines, yet scarcely begun to be developed, one wonders at the
blindness and ignorance of our statesmen fifty or more years ago,
who came so near losing the whole great territory. If Secretary
Daniel Webster could have stepped into the buildings of Washington,
Oregon and Idaho that contained the wonderful exhibit at the
World's Fair, he would doubtless have lifted his thoughts with
profound gratitude that Dr. Whitman made his winter ride and saved
him from making the blunder of all the century.
If old Senator McDuffie who averred that "The wealth of the Indies
could not pay for connecting by steam the Columbia River with the
States," could now take his place in a palace car of some one of the
four great transcontinental lines, and be whirled over "the
inaccessible mountains, and the intervening desert wastes," he, too,
might be willing to give more than "A pinch of snuff" for our Pacific
possessions.
The original boundaries of Oregon contained over 300,000 square
miles, which included all the country above latitude 42 degrees and
west of the Rocky Mountains. Its climate is mild and delightful, and
in great variety, owing to the natural divisions of great ranges of
mountains, and the warm ocean currents which impinge upon its
shores, with a rapid current from the hot seas of Asia. This causes
about seventy per cent of the winds to blow from the southwest,
bringing the warmth of the tropics to a land many hundreds of miles
north of New York and Boston. It is felt even at Sitka, nearly 2,000
miles further north than Boston, where ice cannot be gathered for
summer use, and whose harbor has never yet been obstructed by
ice.
 DR. DANIEL K. PEARSONS.

The typical features of the climate of Western Oregon are the rains
of Winter and a protracted rainless season in Summer. In other
words, there are two distinct seasons in Oregon—wet and dry.
Snows in Winter and rains in Summer are exceptional. In Eastern
Oregon the climate more nearly approaches conditions in Eastern
States. There are not the same extremes, but there are the same
features of Winter snow, and, in places, of Summer heat. Southern
Oregon is more like Eastern than Western Oregon.
In Eastern Oregon the temperature is lower in Winter and higher in
Summer than in Western. The annual rainfall varies from seven to
twenty inches.
The Springs in Oregon are delightful; the Summers very pleasant.
They are practically rainless, and almost always without great
extremes of heat.
Fall rains usually begin in October. It is a noteworthy feature of
Oregon Summers, that nights are always cool and refreshing.
The common valley soil of the State is a rich loam, with a subsoil of
clay. Along the streams it is alluvial. The "beaverdam lands" of this
class are wonderfully fertile. This soil is made through the work of
the beavers who dammed up streams and created lakes. When the
water was drained away, the detritus covered the ground. The soil of
the uplands is less fertile than that of the bottoms and valleys, and is
a red, brown and black loam. It produces an excellent quality of
natural grass, and under careful cultivation, produces good crops of
grain, fruits and vegetables. East of the Cascade Mountains the soil
is a dark loam of great depth, composed of alluvial deposits and
decomposed lava, overlying a clay subsoil. The constituents of this
soil adapt the land peculiarly to the production of wheat.
All the mineral salts which are necessary to the perfect development
of this cereal are abundant, reproducing themselves constantly as
the gradual processes of decomposition in this soil of volcanic origin
proceeds. The clods are easily broken by the plow, and the ground
quickly crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere.
In Northwestern Oregon, adjacent to the Columbia River, although
the dry season continues for months, this light porous land retains
and absorbs enough moisture from the atmosphere, after the
particles have been partly disintegrated, to insure perfect
development and full harvests.
In Southeastern Oregon, especially in the vast areas of fertile lands
in Malheur and Snake River Valleys, the soils are much like those of
the Northeastern Oregon region, but there is less moisture. Except in
a very small portion of this region, irrigation is necessary to
successful agriculture. The water supply is abundant and easily
applied.
We have made no attempt to write a complete history of this great
section or its wealth, but only to outline such facts as will make
more impressive the value to the whole people of the distinguished
services of the pioneers who saved this garden spot of the world to
the people of the United States. "The Flag of Beauty and Glory"
waves over no fairer land, or over no more intelligent, prosperous
and happy people. All this too has been reached within the memory
of multitudes of living actors; in fact it can be said the glow of youth
is yet upon the brow of the young States.
The lover of romance in reality will scarcely repress a sigh of regret,
that with Oregon and Washington, the western limit of pioneering
has been reached, after the strides of six thousand years.
The circuit of the globe has been completed and the curtain dropped
upon the farther shores of Oregon and Washington, with a history as
profoundly interesting and dramatic as that written on any section of
the world. "The Stars and Stripes" now wave from ocean to ocean,
and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It is a nation of grand
possibilities, whose history would have been marred for all time to
come, had any foreign power, however good or great, held
possession of the Pacific States. With China open to the world's
commerce; with the young giant Japan inciting all the Far East to a
new life and energy, the Pacific States of the Republic stand in the
very gateway of the world's footsteps, and commerce and wealth.
Only when measured in and by the light of such facts, can we fully
estimate the value to the whole people of the Nation of the
midwinter ride of our hero, and to the brave pioneers of Oregon.
 CHAPTER XV.

LIFE ON THE GREAT PLAINS IN PIONEER DAYS.

Nothing better shows the rapid advance of civilization in this country,

than the fact that multitudes of the actors of those eventful years of
pioneer life in Oregon and California yet live to see and enjoy the
wonderful transformation. In fact, the pioneer, most of all others,
can, in its greatest fullness, take in and grasp the luxuries of modern
life.
Taking his section in a palace car in luxurious ease, he travels in six
days over the same road which he wearily traveled, forty-five and
fifty years ago, in from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and
ninety days. The fact is not without interest to him that for more
than a thousand miles of the way on the great central routes, he can
throw a stone from the car window into his old camping grounds.
The old plainsmen were not bad surveyors. They may not have been
advanced in trigonometry or logarithms, but they had keen eyes and
ripe practical judgment, which enabled them to master the situation.
The trails marked and traveled by the old missionaries, nine times in
every ten, proved the best. Many a time did I, and others, by taking
what seemed to be inviting "cutoffs," find out to our sorrow that the
old trailers of ten years before us had been wiser.
I make this a chapter of personal experience, not for any personal
gratification, but because of the desire to make it real and true in
every particular, and because the data and incidents of travel of the
old missionaries are meager and incomplete.
The experiences in 1836, 1843 and 1850, were much the same, save
and except that in 1850 the way was more plainly marked than in
1836, which then was nothing more than an Indian trail, and even
that often misleading. Besides that, the pioneer corps had made
passable many danger points, and had even left ferries over the
most dangerous rivers.
From 1846 to 1856 were ten years of great activity upon the frontier.
The starting points for the journey across the plains were many and
scattered, from where Kansas City now stands to Fort Leavenworth.
The time of which I write was 1850. Our little company of seven
chosen friends, all young and inexperienced in any form of wild life,
resolved upon the journey, and began preparations in 1849 and
were ready in March, 1850, to take a steamer at Cincinnati for Fort
Leavenworth. We had consulted every authority within reach as to
our outfit, both for our safety and comfort, and few voyagers ever
started upon the long journey who had nearer the essential things,
and so few that proved useless.
In one thing we violated the recommendations of all experienced
plainsmen, and that was in the purchase of stock. We were advised
to buy only mustangs and Mexican mules, but chose to buy in Ohio
the largest and finest mules we could find. Our wagons were
selected with great care as to every piece of timber and steel in their
make-up, and every leather and buckle in the harness was
scrutinized.
Instead of a trunk, each carried clothes and valuables in a two-
bushel rubber bag, which could be made water-tight or air-tight, if
required. Extra shoes were fitted to the feet of each mule and riding
horse and one of the number proved to be an expert shoer. The
supply of provisions was made a careful study, and we did not have
the uncomfortable experience of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and run out
of flour before the journey was half over.
There is nothing that develops the manhood of a man, or the lack of
it, more quickly than life on the plains. There is many a man
surrounded by the sustaining influence of the home and of refined
society, who seems very much of a man; and yet when these
influences are removed, he wilts and dwarfs. I have seen men who
had been religious leaders and exemplary in their lives, come from
under all such restraints, and, within two months, "swear like
troopers."
Our little company was fortunate in being made up of a manly set of
young men, who resolved to stand by each other and each do his
part. We soon joined the Mt. Sterling Mining Company, led by Major
Fellows and Dr. C. P. Schlater, from Mt. Sterling, Ills. They were an
excellent set of men and our company was then large enough for
protection from any danger in the Indian country, and we kept
together without a jar of any kind.
In the year 1850, the Spring upon the frontier was backward. The
grass, a necessity for the campaigner upon the plains, was too slow
for us, so we bought an old Government wagon, in addition to our
regular wagons, filled it with corn, and upon May 1st, struck out
through Kansas. It was then unsettled by white people.
On the 5th day of May, we woke up to find the earth enveloped in
five inches of snow, and matters looked discouraging, but the sun
soon shone out and the snow disappeared and we began to enter
into the spirit and enjoyment of the wild life before us.
 THE LOG SCHOOL HOUSE ON THE
WILLAMETTE.

The Indians were plentiful and visited us frequently, but they were
all friendly that year with the whites throughout the border. A war
party of the Cheyenne Indians visited us on their way to fight their
enemy, the Pawnees. They were, physically, the finest body of men I
ever saw. We treated them hospitably and they would have given up
their fight and gone with us on a grand buffalo hunt, had we
consented. The chief would hardly take no for an answer.
One of the great comforts of the plains traveling in those days, was
order and system. Each man knew his duty each day and each night.
One day a man would drive; another he would cook; another he
would ride on horseback. When we reached the more dangerous
Indian country, our camp was arranged for defense in case of an
attack, but we always left our mules picketed out to grass all night,
and never left them without a guard.
About the most trying labor of that journey was picket duty over the
mules at night, especially when the grass was a long distance from
the camp, as it sometimes was. After a long day's travel it was a
lonesome, tiresome task to keep up all night, or even half of it. The
animals were tethered with a rope eighteen feet long buckled to the
fore leg, and the other end attached to an iron pin twelve to
eighteen inches long, securely driven into the ground. As the animals
fed they were moved so as to keep them upon the best pasture. In
spite of the best care they would occasionally cross and the mischief
would be to pay, unless promptly relieved.
Our greatest fear was from the danger of a stampede, either from
Indians or from wild animals. The Indian regards it as a great
accomplishment to steal a horse from a white man. One day a well-
dressed and very polite Indian came into camp where we were
laying by for a rest. He could talk broken English and mapped out
the country in the sand over the route we were to travel—told us all
about good water and plenty of grass. He informed us that for some
days we would go through the good Indian's country, but then we
came to the mountains; and then he began to paw the air with his
arms and snap an imaginary whip and shout, "Gee Buck—wo haw,
damn ye!" Then says our good Indian, "Look out for hoss thieves."
Then he got down in the grass and showed us how the Indian would
wiggle along in the grass until he found the picket pin and lead his
horse out so slowly that the guard would not notice the change, until
he was outside the line, when he would mount and ride away.
That very night two of the best horses of the Mt. Sterling Mining
Company were stolen in just that way, and to make the act more
grievous, they were picketed so near to the tents as to seem to the
guards to be perfectly safe. We may have misjudged our "good
Indian" who came into camp, but we have always believed that he
was there to see whether there were any horses worth stealing, and
then did the stealing himself.
We can bear testimony also, that he was a good geographer. His
map made in the sand and transferred to paper was perfect, and
when we came to the mountains, his "Gee Buck, wo haw, damn ye!"
was heard all up and down that mountain. The Indian had evidently
been there and knew what he was saying. They gave us but little
trouble except to watch our live stock, as the Indian never takes
equal chances. He wants always three chances to one, in his favor.
To show you are afraid, is to lose the contest with an Indian. I have
many times, by showing a brave front, saved my scalp.
Upon one occasion when I had several loose mules leading, I
allowed myself unthinkingly to lag for two miles behind the company
through a dangerous district. I was hurrying to amend the wrong by
a fast trot, when upon a turn in the road a vicious-looking Indian,
with his bow half bent and an arrow on the string, stepped from
behind a sage bush to the middle of the road and signaled me to
stop when twenty feet away.
I was unarmed and made up my mind at once to show no fear. Upon
coming within six or eight feet of him, I drove the spurs into my
horse and gave such a yell that the Indian had all he could do to
dodge my horse's feet. He was evidently astonished and thought,
from the boldness of the move, that I had others near by. My horse
and mules went on a dead run and I expected, as I leaned forward,
every moment to feel his arrow.
I glanced back when fifty yards away and he was anxiously looking
back to see who else was coming and I was out of his reach before
he had made up his mind. I was never worse frightened.
Upon another occasion I bluffed an Indian just as effectively. With
two companions I went to a Sioux village to buy a pair of moccasins.
They were at peace and we felt no danger. Most of the men were
absent from the village, leaving only a small guard. I got separated
from my companions, but found an Indian making moccasins, and I
stood in the door and pointed to a new pair about the size I wanted,
that hung on the ridge pole, and showed him a pair of handsome
suspenders that I would give him for them. He assented by a nod
and a grunt, came to the door, took the suspenders and hung them
up, deliberately sat down on the floor and took off a dirty old pair he
was wearing and threw them to me. I immediately threw them back,
and stepping into the tepee, caught hold of the moccasins I had
bought, but by a quick motion he snatched them from me.
I then caught hold of the suspenders and bounded out of the door.
When fifty feet away I looked back and he had just emerged from
his tepee and began loading his rifle. I had emptied both barrels of
my shotgun at a plover just before reaching the village and my gun
was fortunately unloaded. It gave us equal chances: I stopped still,
threw my gun from the strap and began loading. In those days I was
something of an expert and before the Indian withdrew his ramrod, I
was putting caps on both barrels and he bounded inside his
wigwam, and I lost no time in putting a tepee between us, and
finding my friends, when we hastily took leave.
Our company took great comfort and pride in our big American
mules, trained in civilized Ohio. A pair of the largest, the wheelers in
the six-mule team, were as good as setter dogs at night. They
neither liked Indians, wolves nor grizzlies; and their scent was so
keen they could smell their enemies two hundred yards away, unless
the wind was too strong.
When on guard, and in a lonesome, dangerous place, we generally
kept close to our long-eared friends, and when they stopped eating
and raised their heads and pointed those ponderous ears in any
direction, we would drop in the grass and hold ourselves ready for
any emergency. They would never resume their feeding until assured
that the danger had passed.
And then what faithful fellows to pull! At a word they would plant
their feet on a mountain side and never allow the wagon to give
back a single foot, no matter how precipitous; and again at the
word, they would pull with the precision of a machine.
The off-leader, "Manda," was the handsomest mule ever harnessed.
As everybody remarked, "She was as beautiful as a picture." She
would pull and stand and hold the wagon as obedient to command
as an animal could be, but she was by nature wild and vicious. She
was the worst kicker I ever saw. She allowed herself to be shod,
seeming to understand that this was a necessity. But no man ever
succeeded in riding her. She beat the trick mules in any circus in
jumping and kicking.
One night we had a stampede, and one of the flying picket pins
struck the mule between the bones of the hind leg, cutting a deep
gash, four inches or more long; the swelling of the limb causing the
wound to gape open fully two inches. She did not attempt to bear
her weight upon the limb, barely touching it to the ground. The flies
were very bad, and knowing the animal, and while prizing her so
highly, we were all convinced that we must leave her. The train
pulled out. It was my duty that morning to bring on the loose stock,
and see that nothing of value was overlooked in camp. I was ready
to leave, when I went up to the mule that had come with us all the
way from home, nearly three thousand miles, and had been a
faithful servant, and began petting her, expressing my pity and
sorrow that we had to leave her here for the Indians and the wolves.
As I rubbed her head and talked to her, the poor dumb brute
seemed to understand every word said.
Never before in all the long journey had the famous six-mule team
gone without Manda prancing as off leader. She rubbed me with her
nose and laid it upon my shoulder, and seemed to beg as eloquently
as a dumb beast can, "Don't leave me behind." With it all, there was
a kindly look in her eye, I never before had seen. I stood stroking
her head for some time, then I patted her neck and walked a little
back, but constantly on guard. It was then the animal turned her
head and looked at me, and at the same time held up the wounded
leg. My friend Moore, who had staid back to assist, was a little
distance off, and I called him.
As he came up, I said to him: "This mule has had a change of
heart." He put a bridle upon her so that he could hold up her head,
and rubbing her side, I finally ventured to take hold of the wounded
leg. I rubbed it and fondled it without her showing any symptom of
resentment.
I got out instruments, sewed the wound up, and sewed bandages
tight about the leg, made a capital dressing and we started, leading
Manda. She soon began to bear weight upon the wounded limb, and
had no difficulty in keeping up with the train. When the bandages
would get misplaced, one could get down in the road with no one to
assist, and adjust them. We took Manda all the way, and no
handsomer animal ever journeyed across the plains. She was never
known to kick afterward.
People call it "instinct in animals," but the more men know and study
dumb life, the more they are impressed with their reasoning
intelligence. Dr. Whitman's mule, finding camp in the blinding snow
storm on the mountains, when the shrewd guide was hopelessly
lost; my old horse leading me and my friend in safety through the
Mississippi River back water in the great forest of Arkansas, as well
as this, which I have told without an embellishment, all teach
impressively the duty of kindness that we owe to our dumb friends.
In Mrs. Whitman's diary we frequently find allusion to her faithful
pony, and her sympathy with him when the grass is scarce and the
work hard, is but an evidence of true nobility in the woman. In a
long journey like the one made from Ohio to the Pacific Coast, it is
wonderful what an affection grows up between man and his dumb
helpers. And there is no mistaking the fact that animals appreciate
and reciprocate such kindness. Even our dog was no exception.
As I have started in to introduce my dumb associates, it would be a
mistake, especially for my boy readers, to omit Rover. He was a
young dog when we started, but he was a dog of thorough
education and large experience before he reached the end of his
journey. He was no dog with a long pedigree of illustrious ancestors,
but was a mixed St. Bernard and Newfoundland, and grew up large,
stately and dignified. He was petted, but never spoiled. When he
was tired and wanted to ride, he knew how to tell the fact and was
never told that he was nothing but a dog.
He was no shirk as a walker, but the hot saleratus dust and sand
wore out his feet. We took the fresh skin of an antelope and made
boots for him, but when no one was looking at him he would gnaw
them off. When the company separated after reaching the coast,
Rover, by unanimous consent, went with his favorite master, J. S.
Niswander, now a gray-haired, honored citizen of Gilroy, Cal. A few
years ago I visited Niswander and Dr. J. Doan, who, with myself, are
the only living survivors of our company, and he gave me the history
of Rover after I left for Oregon.
Niswander was a famous grizzly bear hunter, and with Rover as a
companion, he made journeys prospecting for gold, and hunting,
long distances from civilization. When night came the pack mule was
picketed near by and a big fire built, with plenty of wood to keep it
replenished during the night. Rover laid himself against his master's
feet, and in case of danger he would always waken him with a low
growl close to his ear, and when this was done, he would lope off in
the dark and find out what it was, while Niswander held his gun and
revolver ready for use. If the dog came back and lay down he knew
at once it was a false alarm and dropped to sleep in perfect security.
At one time he brought among his provisions a small firkin of butter,
a great luxury at that time. He took the firkin and set it in the shade
of a great red-wood, tumbled off the rest of his goods, picketed his
mule, and went off prospecting for gold, telling Rover to take care of
the things until he returned. He was gone all day and returned late
in the evening, and looking around could not see his firkin of butter.
He told me he turned to the old dog and said: "Rover, I never knew
you to do such a trick before and I am ashamed of you." The old
fellow only hung his head upon being scolded. But soon after Mr. N.
noticed a suspicious pile of leaves about the roots of the tree, and
when he had turned them aside he found his firkin of butter
untouched.
The high wind which had arisen had blown the paper cover from the
butter and the dog knew it ought to be covered, and with his feet
and nose had gathered the leaves for more than a rod around and
covered it up.
The Indians finally poisoned the old dog for the purpose of robbing
his master. Said he: "When Rover died I shed more tears than I had
shed for years."
While reading, as I have, Mrs. Whitman's daily diary of her journey
in 1836, I am most astonished at the lack of all complaints and
murmurings. I know so well the perils and discomforts she met on
the way and see her every day, cheerful and smiling and happy, and
filled with thankfulness for blessings received, that she seems for the
very absence of any repining, to be a woman of the most exalted
character.
I have traveled for days and weeks through saleratus dust that made
lips, face and eyes tormentingly sore, while the throat and air tubes
seemed to be raw. She barely mentions them. I have camped many
a time, as she doubtless did, where the water was poisonous with
alkali, and unfit for man or beast. I have been stung by buffalo flies
until the sting of a Jersey mosquito would be a positive luxury. She
barely mentions the pests. She does once mildly say: "The
mosquitoes were so thick that we could hardly breathe," and that
"the fleas covered all our garments" and made life a burden until she
could get clear of them.
Then there were snakes. As far as I know she never once
complained of snakes. This makes it all the more necessary in giving
a true picture of pioneering upon the plains, to give a real
experience. There is nothing more hateful than a snake. We were
introduced to the prairie rattler very early in the journey and some
had sport over it. We all wore high, rattlesnake boots; they were
heavy and hard on the feet that had been accustomed to softer
covering.
One of our gallant boys had received a present of a pair of beautiful
embroidered slippers from a loved friend, and after supper he threw
off those high snake boots and put on his slippers. Just then he was
reminded that it was his duty that night to assist in picketing the
mules in fresh pasture. He got hold of two lariats and started off
singing "The Girl I Left Behind Me." About one hundred and fifty
yards off he heard that ominous rattle near by and he dropped those
lariats and came into camp at a speed that elicited cheers from the
entire crowd.
Early in the journey an old Indian told me how to keep the snakes
from our beds, and that was to get a lariat made from the hair of a
buffalo's neck and lay it entirely around the bed. I got the lariat and
seldom went to sleep without being inside of its coil. It is a fact that
a snake will not willingly crawl over such a rope. The sharp prickly
bristles are either uncomfortable to them, or they expect there is
danger.
One night of horrors never to be forgotten was when I did not have
my Indian lariat. Who of my readers ever had a rattlesnake attempt
to make a nest in his hair? The story may hardly be worth telling,
but I will relate it just as it occurred.
We had camped on the St. Mary's River and had gone four miles off
the road to find good grazing for our animals. Supper was over, our
bugler had sounded his last note, and we were preparing for bed
when a man came in from a camp a mile off and reported that they
had found a man on a small island, who was very sick and they
wanted a doctor.
Dr. Schlater, of the Mt. Sterling Mining Company, at once got ready
and went with him. Dr. Schlater was one of the grand specimens of
manhood. He worked with the sick man all night and at daylight
came down and asked me to go up with him. While we were bathing
him the company of Michigan packers, who had found the stranger,
moved off, and left us alone with the sick man, who was delirious
and could give no account of himself.
We found from papers in his pockets that his name was West
Williams of Bloomington, Iowa, and he carried a card from the
I. O. O. F. of that place. We made him as comfortable as possible
and went back to our camp and reported his condition. We found
the company all ready to move out, only waiting for us. The man
was too sick to travel and it would not do to let him remain there
alone, and it was decided that Dr. S. and I should remain with him
and try and find his friends or hire some person to take care of him,
and then, by forced marches, we could follow on and catch the
company.
We raised a purse of one hundred dollars and with such medicines
as we needed and other supplies, also kept back a light spring
wagon, and brought the sick man to our camp. I suggested to the
Doctor that he ride over to the road and put up some written
notices, giving the man's name, etc. He wrote out several and
posted them on the trees where they would attract attention from
passers. While he was doing this, a man with an ox-team came
along and proved to be an old friend of the sick man right from the
same locality. His name was Van S. Israel. He at once came with the
Doctor and took charge of Williams, greatly to our relief.
While the Doctor was upon the road he was called to prescribe for
another sick man by the name of Mahan, from Missouri. Learning
where we were located, the Mahans moved down to our camp. The
sick man was accompanied by his brother, and they had a splendid
outfit. We concluded to give the entire day to the sick men and ride
across the small desert just ahead during the night. A tent was
erected for Mahan, and he walked in and laid down.
An hour or so later I went to the tent door and looking in saw the
man lying dead. I spoke to his brother, who went into the tent
convulsed with grief. I had scarcely reached my tent before I heard a
piercing scream and rushed back, and upon opening the tent flap
was horrified to behold the largest rattlesnake I had ever seen,
coiled on the opposite side of the dead body and the living brother
crowding as far away as possible on the other side to be out of his
reach.
As soon as I appeared the snake uncoiled and slipped under the
edge of the tent. I caught up a green cottonwood stick and ran
around and he at once coiled for a fight. I let him strike the stick.
After striking each time he would try to retreat, but a gentle tap with
the stick would arouse his anger and he would coil and strike again.
At first a full drop of the yellow fluid appeared upon the stick. This
gradually diminished, and with it the courage of the reptile, which
seemed to lose all fighting propensity. I then killed him.
Just before sunset we were ready to leave our sad associates, and
we rode down to the river to give our mules a drink. The St. Mary's
is a deep stream running through a level stretch with no banks. The
mules had often been caved into the deep water and learned to get
down on their knees to drink. For fear of an accident I got off and
allowed my mule to kneel and drink. As he got upon his feet I swung
into the saddle and started on. I had scarcely got firmly seated
when, right under the mule, a rattler sang out. My double-barrel gun
was hanging from my shoulder, muzzle down. As quick as a flash I
slipped my arm through the strap, cocked the gun at the same time,
and the mule shying, brought his snakeship in range, and just as he
was in the act of striking, I shot him dead. The only good thing
about the rattler is that he always gives the alarm before striking.
 A. J. ANDERSON, Ph.D., (left)
First President of Whitman College.

REV. JAMES F. EATON, D.D., (right)

Second President of Whitman College.

It was about three o'clock in the morning when we got through the
desert and reached a cluster of trees, and resolved to stop and take
a little sleep, and give our mules the feed of grass we had tied
behind our saddles. We found a fallen tree and tied our animals to
the boughs and fed them. A small company of packers were there
asleep with their heads toward the fallen tree. We passed them to
near the butt of the tree, threw aside some rotten chunks, spread a
blanket, and each rolled up in another, lay down to rest. My snake-
lariat was with the wagon, but I was too tired to think much of it.
The Doctor being up all the night before, was asleep in two minutes.
I was dozing off, with rattlesnakes and all the horrors of the past day
running through my mind, when I was suddenly awakened by
something pulling and working in my long, bushy hair. Barbers were
not plentiful on the plains, and, besides, the plainsmen wear long
hair as a protection. I suppose it was only a few minutes of
suspense, and yet it seemed an hour, before I became wide awake,
and reached at once the conclusion that I had poked my head near
the log where his snakeship was sleeping, and the evening being
cool, he was trying to secure warmer quarters. I knew it would not
do to move my head. I quietly slipped my right arm from the
blanket, and slowly moved my hand within six inches of my head. I
felt the raking of a harder material, which seemed like a fang
scraping the scalp. This made me almost frantic. Suddenly I grasped
the offender by the head, jerking hair and all, and, jumping to my
feet, yelled, so that every packer bounced to his feet, and seized his
gun, thinking we were attacked by Indians. This is a round-about
way to tell a snake story, but all the facts had to be recited to reveal
the real conditions.
It was forty-five years ago, and the sensations of the time are vivid
to this day; and it doesn't even matter that the offender was not a
rattler, but only an honest, little, cold-footed tree-toad, trying to get
warmed up. But he frightened me as badly as the biggest rattler on
the St. Mary's could, and I helped him to make a hop that beat the
record of Mark Twain's jumping-frog in his best days.
But life on the plains was not a continued succession of discomforts.
The dyspeptic could well afford to make such a journey to gain the
appetite and the good digestion. The absence of annoying insect life
during the night, and the pure, invigorating air, makes sleep
refreshing and health-giving. For a month at a time we have lain
down to sleep, looking up at the stars, without the fear of catching
cold, or feeling a drop of dew. There are long dreary reaches of
plains to pass that are wearisome to the eye and the body, but the
mountain scenery is nowhere more picturesquely beautiful.
At that time the sportsman could have a surfeit in all kinds of game,
by branching off from the lines of travel and taking the chances of
losing his scalp. Herds of antelope were seen every day feeding in
the valleys, while farther away there were buffalo by the hundred
thousand. The great butchery of these noble animals had then but
fairly begun. To-day, there still live but three small herds. Our
company did not call it sport to kill buffalo for amusement. It was
not sport, but butchery. A man could ride up by the side of his victim
and kill him with a pistol.
It was among our rules to allow no team animal to be used in the
chase. But I forgot myself once and violated the rule. We were
resting that day in camp. In the distance I saw two hunters after a
huge buffalo bull, coming toward our camp. I saw by the direction
that one could ride around the spur of a high hill about a mile
distant and intercept him. We had as a saddle horse of one team an
old clay-bank, which was one of the most solemn horses I have ever
seen. His beauty was in his great strength and his long mane and
tail. But he carried his head on a straight level with his back and
never was known to put on any airs. He stood picketed handy, and
seizing a bridle and my gun I mounted without a saddle and urged
the old horse into a lope.
As I turned the spur of the hill, the bull came meeting me fifty yards
away. He was a monster; his tongue protruded, and he was frothing
at the mouth from his long run. He showed no signs of turning from
his road because of my appearance. Just then, when not more than
thirty yards away, my old horse saw him and turned so quickly as to
nearly unseat me. He threw up his head until that great mane of his
enveloped me; and he broke for the camp at a gait no one ever
dreamed he possessed. I did no shooting, but I did the fastest riding
I ever indulged in before or since. It is a fact, that a mad buffalo,
plunging toward you is only pleasant when you can get out of his
way.
The slaughter and annihilation of the buffalo is the most atrocious
act ever classed under the head of sport. A few years ago, while
traveling over the Great Northern Railway, I saw at different stations
ricks of bones from a quarter to a third of a mile long, piled up as
high as the tops of the cars, awaiting shipment. I asked one of the
experienced and reliable railway officials of the traffic, and he
informed me that "Not less than 26,000 car loads of buffalo bones
had been shipped over the Great Northern Railroad to the bone
factories; and not one in a thousand of the remains had ever been
touched." The weight of a full-sized buffalo's bones is about sixty
pounds. The traffic is still enormous along these northern lines. If
the Indian had any sentiment it would likely be called out as he
wanders over the plains and gathers up the dry bones of these well-
nigh extinct wild herds, that fed and clothed his tribe through so
many generations.
I have seen beautiful horses, but never saw any half so handsome
as the wild horses upon the plains. The tame horse, however well
groomed, is despoiled of his grandeur. He compares with his wild
brother as the plebeian compares with royalty. I saw a beautiful race
between two Greasers who were chasing a herd of wild horses. They
were running parallel with the road I was traveling, and I spurred up
and ran by their side some four hundred yards distant, and had a
chance to study them for many miles.
I afterward saw a handsome stallion that had just been caught. He
was tied and in a corral, but if one approached he would jump at
him and strike and kick as savagely as possible. His back showed
saddle marks, which proved that he had not always been the wild
savage he had then become. The mountains and hills where the wild
horses were then most numerous were covered with wild oats,
which gave the country the appearance of large cultivation.
Among the interesting facts which the traveler on the great plains
learns, and often to his discomfort, is the deception as to distance.
He sees something of interest and resolves "it is but two miles
away," but the chances are that it will prove to be eight or ten miles.
The country is made up of great waves. Looking off you see the top
of a wave, and when you get there a valley that you did not see,
stretches away for miles.
We always tried to treat our Indian guests courteously, but they
were often voted a nuisance. While cooking our supper they would
often form a circle, twenty or thirty of them sitting on the ground,
and they looked so longingly at the bread and ham and coffee, that
it almost took one's appetite away. We could only afford to give the
squaws what was left. To fill up such a crowd would have soon
ended our stock of supplies.
One of the things that made an Indian grunt, and even laugh, was
to see our cook baking pancakes in a long-handled frying pan. To
turn the cake over he tossed it in the air and caught it as it came
down. A cook on the plains that could not do that was not up in his
business.
Except upon the mountains and rocky canyons, the roads were as
good as a turnpike; but some of the climbs and descents were
fearful, while an occasional canyon, miles long, looked wholly
impassable without breaking the legs of half the animals and
smashing the wagons.
The old plainsmen had a way of setting tires upon a loose wheel that
was novel. Our tires became very loose from the long dry reaches.
We took off the tire, tacked a slip of fresh hide entirely around the
rim, heated the tire, dropped it on the wheel and quickly chucked it
into the water and had wheels as good as new.
Our company was three nights and two days and nearly a half in
crossing the widest desert. It was a beautiful firm road until we
struck deep sand, which extended out for eleven miles from Carson
River into the desert. Before starting we emptied our rubber clothes
sacks, filled them with water, hauled hay, which we had cured, to
feed our mules, and made the trip as pleasantly as if upon green
sod. The lack of water on this wide desert had left many thousand
bones of dead animals bleaching upon its wastes. Many wells had
been dug in various places and we tested the water in them and
found it intensely salt. The entire space is evidently the bed of a salt
sea.
In the long reaches where no trees of any kind grow, the entire
dependence of the early pioneer for fire was upon buffalo chips, the
animal charcoal of the plains. It makes a good fire and is in no way
offensive. And if no iron horse had invaded the plains, buffalo chips
would be selling all along the route to-day at forty dollars per ton.
One of the pleasant historical events in which our company naturally
takes a pride is, that one night we camped upon a little mountain
stream near where the city of Denver now stands; the whole land as
wild as nature made it. Many years afterward one of the little band,
Frank Denver, was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Colorado, and
Gen. J. W. Denver was among the most prominent politicians of the
coast, and the city of Denver was named in honor of them. I have
thus, as concisely as I could, sketched life as it was in a wagon
journey across the plains forty-five and fifty years ago. It was a
memorable experience, and none who took it will fail to have of it a
vivid remembrance as long as life lasts. If its annoyances were
many, its novelties and pleasing remembrances were so numerous
as to make it the notable journey of even the most adventurous life.
 APPENDIX.

NARRATIVE OF THE WINTER TRIP ACROSS THE ROCKY

MOUNTAINS OF DR. MARCUS WHITMAN AND HON.
A. LAWRENCE LOVEJOY, IN 1842, FURNISHED
BY REQUEST, FROM
MR. LOVEJOY, THE
SURVIVOR.

Oregon City, Feb. 14,

1876.
Dr. Atkinson—Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I will
endeavor to give you some idea of the journey of the late Dr. Marcus
Whitman from Oregon to Washington, in the winter of 1842 and '43.
True, I was the Doctor's traveling companion in that arduous and
trying journey, but it would take volumes to describe the many
thrilling scenes and dangerous hair-breadth escapes we passed
through, traveling, as we did, almost the entire route through a
hostile Indian country, and enduring much suffering from the intense
cold and snow we had to encounter in passing over the Rocky
Mountains in midwinter. I crossed the plains in company with Dr.
White and others, and arrived at Waiilatpui the last of September,
1842. My party camped some two miles below Dr. Whitman's place.
The day after our arrival Dr. Whitman called at our camp and asked
me to accompany him to his house, as he wished me to draw up a
memorial to Congress to prohibit the sale of ardent spirits in this
country. The Doctor was alive to the interests of this coast, and
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