Chapter VII: {i}70 (5)

"These facts, concerning the Osage treaty, are stated merely to show that we have not dealt justly with the Osages, and to infer from them, that unless immediate steps are taken to recover that confidence and respect which those Indians once had in the United States, the inevitable consequence will be, their decided and active hostility against the settlements of the Missouri, and those back of the lead mines. British emissaries had repeatedly attempted to engage the Osages in their service previous to the evacuation of Fort Clark, but without effect. The leading men have often declared to me their determination 'never to desert their American Father as long as he was faithful to them.' At a time when we were under serious apprehensions of an attack on Fort Clark, the warriors of the Little Osages offered their services to me to defend the post. In less than two months after those declarations and offers of service Fort Clark was evacuated, and the Osage establishment abandoned, without any notice or apology for so very extraordinary and unnecessary an act. Thus were the Osages left (I may truly say) in the arms of the British agents. How far those agents have succeeded in weaning them from their growing attachment to the United States I am unable to say; they have had full scope for their arts, and it would be idle to suppose they have not made some progress.

"Of all the Missouri Indians, the Osages were the least accessible to British influence, from their {113} strong attachment to the French. They had acquired a _French_ prejudice against the English, which, since my acquaintance with them, has rather increased than diminished. Such are the Osages, and such our relations and political standing with them.

"To put an end to the difficulties now existing between the United States and those people, and to relieve our frontier from the additional weight and destructive effects of their hostility, I beg leave to propose the following plan:--

"The Osage treaty should be immediately carried into complete effect, and measures promptly adopted to engage the Osages in the service of the United States: with this view, and to effect the latter important object, it will be necessary to make an establishment near the Osage towns, to consist of a trading-house, armourer, or blacksmith, and mill; the trading-house to be constantly supplied with a sufficient quantity of suitable Indian goods, to be furnished to the Osages (and such other Indians as the Osages may associate with them in the service of the United States, and request to be furnished,) on liberal terms, either in barter for their furs and pelts, payment of their annuities, payment for their services, and such occasional presents as the safety of Indian affairs may authorize or require. This store should constitute an ample fund always in their country, and always accessible to supply all their wants, and promptly to discharge all their just demands against the United States. During the continuance of the war 40,000 dollars per annum would be requisite. In peace from 10 to 15,000 would be sufficient.

"This establishment should be so regulated in its details as to prevent frauds and abuses, restore confidence among the Osages, and produce the most satisfaction to them, and benefit of the United States. In peace the net profits of the trade will more than defray the whole expense. In war those profits will very much diminish the expense. This establishment {114} should be under the direction of a responsible and confidential agent, who should also be charged with the local superintendence of Indian affairs within the proper sphere of his agency.

"A strong stockade fort and garrison should be fixed in the neighbourhood of the Indian establishment, under such police and regulations as should effectually prevent any clashing between the military and Indian departments, and solely to be confined to military purposes. A system of espionage to be adopted and put into operation at this establishment, and extended as far as possible among the surrounding Indian nations."

The Osages of the Oaks, or Clermont's band, were separated from the other bands, and fixed in their present situation, chiefly, it is said, through the influence of Mr. Choteau, previously to the cession of the territory to the American government. The monopoly of the Missouri trade having been granted to Mr. Manuel Lisa by the Spanish authorities, Mr. Choteau, a rival trader, could no longer traffic with them on the waters, or within a certain distance of the Missouri. He therefore managed to separate a considerable portion of the nation from the interest of his rival, and induced them to establish a town near the Arkansa, of the trade of which river he enjoyed the monopoly.

At a short distance we crossed a small creek which issues from a spring of water. The prairie is now very fertile, interspersed with pleasing groves of oak, and swelling, on either hand, and in the distance, into remarkable pyramidal and conical hills, of which the summits are rocky. The spice-wood (laurus benzoin) and the pecan (carya olivæformis) first occurred to-day. Our distance, twelve miles.

{115} CHAPTER XIV {VIII}[128]

Verdigrise River--Mr. Glenn's Trading-house--New Species of Lizard--Neosho or Grand River--Salt Works--Large Spider--Illinois Creek--Ticks--Arrival at Belle Point.

Monday, 4th. The face of the country exhibited the same appearance as that of yesterday's journey, until we arrived at a dense forest, which we supposed to margin the Verdigrise river, or Was-su-ja of the Osages. There being no trace to direct us, we were obliged to penetrate the intricate undergrowth as we might, and after a tedious and laborious passage of something more than three miles, we attained, probably by a somewhat circuitous route, the river which we had so long vainly sought. At our crossing-place the stream was probably eighty yards wide, and one foot in depth, running with a brisk stream over a rocky bed, though above and below, as far as we examined, the depth of water is much more considerable. This river is more rapid and pellucid than any tributary we had passed on this side of the mountain streams, and during the season of floods its volume is augmented by the tribute of those ravines over which we passed on the 30th ultimo.

Late in the afternoon, we struck the Osage trace, leading from their village to the trading establishment, at the confluence of the Verdigrise, whither we now direct our course. Our evening encampment was at a small ravine, in which were some plum bushes, bearing fruit, yet unripe, of a fine red colour, and, without the slightest exaggeration, as closely situated on many of the branches as onions when tied {116} on ropes of straw for exportation. Distance, seventeen miles three quarters. Extreme heat, 90 degrees.

Tuesday, 5th. At ten o'clock we arrived at Mr. Glenn's trading-house, near the Verdigrise, about a mile above its confluence with the Arkansa. We were hospitably received by the interpreter, a Frenchman, who informed us that Mr. Glenn was absent on a visit to Belle Point. In reply to our inquiries respecting the best and shortest route to the place of destination, two Americans who were present assured us, that there was a path the whole distance so obvious as not to be mistaken, and that they were so much occupied, as to be unable to spare any one to pilot us. Unfortunately, however, for our informant, a military cap, which was now discovered suspended from a beam, betrayed him to be a soldier, belonging to the garrison of Belle Point, temporarily employed at this place. When asked by what right he entered into any other engagements whilst in the service of the United States, he replied that he had the permission of his officers; but as he could not show a certificate, he was ordered to join our suit forthwith as a guide, and to assist with the pack-horses. The interpreter informed us, that the distance to the town of the Osages of the Oaks is about fifty-five miles; from thence to the village of the second band of Osages, called the Great Osages, situated near the head waters of Osage river, more than fifty miles; thence to the village of the third band, called Little Osages, situated on the Neosho or Grand river, three miles; he assured us, that Clermont had then four wives and thirty-seven children; a number, doubtless, unprecedented amongst the North American Indians, and which may probably be attributed to this chief by mistake. We also learned, that at the distance of twenty-five miles was a copious salt spring, lately worked with the permission of the Indians; but at present it is abandoned, and the apparatus removed. Mr. Nuttall, in his interesting Journal of Travels in the Arkansa territory, has given {117} an excellent account of this saline. It produced, agreeably to his statement, under the management of the company, one bushel of salt from eighty gallons of water, and one hundred and twenty bushels were manufactured in a week.[129]

A beautiful species of lizard[130] (agama), is occasionally met with in this territory. It runs with great swiftness. The form of its scales, their arrangement and proportions, considerably resemble those of polychrus marmorata, with the exception of the caudal ones, the series of which are equal, and the scales near the tip of the tail only are mucronate. A band over the shoulders somewhat resembles that of stellio querto paleo.

In addition to our usual fare, served upon the earth, we here enjoyed the luxury of wild honey and Indian corn, or maize bread, spread upon a table; and felt perhaps a little of that elation which the possession of a new coat communicates to the beau, when we found ourselves mounted on stools and benches around it.

The sassafras (laurus sassafras) occurred this morning; and soon after our departure from the trading-house, we saw the cane (miegia macrosperma), and were soon involved in a dense cane brake. Here we were hardly fanned by a breath of air, and during the prevalence of the extreme heat of the day, which was 96 degrees, the state of the atmosphere was extremely oppressive. A short ride brought us to the Neosho, or Grand river, better known to the hunters by the singular designation of the Six Bulls.

It enters the Arkansa very near to the confluence of the Verdigrise, and at the ripple, which offers us a facility of crossing, is about eighty yards wide, the water clear, above and below moving with a gentle current, and its bed and shores paved with large pebbles. At the entrance of the opposite forest, our guide, to whom the direct and very obvious path was supposed to be so familiar, now became bewildered, and {118} after reconnoitring to his heart's content amongst the entangled briers, vines, and nettles, ushered us into a trace which conducted to an old Indian encampment, and terminated there. Further progress was in a great measure intercepted by the cane brake, which not presenting any path, obliged us to break our passage with much labour. The dusk of the evening found us still pursuing a devious course through a world of vegetation impenetrable to the eye, vainly seeking a spot upon which an encampment could be fixed, when, to our unspeakable joy, and without previous intimation, the prairie of Bayou Menard[131] appeared suddenly before us. The timber of these bottoms is large and various. The extreme heat of the day, 96 degrees. Distance, eighteen miles.

Our pleasure at first seeing civilized white men was of no ordinary kind; it appeared as though we had already arrived at our own homes and families, in anticipation of Belle Point, which had hitherto seemed the utmost boundary and terminus of our pilgrimage.

Wednesday, 6th. A fine morning, and, as on the days of the first instant, and 30th ultimo, no dew had fallen. Crossed the ravine at the head of Bayou Menard, and ascended the elevated hills, clothed with small oaks, and arrived at a branch of Greenleaf Bayou about nine o'clock; a distance of eight miles.[132]

A slight shower of rain fell in the afternoon; and during our ride we first observed the dogwood (cornus florida). In the evening, we arrived at Mr. Bean's salt works. These are situated on a small creek which flows into the Illinois creek about a mile below, and are at the distance of about seven miles from the Arkansa. Mr. Bean commenced his operations in the spring, and has already a neat farm-house on the Illinois, with a considerable stock of cattle, hogs, and poultry, and several acres in Indian corn. Near the springs he has erected a neat log-house, and a shed {119} for the furnace; but his kettles, which were purchased of the proprietors of the Neosho establishment, were not yet fixed. He assured us that the water was so far saturated as not to dissolve any perceptible quantity of a handful of salt that was thrown into it. On the side of a large well, which he had sunk to collect the salt water, and perhaps two feet from the surface of the soil, he pointed out the remains of a stratum of charcoal of inconsiderable extent, through which they had penetrated, and which to a by-stander was a certain proof that these springs had been formerly worked by the Indians. But as no other appearances justified this conclusion, a greater probability seems attached to the idea, that during some former conflagration of the prairies, the charred trunk or branches of a tree was here imbedded. Another agent, however, of sufficient efficacy to operate this carbonization of wood, resides in the sulphuric acid, liberated by the decomposing pyritous rocks, so abundant here.

Whilst waiting with a moderate share of patience for our evening meal of boiled pumpkins, one of the children brought us a huge hairy spider, which he carried upon a twig, that he had induced the animal to grasp with its feet. Its magnitude and formidable appearance surprised us. The boy informed us that he had captured it near the entrance of its burrow, and that the species is by no means rare in this part of the country. Not having any box suitable to contain it, nor any pin sufficiently large to impale it, we substituted a wooden peg, by which it was attached to the inside of a hat. This species so closely resembles, both in form, colour, and magnitude, the gigantic bird-catching spider of South America,[133] that from a minute survey of this specimen, which is a female, we cannot discover the slightest characteristic distinction. But as an examination of the male, {120} comparatively with that of the avicularia, may exhibit distinctive traits, we refrain from deciding positively upon the species. This animal had been previously mentioned by Mr. Nuttall, in his recent and interesting account of his travels in this region.[134] Distance, twenty-four miles.

Thursday, 7th. The Illinois is called by the Osages _Eng-wah-condah_, or _Medicine Stone Creek_. At our fording place near the Saline, it is about sixty yards wide, with clear water and pebbly shores, like those of the Neosho. We proceeded on, through a country wooded with small oaks, and interspersed with occasional small prairies, and crossed a deep ravine called Bayou Viande.[135] The Bayous, as they are named in this country, unlike those of the lower portion of the Mississippi river, are large and often very profound ravines or watercourses, which, during the spring season, or after heavy rains, receive the water from the surface of the prairies, and convey it to the river; but in the summer and early autumn, the sources being exhausted, the water subsides in their channels, occupying only the deeper parts of their bed, in the form of stagnant pools, exhaling miasmata to the atmosphere, and rendering their vicinity prejudicial to health.

The extreme temperature of the day was 93 degrees, but it was rather abruptly reduced by a strong wind from the S. E., which brought up a heavy rain, with much thunder and lightning, and continued to drench us until the evening, when, after a ride of fourteen miles, we encamped at Bayou Salaison or Meat-salting Bayou.[136] At our mid-day refectory, we were much annoyed by great numbers of small ticks, that were excessively abundant amongst the grass, and crawled by dozens up our leggings. Wherever they effected a lodgement upon the skin, their numerous punctures would cause an intolerable itching sensation, that bid defiance to repose. In the evening, in addition to the needful process of drying our {121} clothing and blankets, we had ample employment in scratching and picking the pestiferous arachnides from our bodies. On entering the water, the disagreeable sensation seemed to be mitigated for a time, only to be augmented on our return to the atmosphere. Mosquitoes, which were also abundant, were readily expelled from our tents by the smoke of burning wood; but the ticks, otherwise constituted, frustrated our endeavours to obtain the necessary rest and sleep during the night.

These ticks are of two different species, and, in common with other species inhabiting different parts of the United States, are distinguished by the name of _seed ticks_, probably on account of their small size when compared with others of the same genus.

The larger of the two kinds[137] may be compared, in point of transverse diameter, to the head of a small-sized pin; but the other one is so much smaller, as to elude the sight, except on minute inspection.

The Cherokee Indians frequently visit this vicinity on hunting excursions; and our guide informs us, that a hunting-party of that nation is at present situate at the mouth of this Bayou, at the distance of two miles and a half from our camp.

Friday, 8th. The face of the country presents the same appearance with that we passed over yesterday, offering in the arrangement of forest and fertile prairie, many advantageous sites for plantations, of which one is already established at the confluence of Big Skin Bayou.

During the afternoon's ride, the country was observed to be more hilly. Soon after the occurrence of the greatest heat of the day, which was 91 degrees, several showers of rain fell, accompanied with distant thunder.

On a naked part of the soil, gullied out by the action of torrents of water, we beheld a hymenopterous or wasp-like insect (sphex) triumphantly, but laboriously, dragging the body of the gigantic spider, {122} its prey, to furnish food to its future progeny. We cannot but admire the prowess of this comparatively pigmy victor, and the wonderful influence of a maternal emotion, which thus impels it to a hazardous encounter, for the sake of a posterity which it can never know. Distance, nineteen miles.

Saturday, 9th. Pursued our journey, with every hope of reaching the place of rendezvous appointed by Major Long before noon. Since passing Bayou Viande, we have observed the country on either side of our path to be distinguished by extremely numerous natural elevations of earth, of some considerable degree of regularity. They are of a more or less oval outline, and their general dimensions may be stated at one hundred feet long, by from two to five feet in greatest height. Their existence is doubtless due to the action of water. Should the rivers Platte and Arkansa be deprived of their waters, the sand islands of their beds would probably present a somewhat similar appearance.

An Indian, who observed us passing, hallooed to us from a distance, and expecting some important communication, we waited some time until he came up. He proved to be a Cherokee, dressed much in the manner of the whites, and not a little infected with the spirit of an interrogator, common, no doubt, to those with whom he has been accustomed to associate, and therefore probably regarded by him as a concomitant of civilization. We left him to his own surmises respecting our object and destination, and soon arrived at the path which strikes off for the river. After passing a distance of two miles through a cane brake, we passed a hut and small farm belonging to a soldier of the garrison, and were shortly on the strand of the river, with the long-sought Belle Point before us. We were soon ferried over, and were kindly received on the wharf by Captain Ballard and Mr. Glenn. The former gentleman was at present invested with the command, in consequence of {123} the temporary absence of Major Bradford, on a visit to St. Louis. His politeness and attention soon rendered our situation comfortable, after a houseless exposure in the wilderness of ninety-three days. The greatest heat of the day was 91 degrees, and distance travelled nine miles.

The Arkansa, below the great bend, becomes more serpentine than it is above, and very much obstructed by sand-bars and islands, either naked or clothed with a recent vegetation; they are but little elevated above the water, and are covered to some depth during the prevalence of floods in the river. At Belle Point, and some distance above, these islands almost wholly disappear, but the sandy shores still continue, and are, as above, alternately situated on either side of the river, as the stream approaches or recedes from the opposite river bottoms. The colour of the water was now olive green. All the red colouring matter, with which it is sometimes imbued, is contributed by streams entering on the southern side. The current of the Arkansa is much less rapid than that of the Platte, but the character of these two rivers, in a great degree, corresponds in their widely spreading waters of but little depth, running over a bed of yielding sand. The rise of the waters at Belle Point takes place in the months of March and early in April, with a less considerable freshet in July and August. But to this place navigation is seldom practicable, for keel-boats, from the month of August to February inclusive, though the autumnal freshet of October and November frequently admits their passage.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Chapter viii of volume ii of the original London edition.--ED.

[2] It is well known that water, in which carbonic acid is dissolved, has the power of holding in solution a portion of lime, somewhat proportioned in quantity to the acid. In this instance, the water no sooner comes in contact with the atmosphere than it parts with a portion of its fixed air, consequently loses the power of holding in solution the lime which is immediately deposited. The lime may perhaps, in this instance, be derived from the cement of the sand-rock.--JAMES.

[3] The "boiling spring" is the site of Manitou Springs, now a famous watering place, from which millions of bottles of the water are annually shipped. Carbonate of lime composes nine-tenths of the mineral matter in solution. From this point the cogwheel railroad ascends Pike's Peak.--ED.

[4] Pinus flexilis. N. S.--JAMES.

[5] It is related in Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, p. 71, that in the year 1724, a large tribe of Indians, called Padoucas, resided in several villages on the heads of the Konzas river; that they removed thence to the sources of the Platte: here they are said still to exist. See Brackenridge's Views, p. 147. Lewis and Clarke's Map, &c. But these accounts need confirmation.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ See volume xiv, note 179.

[6] There is some uncertainty as to the peak which Pike ascended. Dr. Elliott Coues thinks he reached high ground between Mount Rosa and Cheyenne Mountain, approaching from the south. See _Pike's Expeditions_, pp. 454, 455, notes 46, 47. These peaks are eight or ten miles southeast of Pike's.--ED.

[7] Notes referring particularly to this grasshopper, and to many other insects, and many other animals, collected on the Platte and about the mountains, were subsequently lost in the robbery committed by three of the soldiers, who deserted from the party in the country of the Osages. It is on this account that the name of the insect alluded to cannot be given, as it is now impossible to identify the specimen.--JAMES.

[8] As late as 1870 the Indians continued to make offerings to the manitou of the springs. There is an Indian legend which accounts for the effervescence and taste of the water as follows: Two hunters having come to the springs, the less successful, in envious anger, seized his rival while drinking, and held his head beneath the water until he expired. Thereupon a vapor arose, and there appeared a spirit who struck the murderer with his war club, dashing his brains into the spring and rendering the waters bitter.--ED.

[9] The Colorado Midland now ascends Fountain Creek, east and north of the peak, approximating the line of this bison path. The stage road to the peak also ascends this cañon about four miles to Cascade, where it turns west, going around the northern and northwestern slope of the mountain.--ED.

[10] Boiling Spring (now Fountain) Creek unites with Monument Creek (see preceding volume, note 146) at Colorado Springs, to form Fountain River. The map does not show Boiling Spring Creek, but applies the name to Fountain River and its other branch, Monument Creek, to which it gives an exaggerated length. Fountain River was called La Rivière de la Fontaine qui Bouille (River of the Boiling Spring), from the Manitou springs already described; the French name, in various forms, has generally been preferred to the English. Frémont calls the stream, in more correct French, "Fontaine-qui-bouit," and "Fontaine River" is still sometimes used. The city of Pueblo is situated at its confluence with the Arkansas; Pike called this confluence "grand forks."--ED.

[11] Lieutenant Swift's trigonometrical measurement of the elevation of Pike's Peak was quite accurate. If to his calculation of 8,507½ feet above the plain the correct elevation of the latter be added, the sum is within a few feet of the now accepted height; but, as in Pike's measurement, the result was invalidated by an erroneous estimate of the height of the plain (3,000 feet instead of about 5,700). The latitude and longitude as calculated for this camp afford another instance showing the error in the observations made by the expedition. The correct figures for Colorado Springs are 38° 49′ 41.67″ north latitude, and 104° 49′ 15.10″ longitude west of Greenwich.--ED.

[12] Giovanni Ignazio Molina was born in Chili, of Italian parents, in 1740. When the Jesuits were expelled from that country (1767) he joined their order and went to Italy, where he became a priest and teacher. His _Compendio di Storia geografica naturale e civile del Chili_ (Bologna, 1776) was translated into the principal European languages, and an American edition was published under the title _Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili_ (Middletown, Connecticut, 2 vols., 1808).

Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French zoölogist and author of voluminous works on ornithology. Among his writings was _Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale, depuis Saint-Dominigue jusqu' à la baie d'Hudson_ (Paris, 1807 and annually thereafter).--ED.

[13] Pike wrote in his journal: "Nov. 24th [1806]. Early in the morning we cut down 14 logs, and put up a breast work, five feet high on three sides and the other thrown on the river" (see Coues, _Pike's Expeditions_, p. 452). The structure stood on the south side of the Arkansas, a little above where the mouth of Fountain River was at that time; but the exact spot cannot be identified, as the course of the river has since changed considerably. Long's party looked for it, however, in an entirely wrong place. Their course southwest from the camp on Fountain River brought them to the Arkansas several miles above its mouth (near Turkey Creek); besides which, they were on the wrong side for Pike's old redoubt.--ED.

[14] The point here reached by Bell's party is the site of Cañon City, Fremont County, at the lower end of the Grand Cañon of the Arkansas, better known as the Royal Gorge, through which now passes the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The railroad engineers triumphed over the obstacles which to our party seemed to render the cañon almost impassable, by lowering tools, materials, provisions, mules, and men into the chasm by ropes attached to the overhanging cliffs. In one place it was found necessary, for want of a road-bed in the narrow gorge, to suspend the track by bridgework anchored to the mountain side.

Pike's route from Cañon City to the upper Arkansas and back has been much discussed; however, he did not go through the Royal Gorge. Dr. Coues thinks that he went north from Cañon City, up Oil Creek, crossing the dividing ridge at its source and passing into South Park, to the South Platte River. Thence he crossed South Park to the westward, and penetrated the Park Range to the upper Arkansas, which he explored, mistaking it for Red River. Descending the river, the party scattered near the upper end of Royal Gorge, and passed around it by various routes through the mountains. Pike himself essayed the passage of the cañon on the frozen river, but was compelled to abandon the channel when about half-way through it. The party reached the site of Cañon City, which it had left December 10, 1806, on January 5, 1807. See Coues, _Pike's Expeditions_, pp. 464-478.--ED.

[15] "From information derived from the Indians and hunters who have frequently visited this part of the country, as also from the account given by Pike, relative to this peak, it appears that no person, either civilized or savage, has ever ascended to its summit, and that the ascent was deemed utterly impracticable. Dr. James having accomplished this difficult and laborious task, I have thought proper to call the peak after his name, as a compliment to which his zeal and perseverance, together with the skilful attention with which he has examined its character and productions, give him the fairest claim. Pike has indeed given us notice that there is such a peak, but he only saw it at a distance; the unfavourable circumstances under which he came into its neighbourhood preventing his arrival even at its base. He attempted to ascertain its altitude, but it is believed his estimate is very erroneous." Ext. from Maj. Long's MS. Notes of July 15th, 1820.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ Height of Pike's Peak generally accepted as correct, 14,147 feet; Pike's estimate, 18,581. See _ante_, note 11. Pike wrote in his journal: "I believe no human being could have ascended to its pinical;" but it must be borne in mind that he reached the region late in November, when the difficulty of the ascent is immensely greater than at the season (July) when James's party made their successful attempt. The claim of Dr. James to the honor of being the first to reach the summit remains undisputed; but the peak has long since ceased to bear his name. When Frémont visited Colorado in 1843 he adopted the present appellation, which he found in local use among the traders, and the rival name soon fell into disuse by cartographers.

[16] Jean Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-88), was keeper of the Royal Gardens and Museum in Paris, and compiler of a large portion of the forty-volume work entitled _Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière_ (Paris, 1749-1804), which was completed, after his death, by Lacépède (see _post_, note 26). Buffon is noteworthy for having anticipated the theory of evolution.--ED.

[17] Genus _Sciurus_, L.--S. _quadrivittatus_, SAY.--_Head_ brownish intermixed with fulvous, and with four white lines, of which the superior one on each side passes from the tip of the nose immediately over the eye to the superior base of the ear; and the inferior one passes immediately beneath the eye to the inferior base of the ear; _ears_ moderate, semi-oval, incisores reddish-yellow; _back_ with four broad lines, and alternate mixed black and ferruginous ones; _sides_ fulvous, beneath whitish; _tail_ moderate, hair black at base, then fulvous black in the middle, and paler fulvous at tip; _beneath_ fulvous with a submarginal black line; _thumb_ of the anterior feet a prominent tubercle.

Length from the nose to the base of the tail 4¼ inches.
------ of the tail 3
------ of the hair at the tip of the tail 1 nearly.

--JAMES.

[18] Genus _Sciurus_, L.--S. _lateralis_, SAY.--_Above_ brownish cinereous intermixed with blackish; on each side of the back a dull yellowish-white dilated line, broader before, margined above and beneath with black, originating upon the neck anterior to the humerus, and not attaining the origin of the tail; no appearance of a vertebral line; thigh, neck anterior to the tip of the white line, and top of the head tinged with ferruginous; _orbits_ whitish; _tail_ short, thin, with a submarginal black line beneath; _nails_ of the anterior feet elongated: _thumb tubercle_ furnished with a broad nail; _sides_ dull yellowish-white; _beneath_ pale, intermixed with blackish.--JAMES.

[19] Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) began the collection of animals for the Jardin des Plantes, and after 1794 was the collaborator of Cuvier. He was a prolific writer, and previous to Long's expedition had prepared a _Catalogue des Mammifères du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle_ (1813).--ED.

[20] _Hirundo lunifrons_, SAY.--_Above_ brownish-black, more or less varied with violaceous on the back and wing-coverts; _top of the head_ exclusively blackish-violaceous, a large white frontal lunule; _bill_ black; _rump_ and _tail coverts_ pale ferruginous; _chin_, _throat_, and _neck_ beneath, dark ferruginous extending in a narrow band upon the hind head; _breast_ pale rufous ash; _axillæ_ and _inferior wing coverts_ dirty brownish; _shoulders_ dull whitish, with small black and pale ferruginous spots; _belly_ and _vent_ flanks white, obsoletely dashed with brown; _inferior tail coverts_ dusky, margined with white; _tail_ entire, not surpassing the tips of the wings, the exterior feather margined with white on the inner web; _wing_ and _tail-shafts_ brown above, white beneath; _the tail feathers_ in some lights have a slightly-banded appearance. Length 5½ inches.--JAMES.

[21] Genus _Coluber_.--C. _testaceus_, SAY.--Pale sanguineous, or testaceous above, beneath sanguineous immaculate. Pl. 198. Sc. 80?

This is a large species equal in size to the C. _constrictor_. It moves with great rapidity, and in general form and size it resembles C. _constrictor_. The scales are large. A specimen is in the Philadelphia Museum.--JAMES.

[22] _Emberiza amœna_, SAY.--_Head_ and _neck_ bluish green; _back_ brownish black more or less intermixed with blue and a little brown ferruginous; _rump_ pure blue; _smaller wing coverts_ dull blue, brown at base, and tipped with white, forming a band; _greater wing coverts_ blackish, tipped with white, forming a narrow band; _wing_ and _tail feathers_ blackish-brown with blue exterior margins; _belly_, _inferior tail coverts_ and _lower part of the breast_ white; _superior portion of the breast_ pale ferruginous; _neck_ bright green; _bill_ and _feet_ pale.--JAMES.

[23] Genus _Crotalus_, LIN.--C. _confluentus_, SAY.--Brownish, varied with greenish-yellow, a triple series of brown spots, the anterior vertebral ones confluent, and the posterior ones separated into bands.

_Body_ brownish cinereous, varied with greenish yellow; a triple series of fuscous spots; dorsal series consisting of about forty-four large transversely oblong oval spots, each widely emarginate before and behind, and, excepting the posterior ones, edged with greenish-white, the ten or twelve anterior ones, crowded and confluent, those of the thicker part of the body separate, those near the cloaca and upon the tail united with the spots of the lateral series, and forming bands; lateral series, spots rounded, opposite to those of the back; between the dorsal and lateral series is a series of obsolete, fuliginous spots, alternating with those of the two other series; _head_ above scaly, scales of the superior orbits, and of the anterior margin, larger and striated; _beneath_ yellowish-white, immaculate. Plates of the body 179; of the tail 27.--JAMES.

[24] Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1759-1828) visited the United States in 1796; later he taught at the Versailles Zoölogical Garden. It is uncertain as to which particular work is here referred to.

François Marie Daudin, whose specialty was reptiles, wrote _Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des Reptiles_ (Paris, 1802-04), which is probably the work cited.--ED.

[25] Genus _Ameiva_.--A. _tessellata_, SAY. Tesselated lizard.--The back and sides of the body and neck are marked by nine or ten longitudinal lines, and eighteen or twenty transverse ones, dividing the whole surface in a tesselated manner, the interstitial quadrate spaces being black; these lines are light brown on the back, and assume a yellow tint on the sides; the scales of these portions of the body are very small, convex, and rounded; _the top of the head_ is olivaceous, covered by plates arranged thus: 2 with an intermediate small one at their tips; 1, 2, 1, the largest, 2, and 3; superior orbits of the eyes with four plates, of which the two intermediate ones are much the largest; _belly_ bluish white; _throat_ and _neck_ tinged with yellow, and covered with somewhat larger scales than those of the back; _anterior feet_ yellowish within, and covered with minute scales; on the exterior and posterior sides greenish white with confluent black spots and large scales; _posterior feet_ behind greenish white with confluent black spots and minute scales; the anterior side yellowish covered with large scales; pores of the thigh very distinct and prominent; _tail_ elongated, rounded above, light brown, with a few lines of black spots near the base; _beneath_ yellowish white immaculate, the scales carinated, and placed in transverse series. Total length 1 foot, tail 8½ inches.--JAMES.

[26] Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, Count de Lacépède (1756-1825), became Buffon's assistant in the Jardin du Roi about 1784, and continued the _Histoire naturelle_ after the latter's death. Lacépède entered politics under Bonaparte, and was successively senator (1799), grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor (1803), and minister of state (1809). After the Restoration, he was made a peer.--ED.

[27] The distance travelled since leaving Royal Gorge indicates Beaver Creek, in eastern Fremont County, as probably the one here called Castle Rock Creek.--ED.

[28] Another name for the Nez Percés. See Franchère's _Narrative_, in our volume vi, note 145.--ED.

[29] This description of the two species of bears occurs under date of May 3, 1806. See _Original Journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition_, v, p. 65.--ED.

[30] On Lahontan see J. Long's _Voyages_, in our volume ii, note 3; also Lahontan, _Voyages in North America_ (Thwaites, ed., Chicago, 1904).--ED.

[31] John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder (1743-1823) was a Moravian evangelist to the Indians of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and later a United States Indian agent. He was a careful student of aboriginal speech and customs, especially those of the Delaware, and was the author of several works on these subjects. Previous to this time he had published: _Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States_ (Philadelphia, 1818).--ED.

[32] Vid. Trans. of the New York Literary and Philosophical Society.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ New York, 1815, p. 19. De Witt Clinton (1769-1828), the great promoter of the Erie Canal, was governor of New York from 1817 until his death, with the exception of one two-year term, beginning in 1822. The address referred to was delivered May 4, 1814; he was at that time president of the Literary and Philosophical Society.

[33] Grizzly bear (_Ursus horribilis_, ORD).--_Hair_ long, short on the front, very short between and anterior to the eyes, blacker and coarser on the legs and feet, longer on the shoulders, throat, and behind the thighs, and beneath the belly, and paler on the snout; _ears_ short, rounded; _front_ arquated, the line of the profile continued upon the snout, without any indentation between the eyes; _eyes_ very small, destitute of any remarkable supplemental lid; _iris_ burnt sienna or light reddish brown; _muffle of the nostrils_ black, the sinuses very distinct and profound; _lips_, particularly the superior one, anteriorly extensile, with a few rigid hairs or bristles; _tail_ very short, concealed by the hair. The hair gradually diminishes in length upon the leg, but the upper part of the foot is still amply furnished; _teeth, incisores_ six, the lateral one with a tubercle on the lateral side; _canines_ large, robust, prominent; a single false molar behind the canine, remaining _molares_ four, of which the anterior ones are very small, that of the upper jaw particularly, that of the lower jaw resembling the second false molar of the common dog; _anterior feet_, claws elongated, slender _fingers_, with five suboval naked tubercles separated from the palm, from each other, and from the base of the claws by dense hair; _palm_ on the anterior, half naked, transversely oval; base of the palm with a rounded naked tubercle, surrounded by the hair; _posterior feet_ with the sole naked, the nails moderate, more arquated, and shorter than the anterior ones.

The nails do not in the least diminish in width at the tip, but they become smaller towards that part only from diminishing from beneath.

"Testicles suspended in separate pouches, at the distance of from two to four inches from each other." Lewis and Clarke.

They vary exceedingly in colour, and pass through the intermediate gradations from a dark brown to a pale fulvous, and a grayish.

Dimensions (from the prepared Specimen).

ft. in.
Length from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail 5 2
Trunk of the tail (exclusive of the hair at tip) 1¾
From anterior base of the ear to the tip of the nose 12
From anterior canthus of the eye to the tip of the nose 6
From orbit of the eye ¾
From between the eyes 4⅖
Ears from their superior base 3
Longest claw of anterior feet 4⅕
Shortest ditto 2¾
Longest claw of the hind feet 3
Shortest ditto 1¾
Hair at tip of tail 4½
Length of the hair top of the head 1¾ to 2
beneath the ears 2½ to 3½
neck above--about 3
shoulders above 4½
throat 4
Belly and behind the anterior legs--longest hairs 6

--JAMES.

[34] Both the St. Charles (San Carlos) and its branch, the Greenhorn, rise in the Wet Mountains, far to the north of Spanish Peaks. The line between Pueblo and Huerfano counties follows this range for a few miles, as does also the line between the latter county and Custer. Thence the range trends northward through Custer County. Greenhorn Mountain is the southern peak of this chain. The Spanish Peaks are two isolated mountains on the southern line of Huerfano County.--ED.

[35] The stream to which James dedicates this fanciful etymology is the Huerfano (Orphan) River of the Spanish. "Wharf" is apparently a corrupted contraction. Booneville is opposite the mouth of this stream. The river rises on the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo range, in Huerfano Park, and flows east and northeast through the county of the same name. For the arrest of Chouteau's hunters, see preceding volume, note 134.--ED.

[36] _Tyrannus verticalis_, SAY.--_Head_ above pure pale plumbeous; _vertex_ with a bright orange spot; _back_ pale plumbeous, very slightly tinged with olivaceous; _wings_ brown; tertials margined exteriorly with white; inner webs of the primaries towards the base whitish, narrowed at their tips, the first feather remarkably so; _tail coverts_ and _tail_ deep brown black; exterior web of the lateral tail feather white; a dusky line before the eye; _chin_ whitish; _neck_ beneath, colour of the head; _breast_, _belly_, and _inferior tail coverts_ bright yellow; _bill_ furnished with clusters above, and each side at base; _superior mandible_ perfectly rectilinear above, from the base to near the tip, where it rather suddenly curves much downward. Total length 8 inches; bill from the anterior edge of the nostrils to tip 11/20 of an inch.--JAMES.

[37] There are no fewer than fifteen peaks within the state of Colorado which exceed Pike's Peak in altitude.--ED.

[38] The results of several sets of observations gave us the position of this encampment, 38° 12′ 22″ north latitude, and 103° 46′ 15″ west longitude from Greenwich, or 26° 46′ 15″ from Washington.--JAMES.

[39] Thomas Pennant (1726-98) was the author of _British Zoölogy_ (London, 1766), _History of Quadrupeds_ (1781), and other works on natural science. Those mentioned were held in high estimation, and passed through several editions.--ED.

[40] Pike's "First Fork" is Purgatory River, as given on the map (see _post_, note 47). Eighteen miles above the mouth of the Purgatory would fix the camp of July 21-23 near Timpas Creek, which flows northeast through Las Animas and Otero counties to the Arkansas, near the present town of La Junta. The camp was, however, probably several miles farther up the Arkansas, as the party had that morning passed the Huerfano, about sixty miles above the Purgatory, and had travelled twenty-six miles during the day.--ED.

[41] See volume xvii.--ED.

[42] R. _Tagetes_, JAMES.--Hirsute stem much branched, somewhat grooved; radical leaves subentive, spatulate, linear, or pinnatified; cauline leaves interruptedly pinnatified; the divisions irregular in form and position, but usually linear branches alternate or scattered; peduncles grooved short, few-flowered terminal; ray florets [5/8] recurved red brown; disk dark brown, receptacle columnar, but proportionably much shorter than that of R. columnaris, to which species the one under consideration is allied. Plant about twelve inches high, growing in clusters, and having, by its numerous branches and finely divided leaves, a remote resemblance to anthemis cotula.--JAMES.

[43] This is a part of the Santa Fé trail. The trail forked at Bent's Fort, between the Purgatory and Timpas Creek, one branch ascending the Arkansas to the Huerfano, which it followed to the base of the mountains, thence running south to a pass opposite Taos, in New Mexico, some distance north of Santa Fé; the other ran southwest between Purgatory River and Timpas Creek, through the Raton Mountains of southern Colorado. For the trail east and north of Bent's Fort, and its early history, see _post_, note 108.--ED.

[44] This was the Purgatory, which they reached the day after.--ED.

[45] Since Long's party pursued a course slightly east of south for thirty-six miles, they must have reached the Purgatory near the northern boundary of Las Animas County. Chaquaqua Creek, just above the town of Bent Cañon, is probably the one followed when the party left the main stream.--ED.

[46] Genus _Sciurus_. S. _Grammurus_, SAY.--Line-tailed squirrel. _Body_ cinereous, more or less tinged with ferruginous; _fur_ very coarse, much flattened, canaliculate above, plumbeous or blackish at base, then whitish or ferruginous, tip brownish; above the neck and shoulders the whitish is prevalent; from the middle of the back, the sides and the exterior surface of the legs, the ferruginous colour prevails, the terminal brown of the fur being obsolete; superior and inferior orbits of the eye white; _tail_ moderate, whitish, fur triannulate with black, the base and tip of each hair being whitish, _beneath_ whitish tinged with ferruginous; _thumb tubercle_ armed; _iris_ burnt umber; _pupil_ black.

Length to the origin of the tail, 11½ inches.
of the tail, 9

--JAMES.

[47] This tributary of the Arkansa, designated on the old maps as the "First Fork," is known among the Spaniards of New Mexico, as the river of the souls in purgatory. We emerged from the gloomy solitude of its valley, with a feeling somewhat akin to that which attends escape from a place of punishment.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ The Philadelphia edition adds, after the words "First Fork," "as we learned from Bijeau." The Spaniards had two names for the river--Rio Purgatorio and Rio de Las Animas. The French equivalent of the former was Rivière Purgatoire, which appears sometimes in English in corrupted form, Picket-wire. The stream is of considerable size, heading on the slopes of the Culebra Range, near the state boundary, and flowing northeast across Las Animas, and corners of Otero and Bent counties.

[48] See p. 171 [p. 260 of our volume xv].--JAMES.

[49] Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), for forty years an instructor in the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony, was perhaps the most renowned geologist and mineralogist of his time; but his system of classification long since proved defective in the light of wider research.--ED.

[50] See Bradbury's Travels, p. 161, second edition.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ See p. 165 of the reprint, in our volume v.

[51] From a subsequent comparison of the direction of several water courses which descend from this elevated district, we have been induced to consider the creek mentioned in the text as one of the most remote sources of the great northern tributary of the Canadian river.--JAMES.

_Comment by Ed._ This stream was more probably the Cimarron, which heads near the source of the Canadian, in the Raton Mountains, which form the watershed between these two rivers and the Purgatory. The Cimarron flows eastward just south of the Colorado line. The upper waters of the North Fork of the Canadian are also in northeastern New Mexico, south of the Cimarron, but it is a smaller stream, and heads farther east. On Cimarron River, see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 203.

[52] The stream in question was not a branch of Red River, but, as appears later, a tributary of the Canadian branch of the Arkansas (see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 188). The course of the party after leaving the Purgatory carried them east of that portion of the Canadian which flows south near the base of the mountains, and brought them to some creek which joins the Canadian near the Texas line. A stream in this locality, presumably the one descended, has been named Major Long's Creek. The map is therefore wrong in placing the route of the party along the portion of the upper course of the Canadian, which is thereon marked "Rio Mora" (Raspberry River). Moreover, the Mora is not the main stream of the Canadian, as the map indicates, but a tributary from the west.

The sources of Red River lie near the Texas boundary, in the Staked Plains, south of the Canadian. Long's expedition was the third ineffectual effort of the federal government to discover them. In 1806, Captain Richard Sparks attempted to ascend the river, but was stopped by Spanish cavalry (see chapter iii in our volume xvii). In the same year Lieutenant Z. M. Pike ascended the Arkansas with instructions to find the head of the Red and descend that stream. He mistook for the Red, first the Arkansas itself and then the Rio Grande, and like Sparks was prevented by the Spaniards from carrying his exploration to a successful close. Red River was not explored to its sources until 1852, when it was ascended by a party under Capt. Randolph B. Marcy, of the Fifth Infantry. An expedition under General McLeod, which left Austin, Texas, in June, 1841, and was captured by Mexicans, is thought to have visited the sources of Red River, but it furnished no topographical data which could be relied on.

Long's party approached within perhaps a hundred and fifty miles of Santa Fé.--ED.

[53] Since our return to Philadelphia, the following description of the animal has been drawn out from the dried skin, which, however, is so much injured by depredating insects, that it has not been judged proper to mount it entire. The head has therefore been separated from the remaining portion of the skin, and may be seen in the Philadelphia Museum, placed under the foot of a prairie wolf (canis latrans, SAY), which has been well prepared by Mr. T. Peale.

_Cervus Macrotis_, SAY.--Antlers slightly grooved, tuberculated at base; a small branch near the base, corresponding to the situation and direction of that of C. _Virginianus_; the curvature of the anterior line of the antlers is similar in direction, but less in degree, to that of the same deer; near the middle of the entire length of the antlers, they bifurcate equally, and each of these processes again divides near the extremity, the anterior of these smaller processes being somewhat longer than the posterior one; the ears are very long, extending to the principal bifurcation, about half the length of the whole antler; the lateral teeth are larger in proportion to the intermediate teeth than those of the C. _Virginianus_ are; eye-lashes black; the aperture beneath the eye is larger than that of the species just mentioned, and pervious; the hair also is coarser, and is undulated and compressed like that of the elk (C. _major_); the colour is light reddish-brown above; sides of the head, and hair on the fore portion of the nose above, dull cinereous; the back is intermixed with blackish tipped hairs, which form a distinct line on the neck, near the head; the tail is of a pale reddish cinereous colour, and the hair of the tip of the tail is black; the tip of the trunk of the tail is somewhat compressed, and is beneath almost destitute of hair; the hoofs are shorter and wider than those of the _Virginianus_, and more like those of the elk.

Inches
Length from the base of the antlers to the origin of
the basal process 2
of the basal process, 2½
from the basal process to the principal
bifurcation, 4½ to 5
from the principal bifurcation to the two other
bifurcations respectively, 4½ to 5½
terminal prongs of the anterior branch, from 4 to 4½
of the posterior branch, from 2¼ to 3
from the anterior base of the antlers to the tip
of the superior jaw, 9¼
from the anterior canthus of the eye to the tip
of the jaw, 6¼
from the base of the antler to the anterior canthus, 3
of the ears, more than 7½
of the trunk of the tail, 4
of the hair at the tip of the tail, from 3 to 4

This is probably the species mentioned by Lewis and Clarke, vol. i. p. 77, under the name of black-tailed deer, and more frequently in other parts of the work, by that of mule deer. It is without doubt a new species, not having been hitherto introduced into the systems.--JAMES.