  From the notes of Mr. Say. Account of the Omawhaws—Their manners and customs, and religious rites—Historical notices of Black Bird, late principal chief. A great portion of the information contained in the following pages, respecting the Missouri Indians, and particularly the Omawhaws, was obtained from Mr. John Dougherty, deputy Indian agent for the Missouri, who had an excellent opportunity of making himself acquainted with the natives, by residing for a time in the Omawhaw village, and by visiting all the different nations of this river. This gentleman with great patience, and in the most obliging manner, answered all the questions which I proposed to him, relating to such points in their manners, habits, opinions, and history, as we had no opportunity of observing ourselves. And we have much to regret that it is not in our power to present the reader with a biographical sketch of this amiable and intrepid traveller. The permanent Omawhaw village is situate on Omawhaw The inhabitants occupy their village not longer than five months in the year. In April they arrive from their hunting excursions, and in the month of May they attend to their horticultural interests, and plant maize, beans, pumpkins, and water-melons, besides which they cultivate no other vegetable. They also at this season dress the bison skins, which have been procured during the winter hunt, for the traders, who generally appear for the purpose of obtaining them. The young men, in the mean time, are employed in hunting within the distance of seventy or eighty miles around for beaver, otter, deer, musk-rat, elk, &c. When the trading and planting occupations of the people are terminated, and provisions begin to fail them, which occurs generally in June, the chiefs assemble a council for the purpose of deliberating upon the further arrangements necessary to be made. This assembly decrees a feast to be prepared on a certain day, to which all the distinguished When they have performed their part, the squaws give notice to the husband, who then calls two or three old public criers to his lodge; he invites them to be seated near him, and after the ceremony of smoking, he addresses them in a low voice, directing them to pass through the village, and invite the individuals whom he names to them, to honour him by their presence at the feast, which is now prepared, "Speak in a loud voice," says he, "and tell them to bring their bowls and spoons." The criers having thus received their instructions, sally out together, and in concert sing aloud as they pass in various directions through the village. In this song of invitation, the names of all the elect are mentioned. Having performed this duty, they return to the lodge, and are soon followed by the chiefs and warriors. The host seats himself in the back part of the lodge facing the entrance, where he remains during the ceremony. If the host is invested with the dignity of chief, he directs those who enter, where to seat themselves, so that the chiefs may be arranged on one side, and the warriors on the other; if he is a warrior, he seats the principal chief of the village by his side, who whispers in his ear the situation which those who enter ought to occupy; this intimation is repeated aloud by the host. When the guests are all arranged, the pipe is lighted, and the indispensable ceremony of smoking succeeds. The principal chief, Ongpatonga, then rises, and extending his expanded hand towards each in succession, Having thus disclosed the business of the council, he is frequently succeeded by an old chief, who thanks him for his attention to their wants, and advises the assembly to pay great attention to what he has said, as he is a man of The assembly then take the subject into consideration, and after much conversation, determine upon a route, which Ongpatonga proposed in his speech. This chief, previous to the council, is careful to ascertain the opinions and wishes of his people, and he speaks accordingly. He sometimes, however, meets with opposition from persons who propose other hunting grounds, but their discourses are filled with compliments to his superior knowledge and good sense. The proceedings of the council are uniformly conducted with the most perfect good order and decorum. {185} Each speaker carefully abstains from militating against the sensibility of any of his hearers, and uncourteous expressions towards each other on these occasions, are never heard. Generally at each pause of the speaker, the audience testify their approbation aloud, by the interjection heh; and as they believe that he has a just right to his own opinions, however absurd they may appear to be, and opposite to their own, the expression of them excites no reprehension, and if they cannot approve, they do not condemn, unless urged by necessity. During the council, the criers remain seated near the fire listening to the proceedings, and at the same time attending to the culinary apparatus, as neither the squaws nor the children are admitted. When the food is sufficiently cooked, the criers remove the kettles from the fire, and, at the proper time, one of them takes up a portion of the soup in a spoon, and after They then serve out the food to the guests, placing the best portions of it before the chiefs. Each individual on the reception of his portion, returns his thanks to the host in such respectful expressions as become his relative consequence, as How-je-ne-ha—How-we-sun-guh—How-na-ga-ha, &c.; thank you father—thank you younger brother—thank you uncle, &c., after which they eat in silence. The criers help themselves out of the kettles, but are careful to leave a portion in those that are borrowed, to compensate for their use. The feast terminated, the ceremony of smoking succeeds, after which, the business and enjoyments of the council being concluded, the guests rise up in {186} succession, and returning thanks to the host, pass out of the lodge in an orderly manner, first the warriors and afterwards the chiefs. The criers now sing through the village in praise of the host, thanking him before the people for his hospitality, repeating also the names of the chiefs who were present, and thanking them for their kindness to the old criers, who, they say, are disqualified by age for any other occupations than those of eating, smoking, and talking; they also communicate to the people the resolutions of the council. The prospect of a journey is highly grateful to the squaws, who lose no time in preparing for the day of departure, The men in the mean time amuse themselves with hunting, playing with the hoop and stick, cards, dancing, &c.; whilst at night the young warriors and beaux are occupied with affairs of gallantry, or contriving assignations. The young men also adorn themselves with paint, and do honour to chiefs and distinguished braves, by dancing in their respective lodges. The day assigned for their departure having arrived, the squaws load their horses and dogs, and take as great a weight upon their own backs as they can conveniently transport, and, after having closed the entrances to their several habitations, by placing a considerable quantity of brushwood before them, the whole nation departs from the village. Those affluent chiefs and warriors who are the owners of many horses, are enabled to mount their families on horseback, but the greater portion {187} of the young men and squaws are necessarily pedestrians. Many of the latter, besides the heavy load upon their backs, surmounted perhaps by an infant, lead a horse with one hand, on the load of which another child is often placed, and properly secured there in a sitting posture. In the other hand they often bear a heavy staff of wood, sharpened to a broad edge at one end for the purpose of digging up the Nu-ga-re, or ground-apple, called by the French Pomme blanche; a root resembling a long turnip, about the size of a hen's egg, with a rough thick skin, and The men scatter about in every direction to reconnoitre the country for enemies and game; but, notwithstanding the constant activity of the hunters, the people are often much necessitated for food previously to their arrival within view of the bisons, an interval of fifteen or twenty days. When at length the highly welcome news is brought of the proximity of a herd of these animals, the nation proceeds to encamp at the nearest water-course. The travelling huts, or as they are usually denominated, skin lodges, are neatly folded up, and suspended to the pack-saddle of the horse, for the purpose of transportation. The poles intended to sustain it are at one extremity, laid upon the neck of the horse, whilst the opposite end trails upon the ground behind. When pitched, the skin lodge is of a high conic form; they are comfortable, effectually excluding the rain, and in cold weather a fire is kindled in the centre, the smoke of which passes off through the aperture in the top; on one side of this aperture is a small triangular wing of skin, which serves for a cover {188} in rainy weather, and during the rigors of winter to regulate the ascent of the smoke. The doorway is a mere opening in the skin, and closed when necessary by the same material. They are often fancifully ornamented on the exterior, with figures, in blue and red paint, rudely executed, though sometimes depicted with no small degree of taste. The hunters, who are in advance of the main body on On perceiving these latter signals, the warriors of the nation cast the burdens from the horses, and with their martial weapons ride in full speed to meet them, exhibiting more the appearance of a race, than an ordinary advance to mortal combat. The hunters, after making the signal for bisons, to induce the people to halt and encamp, return as expeditiously as possible, and on their approach are received with some ceremony. The chiefs and magi are seated in front of their people, puffing smoke from their pipes, and thanking the Master of life, with such expressions as "How-wa-con-da," "Thanks Master of life,"— "How-nin-e-shet-ta-wa-con-da-a-mah-pan-ne-nah-pa-e-wa-rat-a-cum-ba-ra."— "Thank you, Master of life, here is smoke, I am poor, hungry, and want to eat." The hunters draw near to the chiefs and magi, and in a low tone of voice inform them of the discovery of bisons. They are questioned as to the number, and reply by holding up to the view some small sticks in a horizontal position, {189} and compare one herd at a stated distance with this stick, and another with that, &c. It is then the business of some old man or crier to harangue the people, informing them of the discovery, On all occasions of public rejoicings, festivals, dances, or general hunts, a certain number of resolute warriors are previously appointed, to preserve order, and keep the peace. In token of their office they paint themselves entirely black; usually wear the crow, and arm themselves with a whip or war-club, with which they punish on the spot those who misbehave, and are at once both judges and executioners. Thus, at the bison hunts, they knock down or flog those whose manoeuvres tend to frighten the game, before all are ready, or previously to their having arrived at the proper point, from which to sally forth upon them. Four or five such officers, or soldiers, are appointed at a council of the chiefs, held in the evening, to preserve order amongst the hunters for the succeeding day. On the following morning, all the men, excepting the superannuated, depart early in pursuit of the favourite game. They are generally mounted, armed with bows and arrows. The soldiers of the day accompany the rapidly moving cavalcade on foot, armed with war-clubs, and the whole are preceded by a footman bearing a pipe. On coming in sight of the herd, the hunters talk kindly to their horses, applying to them the endearing names of father, brother, uncle, &c.; they petition them not to fear the bisons, but to run well, {190} and keep close to them, but at the same time to avoid being gored. The party having approached as near to the herd as they The ceremony of smoking being performed, the word for starting is given by Ongpatonga. They immediately separate into two bands, who pass in full speed to the right and left, and perform a considerable circuit, with the object of enclosing the herd, at a considerable interval, between them. They then close in upon the animals, and each man endeavours to kill as many of them as his opportunity permits. It is upon this occasion that the Indians display their horsemanship, and dexterity in archery. Whilst in full run they discharge the arrow with an aim of much certainty, so that it penetrates the body of the animal behind the shoulder. If it should not bury itself so deeply as they wish, they are often known to ride up to the enraged animal and withdraw it. They observe the direction and depth to which the arrow enters, in order to ascertain whether or not the wound is mortal, of which they can judge with a considerable degree of exactness; when a death-wound is inflicted, the hunter raises a shout of exultation, to prevent The force of the arrow, when discharged by a dexterous and athletic Indian, is very great, and we were even credibly informed, that under favourable circumstances, it has been known to pass entirely through the body of a bison, and actually to fly some distance, or fall to the ground on the opposite side of the animal. Notwithstanding the apparent confusion of this engagement, and that the same animal is sometimes feathered by arrows from different archers, before he is despatched, or considered mortally wounded, yet as each man knows his own arrows from all others, and can also estimate the nature of the wound, whether it would produce a speedy death to the animal, quarrels respecting the right of property in the prey seldom occur, and it is consigned to the more fortunate individual, whose weapon penetrated the most vital part. The chase having terminated, each Indian can trace back his devious route to the starting-place, so as to recover any small article he may have lost. This surrounding chase the Omawhaws distinguish by the name of Ta-wan-a-sa. A fleet horse well trained to the hunt, runs at the proper distance, with the reins thrown upon his neck, parallel with the bison, turns as he turns, and does not cease to exert his speed until the shoulder of the animal is presented, and the fatal arrow is implanted there. He then complies with the motion of his rider, who leans to one side, in order to direct his course to another bison. Such horses as these When the herd has escaped, and those that are {192} only wounded or disabled are secured, the hunters proceed to flay and cut up the slain. Formerly, when the chiefs possessed a greater share of power than they now do, one of them would advance towards a carcass which struck his fancy, either from its magnitude or fatness, and the rightful owner would relinquish it to him without a word; but they now seldom put the generosity of the people thus to the test. Some individual will usually offer his bison to the medicine, either voluntarily, or at the request of a chief, and on the succeeding day it is cooked, and all the distinguished men are invited to partake of the feast. In the operation of butchering, a considerable knowledge of the anatomical structure of the animal is exhibited, in laying open the muscles properly, and extending them out into the widest and most entire surfaces, by a judicious dissection. If they are much pressed by hunger, they in the first place open the flank in order to obtain the kidneys, which are then eaten without waiting for the tardy process of culinary preparation. A hunter who has been unsuccessful, assists some one in skinning and cutting up, after which he thrusts his knife in the part he wishes for his own share, and it is given to him. If the squaws should arrive, the knife is resigned to them, whilst the men retire a short distance from the scene, to smoke and rest themselves. The slaughtered animals are chiefly, and almost exclusively, cows selected from the herd; the bulls being eatable only in the months of May and June. Every eatable part of the animal is carried to the camp and preserved, excepting the feet and the head; but the brains are taken from the skull for the purpose of dressing the skin, or converting it into Indian leather. Those skins which are obtained during this season are known by the name Summer skins, and {193} are used in the construction of their skin lodges, and for their personal cloathing for summer wear. Three squaws will transport all the pieces of the carcass of a bison, excepting the skin, to the camp, if the latter is at any moderate distance; and it is their province to prepare the meat, &c. for keeping. The vertebrÆ are comminuted by means of stone-axes, similar to those which are not unfrequently ploughed up out of the earth in the Atlantic states; the fragments are then boiled, and the rich fat or medulla which rises, is carefully skimmed off and put up in bladders for future use. The muscular coating of the stomach is dried; the smaller intestines are cleaned and inverted, so as to include the fat that had covered their exterior surface, and then dried; the larger intestines, after being cleaned, are stuffed with meat, and cooked for present eating. The meat, with the exception of that of the shoulders, or hump, as it is called, is then dissected with much skill into large thin slices, and dried in the sun, or jerked over a slow fire on a low scaffold. The bones of the thighs, to which a small quantity of flesh is left adhering, are placed before the fire until the meat is sufficiently roasted, when they are broken, and the The meat, in its dried state, is closely condensed together into quadrangular packages, each of a suitable size, to attach conveniently to one side of the packsaddle of a horse. The dried intestines are interwoven together into the form of mats, and tied up into packages of the same form and size. They then proceed to cache, or conceal in the earth these acquisitions, after which they continue onward in pursuit of other herds of their favourite animal. The nation return towards their village in the month of August, having visited for a short time the {194} Pawnee villages, for the purpose of trading their guns for horses. They are sometimes so successful in their expedition, in the accumulation of meat, as to be obliged to make double trips, returning about mid-day for half the whole quantity which was left in the morning. When within two or three days journey of their own village, runners are despatched to it, charged with the duty of ascertaining the safety of it, and the state of the maize. On the return of the nation, which is generally early in September, a different kind of employment awaits the ever-industrious squaws. The property buried in the earth is to be taken up and arranged in the lodges, which are cleaned out and put in order. The weeds which, during their absence, had grown up in every direction through the village, are cut down and removed. A sufficient quantity of sweet corn is next to be prepared for present and future use. Whilst the maize is yet in the milk or soft state, and the grains have nearly attained to their full size, it is collected and boiled on the cob; but They also pound it into a kind of small hominy, which when boiled into a thick mush, with a proper proportion of the smaller entrails and jerked meat, is held in much estimation. When the maize which remains on the stalk is fully ripe, it is gathered, shelled, dried, and also packed away in leathern sacks. They sometimes {195} prepare this hard corn for eating, by the process of leying it, or boiling it in a ley of wood-ashes for the space of an hour or two, which divests it of the hard exterior skin; after which it is well washed and rinsed. It may then be readily boiled to an eatable softness, and affords a palatable food. The hard ripe maize is also broken into small pieces between two stones, one or two grains at a time, the larger stone being placed on a skin, that the flying fragments may not be lost. This coarse meal is boiled into a mush called Wa-na-de. It is sometimes parched previously to being pounded, and the mush prepared from this description of meal is distinguished by the term Wa-jun-ga. With each of these two dishes, a portion of the small prepared intestines of the bison, called Ta-she-ba, are boiled, to render the food more sapid. Their pumpkins, Wat-tong, are boiled, or rather A singular description of food is made use of by some tribes of the Snake Indians, consisting chiefly, and sometimes wholly of a species of ant, (formica, Lin.) which is very abundant in the region in which they roam. The squaws go in the cool of the morning to the hillocks of these active insects, knowing that then they are assembled together in the greatest numbers. Uncovering the little mounds to a certain depth, the squaws scoop them up in their hands, and put them into a bag prepared for the purpose. When a sufficient number are obtained, they repair to the water, and cleanse the mass from all the dirt and small pieces of wood collected with them. The ants are then placed upon a flat stone, and by the pressure of a rolling-pin, are crushed together into a dense {196} mass, and rolled out like pastry. Of this substance a soup is prepared, which is relished by the Indians, but is not at all to the taste of white men. Whether or not this species of ant is analogous to the vachacos, which Humboldt speaks of, as furnishing food to the Indians of the Rio Negro and the Guainia, we have no opportunity of ascertaining. We could not learn that any one of the nations of the Missouri Indians are accused, even by their enemies, of eating human flesh from choice, or for the gratification of a horrible luxury: starvation alone can induce them to eat of it. An Ioway Indian, however, having killed an Osage, The Indians, like the Hottentots, Negroes, and monkeys, eat the lice which they detect in each others heads. The squaws search for these parasites; and we have often seen them thus occupied with activity, earnestness, and much success. One of them, who was engaged in combing the head of a white man, was asked why she did not eat the vermin; she replied, that "white men's lice are not good." Although the bison cow produces a rich milk, yet the Indians make no use of that of the individuals they kill in hunting. During these active employments, which the squaws cheerfully and even emulously engage in, the occupations of the men are chiefly those of amusement or recreation. Numbers of the young warriors are very officious in offering their services to the squaws, as protectors during their field labours; and from the opportunities they enjoy of making love to their charge in the privacy of high weeds, it is extremely common for them to form permanent attachments to the wives {197} of their neighbours, and an elopement to another nation is the consequence. The men devote a portion of their time to card-playing. Various are the games which they practise, of which one is called Matrimony; but others are peculiar to themselves: the following is one, to which they seem to be particularly devoted. The players seat themselves around a bison robe spread on the ground, and each individual deposits in the middle Four small sticks are then laid upon the robe, and the cards are shuffled, cut, and two are given to each player, after which the trump is turned. The hands are then played, and whoever gains two tricks takes one of the sticks. If two persons make each a trick, they play together until one loses his trick, when the other takes a stick. The cards are again dealt, and the process is continued until all the sticks are taken, If four persons have each a stick, they continue to play, to the exclusion of the unsuccessful gamesters. When a player wins two sticks, four cards are dealt to him, that he may take his choice of them. If a player wins three sticks, six cards are dealt to him, and should he take the fourth stick he wins the stake. They are so inveterately attached to the heinous vice of gambling, that they are known to squander in this way every thing they possess, with the solitary exception of their habitation, which, however, is regarded more as the property of the woman than of the man. A game, to which the squaws are very much devoted, is called by the Omawhaws Kon-se-ke-da, or plumstone-shooting. It bears some resemblance to that of dice. Five plumstones are provided, three of which are marked on one side only with a greater {198} or smaller number of black dots or lines, and two of them are marked on both sides. They are, however, sometimes made of bone, of a rounded and flattened form, somewhat like an orbicular button-mould; the dots in this case being impressed. A wide dish, and a certain number of small sticks, by the way of The squaws sometimes become so highly interested in this game as to neglect their food and ordinary occupations, sitting for a whole day, and perhaps night also, solely intent upon it, until the losers have nothing more to stake. Having now a plentiful store of provisions, they content themselves in their village until the latter part of October, when, without the formality of a council or other ceremony, they again depart from the village, and move in separate parties to various situations on both sides of the Missouri, and its tributaries, as far down as the Platte. Their primary object at this time, is to obtain, on credit from the traders, various articles indispensably necessary to their fall, winter, and spring hunts: such as guns, particularly those of Mackinaw, powder, ball, and flints; beaver-traps, brass, tin, and camp-kettles; knives, hoes, squaw-axes, and tomahawks. Having obtained these implements, they go in pursuit {199} of deer, or apply themselves to trapping for beaver and otter. Elk was sometime since an object of pursuit, This hunt continues until towards the close of December, and during the rigours of the season they experience an alternation of abundance and scarcity of food. The men are very much exposed to the cold, and, in trapping, to the water. They are also frequently obliged to carry heavy burdens of game from considerable distances. The assiduous hunter often returns to his temporary residence in the evening, after unsuccessful exertions continued the live-long day: he is hungry, cold, and fatigued; with his mockasins, perhaps, frozen on his feet. His faithful squaw may be unable to relieve his hunger, but she seats herself by his side near the little fire, and after having disposed of his hunting apparatus, she rubs his mockasins and leggings, and pulls them off, that he may be comfortable; she then gives him water to drink, and his pipe to smoke. His children assemble about him, and he takes one of them upon his knee, and proceeds to relate to it the adventures of the day, that his squaw may be informed of them. "I have been active all day, but the Master of life has prevented me from killing any game; but never despond, my children and your mother, I may be fortunate to-morrow." After some time he retires to rest, but the wife remains to dry his clothing. He often sings until midnight, and on the morrow he again sallies forth before the dawn, and may soon return with a superabundance of food. Such is the life of the Indian hunter, and such the privations and pleasures to which his being is habitually incident. The squaws, in addition to their occupation of flaying the animals which their husbands entrap, and of preparing With the skins of the animals obtained during this hunt, the natives again repair to the traders to compensate them for the articles which they had obtained on credit. But owing to the intrigues of rival traders, the Indians are, with, however, numerous exceptions, not remarkable for any great degree of punctuality in making their returns to cancel their debts. Many obtain credit from one trader, and barter their peltries with another, to the great injury of the first. Like genuine traders, the Omawhaws endeavour, by various subterfuges, to make the best of their market. An artful fellow will assure a trader that he has a number of skins, but that he does not wish to bring them forward, until he assembles a still greater number; but, in the meantime, Thus the Missouri traders are repaid for hardly more than half the value of the merchandize which they credit; but should they obtain peltries for one-third of the amount, they clear their cost and charges. After having discharged their debts wholly, or in part, the Indians exchange the remainder of their skins, for strouding for breech-clouts and petticoats, blankets, wampum, guns, powder and ball, kettles, vermilion, verdigrise, mockasin-awls, fire-steels, looking-glasses, knives, chiefs' coats, calico, ornamented brass finger-rings, arm-bands of silver, wristbands of the same metal, ear-wheels and bobs, small cylinders for the hair, breast brooches, and other silver ornaments for the head; black and blue handkerchiefs, buttons, tin cups, pans and dishes, scarlet cloth, &c. The man is the active agent in this barter, but he avails himself of the advice of his squaw, and often submits to her dictation. Each nation of Indians practises every art they can devise, In trade, the largest sized beaver skin is called by the French a plus, and constitutes the chief standard of value. Thus as many of any other description of skins as are considered of equal value with this large beaver skin, are collectively denominated a plus; and the number of deer, raccoon, otter, &c. that shall respectively constitute a plus, is settled between the parties, previously to the commencement of the exchanges. Brass kettles are usually exchanged for beaver skins, pound for pound, which weight of the latter is worth about three dollars at St. Louis. The beaver skins are embodied into neat packs by the traders, each weighing one hundred pounds, and consisting of seventy or eighty skins, according to their magnitude. The business of this hunt having terminated with the year, the Omawhaws return to their village, in order to procure a supply of maize from their places of concealment, after which they continue their journey in pursuit of bisons. On this occasion they divide into two parties, one of which ascends the Missouri, and the other the Elkhorn This expedition continues until the month of April, when they return to their village, as before stated, loaded with provisions. It is during this expedition that they procure all the skins, of which the bison robes of commerce are made; the animals at this season having their perfect winter dress, the hair and wool of which are long and dense. The process of preparing the hides for the traders falls to the lot of the squaws. Whilst in the green {203} state, they are stretched and dried as soon as possible; and, on the return of the nation to the village, they are gradually dressed during the intervals of other occupations. The hide is extended upon the ground; and with an instrument resembling an adze, used in the manner of our carpenters, the adherent portions of dried flesh are removed, and the skin rendered much thinner and lighter than before. The surface is then plastered over with the brains or liver of the animal, which have been carefully retained for the purpose, and the warm broth of meat is also poured over it. The whole is then dried, after which it is again subjected to the action of the brains and broth, then stretched in a frame, and while still wet, scraped with pumice-stone, sharp stones, or hoes, until perfectly dry. Should it not yet be sufficiently soft, it is subjected to friction, by pulling it backwards and forwards over a twisted sinew. This generally terminates the operation. On the commencement of the process, the hides are almost invariably each divided longitudinally into two parts, for the convenience of manipulation, and when finished, they are again united The brain of an animal is sufficient to dress its skin, and some persons make two-thirds of it suffice for that purpose. The skins of the elk, deer, and antelopes are dressed in the same manner; but those that are intended to form the covering of their travelling lodges, for leggings, and summer mockasins, &c. have the adze applied to the hairy side in dressing, instead of the flesh side. Great numbers of these robes are annually purchased by the traders; and Mr. Lisa assured us, that {204} he once transported fifteen thousand of them to St. Louis in one year. The Indian form of government is not sufficiently powerful to restrain the young warriors from the commission of many excesses and outrages, which continually involve the nations in protracted wars; and, however well disposed the chiefs may be, and desirous to maintain the most amicable deportment towards the white people, they have not the power to enable them to compel those restless spirits, greedy of martial distinction, to an observance of that pacific demeanour which their precepts inculcate. To accomplish this object, much depends upon the course pursued by the agents of the United States. If the character of these is dignified, energetic, and fearless, they will certainly meet that respect from the natives which is due to the importance of their missions. But, on the contrary, if their conduct is deficient in promptness, energy, and decision; if their measures are paralyzed by personal The power of some of the former rulers of the Omawhaws is said to have been almost absolute. That of the celebrated Black Bird, This chief appears to have possessed extraordinary mental abilities, but he resorted to the most nefarious means to establish firmly the supremacy of his power. He gained the reputation of the greatest of medicine men; and his medicine, which was no other than arsenic itself, that had been furnished him for the purpose, by the villany of the traders, was secretly administered to his enemies or rivals. Those persons who offended him, or counteracted his views, were thus removed agreeably to his predictions, and all opposition silenced, apparently by the operation of his potent spells. Many were the victims to his unprincipled ambition, and the nation stood in awe of him, as of the supreme arbiter of their fate. With all his enormities he was favourable to the traders; and although he compelled them to yield to him one half of their goods, yet he commanded his people to purchase the remainder at double prices, that the trader might still be a gainer. He delighted in the display of his power, and, on one occasion, during a national hunt, accompanied by a white man, they arrived on the bank of a fine flowing stream, and although all were parched with thirst, no one but the white man was permitted to taste of the water. As the chief thought proper to give no reason for this severe punishment, it seemed to be the result of caprice. One inferior, but distinguished chief, called Little Bow, at length opposed his power. This man was a warrior of {206} On one occasion the Little Bow returned to his lodge, after the absence of a few days on an excursion. His wife placed before him his accustomed food; but the wariness of the Indian character led him to observe some peculiarity in her behaviour, which assured him that all was not right; he questioned her concerning the food she had set before him, and the appearance of her countenance, and her replies, so much increased his suspicions, that he compelled her to eat the contents of the bowl. She then confessed that the Black Bird had induced her to mingle with the food a portion of his terrible medicine, in order to destroy him. She fell a victim to the machination of the Black Bird, who was thus disappointed of his object. With a band of nearly two hundred followers, the Little Bow finally seceded from the nation, and established a separate village on the Missouri, where they remained until the death of the tyrant. On one occasion, the Black Bird seems to have been touched by remorse, or perhaps by penitence, in his career of enormity. One of his squaws having been guilty of some trifling offence, he drew his knife, in a paroxysm of rage, and stabbed her to the heart. After viewing her dead body a few moments, he seated himself near it, and covering his face with his robe, he remained immovable for three days, without taking any nourishment. His people vainly petitioned that he would "have pity on them," and unveil his face; he was deaf to all their remonstrances, Towards the latter part of his life, he became very {207} corpulent, the consequence of indolence and repletion. He was transported by carriers, on a bison robe, to the various feasts to which he was daily invited; and should the messenger find him asleep, they dared not to awaken him by a noise or by shaking, but by respectfully tickling his nose with a straw. The successor of Black Bird was the Big Rabbit, Mush-shinga. He possessed considerable authority, but he lived only a few years to enjoy it. Ta-so-ne, or the White Cow, the hereditary successor of Mush-shinga, being governed by an unambitious wife, remained inactive; whilst the next important man, Ong-pa-ton-ga, or the Big Elk, more distinguished for his vigorous intellect than for any martial qualities, attained to the supreme dignity, which he still retains. The power of this amiable and intelligent chief was very considerable during the early part of his administration; and although not so absolute as his predecessors, yet it is believed that he could then inflict the punishment of death upon an individual with his own hands, with impunity. Five years ago he informed a stranger, in the presence of his people, that he could compel any one of them to lie down before him, that he might place his foot upon his neck; this assertion was assented to by his hearers. But the influence of the grand chief of the Omawhaws {208} By his influence and pacific councils, he has rendered the Omawhaws a peaceful people, who limit their warfare to the punishing of war-parties that depredate on them or their possessions; and he exultingly affirms, that his hands are unstained with the blood of white men. Footnotes to Chapter I: William Baldwin (1779-1819), also of Pennsylvania, was the son of a minister of the Society of Friends. He studied medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, taking his degree in 1807. Meanwhile he had become interested in botany, and upon locating at Wilmington, Delaware, to practice his profession, studied assiduously the flora of the vicinity. In 1811 ill-health compelled him to remove to Georgia, but during the War of 1812-15 he served as a surgeon in the army. In 1817 he was a member of the special commission sent by the federal government to investigate the affairs of the Spanish-American colonies, then struggling for independence. Some of Dr. Baldwin's writings were published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society and Silliman's Journal. He died while upon the present expedition, and a further sketch will be found in the text, post. Thomas Say (1787-1834) was also the son of a Pennsylvania Friend, Benjamin Say, a physician, and one of the "fighting Quakers" of the Revolution. Thomas was one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, and before joining Long's expedition had taken part in a scientific exploration of the coasts of Georgia and Florida. He accompanied Major Long upon his later expedition up St. Peter's River. In 1825 he joined the colony under Robert Dale Owen, at New Harmony, Indiana. His principal work was American Entomology (Philadelphia, 3 vols., 1824-28). He is said to have discovered more new species of insects than any predecessor, many of them being discovered during the present exploration. Augustus Edward Jessup was born at New Richmond, Massachusetts, in 1789, and although known chiefly as a prosperous Philadelphia business man, was much interested in science, being an early member of the Philadelphia Academy. He remained with the expedition during the first season only. Titian Ramsey Peale (1800-1885) came of a family which has produced a remarkable number of artists, the most notable being a brother, Rembrandt. His father, an uncle, another brother, and three cousins achieved more or less distinction in that field. Like his father and brother, T. R. Peale divided his attention between art and natural science. He was an officer of the Philadelphia Academy, and author of Mammalia and Ornithology (1848). From 1838 to 1842 he was a member of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes's exploring expedition to the South Sea; during the years 1849-72 he was an examiner in the patent office. The events of the life of Samuel Seymour are now not known. James D. Graham (1799-1865), a Virginian, was a West-Pointer of the class of 1817. When ordered on Long's expedition he was first lieutenant in the artillery corps. From 1822-29 was on topographical duty in Vermont and elsewhere. This experience was followed by a number of years of railroad surveying, and he also took part in nearly all the federal boundary surveys of the period, serving on the northeastern, Canadian, and Mexican boundary commissions. During the later years of his life he was in charge of harbor improvements on the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes, and while engaged in the latter work discovered the existence of lake tides. At the time of his death he was colonel in the corps of engineers. William Henry Swift, of Massachusetts, was of mixed Puritan and Huguenot stock. His father was an army surgeon, and a brother, General Joseph Gardner Swift, was the first graduate of West Point. William himself entered the military academy when but thirteen years of age (1813), and as his class graduated during his absence on Long's expedition, he was, under date of July 1, 1819, promoted to a lieutenancy in the artillery corps. The map of the country explored by the expedition was prepared by him. His later career was notable—he was engaged especially on coast improvements, fortifications, railroads, and canals; to him more than to any one else is attributed the success of the Illinois and Michigan canal. His collection of papers relative to the latter was, upon his death, presented to the Chicago Historical Society.—Ed. Total length 10 inches, from the tip of the nose to the vent, 6½ inches. We caught this animal with the hook and line in the neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, but it is by no means so common there as the Salamandra Alleghaniensis of Michaux, or young alligator. The colour above is in reality pale, but it is rendered of a brownish appearance by the very numerous confluent points of that colour, which nearly cover the surface of the body; branchia bright red; peduncles colour of the body. Daudin informs us, that Schneider, in his history of Amphibia, describes an animal very similar to this, found in Lake Champlain, and which Daudin supposes to be the larva of Triton Alleghaniensis; Daudin, however, is of the opinion, that the hind feet were mutilated, from the circumstance of their having only four toes. The late Professor B. S. Barton had heard of this animal, and from the account he received, was led to regard it as a Siren. Finally, Dr. Mitchell has autoptically described the animal, in the 4th vol. of Silliman's Journal, as a Proteus. Not supposing the lateralis to belong, strictly speaking, to either of these genera, and with a view to ascertain its real nature, we obtained permission from the Academy of Natural Science, to open a specimen belonging to their cabinet, and which was brought from the Ohio by Mr. J. Speakman. The result corresponded with our most confident expectations, showing that the number of its vertebrÆ is greatly inferior to that of the Proteus, and corresponding with that of the Tritons; and that the pseudo ribs were in an entire series, somewhat superior in proportional length and perfection of form to those of the Proteus, and resembling those of the Triton. It has, therefore, a far more close alliance with the genus Triton, than with any other yet established. Several animals have been described, to which it is more closely related by the character of the persistent branchia, than it is to the well-known types of the genus, of which the branchia disappear at the age of puberty. Of such animals the following may be instanced: The Axolotl of Mexico. Siren pisciformis of Shaw. Gen. Zool. The Tetradactyla of Lacepede in the Ann. des Mus. vol. x. The Siren OperculÉe of Beauvois in Philos. Trans. of Phila. vol. iv. And possibly also, the Proteus Neo CÆsariensis of Professor Green.—Jour. A. N. S. vol. i. These four or five species might with propriety be separated from the genus to which they are referable in the present state of the system, and placed in a separate genus, the external characters of which will be the same as those of Triton, with the exception of the persistent branchia. Its proper station will doubtless be intermediate between Triton and Proteus, but far more closely related to the former. It may be proper to mention in this place, that the generic name Triton, was applied by Laurenti to the Newts, long before Montfort made use of it in Conchology to designate the war conch of the ancient Romans, and of the present inhabitants of Madison's Island. We are indebted to Dr. Richard Harlan, for the following anatomical observations, on this singular animal. Alveolar margins of the maxillÆ serrated, the spiculÆ pointing backwards towards the oesophagus. The oesophagus very large, like that of the serpents, gradually expanding as it descends to form the stomach, which again contracts at the commencement of the intestinal tube; the lining membrane of the oesophagus and stomach, thrown into longitudinal folds, which were continued throughout the intestines; which tube undergoes several enlargements in its course, giving it a sacculated appearance similar to the alimentary canal of the alligator; in the animal under consideration, they form several convolutions previous to their termination into the cloaca; the stomach contained an earth worm. The mesentery transparent, displaying a number of very large lacteals, which, in the present instance, were filled with coagulated chyle. Length of the intestines 10 inches. The ovary is of considerable size, of an oblong figure, lying close to the vertebrÆ, and opening by a straight duct into the posterior part of the cloaca. Liver very large, and apparently (but not certainly) discharged its contents into the stomach. Lungs consist of two long membranous bags, which run the whole length of the abdomen, anteriorly to the stomach and intestines; the opening of the larynx scarcely large enough to admit a pin's head; the lungs resemble two long air-bags, more than a true pulmonary apparatus; the cartilaginous laminÆ of the branchia, three in number, attached superiorly to the integuments over the cervical vertebrÆ, converging together beneath or anteriorly, and are attached to a cartilage answering to the os hyoides; the heart, which was extremely small, consisted apparently of one auricle and one ventricle, the aorta soon bifurcated, sending one branch to each pulmonary apparatus to be intimately ramified upon the branchia, resembling so far the circulation of fishes, and differing from the amphibia, in which there is either a double or mixed circulation. Olfactory apparatus similar to that of fishes, viz. a small aperture near the extremity of the snout leads into a cavity or cul de sac, lined by a delicate membrane, plentifully supplied by the fibrillÆ of two slender olfactory nerves, which go off from the anterior end of each lobe of the cerebrum. The brain is of an oblong figure, the cerebrum is formed of two lobes, the cerebellum of one lobe situate directly posterior, not much thicker than the medulla oblongata. The optic nerves, which were large in proportion to the organs of vision, took their origin in a very unusual manner. On either side of the medulla oblongata, is given off a large nerve, which proceeds forwards and outwards, and soon after it passes outside of the cavity of the cranium, it divides into two branches, the smaller goes to the eye, the larger is distributed to the superior maxilla. The eye itself is small, and the lens which was coagulated by the spirits, is about half the size of a pin's-head, and of the texture of the lens of a fish when boiled. The number of vertebrÆ from the atlas to the last lumbar, is exactly nineteen; to the transverse processes of all of them (after the two first) is attached, by a movable articulation, a small slender spicular of bone, or rib-like process, about one-eighth of an inch in length, which at the same time, they give origin to the large muscles that move the body, offer no obstruction to the lateral curvatures of the animal when in motion, but as to appearance or function are not to be considered as ribs. The number of vertebrÆ from the first sacral to the last caudal, is from twenty to thirty-five; they become exceedingly small towards the end of the tail; on the back part of the oesophagus, exterior to the cavity of the cranium, is found on each side, a calcareous concretion, similar to that in the head of the shark.—James. 4th. Anemone hepatica, Hepatica triloba of Pursh. Flowers varying from blue to white. Alnus serulata, Carpinus Americanus, Satyrium repens, root perennial. 9th. Collected in flower from the south-west side of the Ohio, Sanguinaria canadensis, Hydrocotile bipinnata; root small and round, with small tubers attached to the fibre like radicles, flowers white. Poa brevi-folia. 13th. Glehoma hederacea; this plant covers not only the low grounds, but the wildest hills, particularly in northern exposures. Is it native? 24th. Pulmonaria Virginica: this is a predominant plant on the islands, as well as along the shores of the Alleghany on both sides. EpigÆa repens, Phlox divaricata. 25th. Corydalis cucullaria, Trillium erectum, flowers varying from dark purple to white. Anemone thalictroides, Carex oligocarpa, Gnaphalium plantagineum, Potentilla sarmentosa, Obolaria virginica, Acer saccharinum, and A. dasycarpum, still flowering. Also the Celtis occidentalis, Ulmus Americana, and Planera aquatica, past. 27th. Veronica peregrina, and Ranunculus celeratus; both common in the wildest situations and apparently native. 28th. Stellaria pubera, Turritis lÆvigata, Arabis lyrata, Viola pubescens, Ranunculus hirsutus, Thalictum dioicum, Cercis canadensis, Cerastium vulgatum. 30th. Dentaria diphylla, Trillium sesile, Mitella diphylla, Delphinium tricorne, Arabis thaliana, Caulophillum thalictroides. May 1st. Carpinus Americanus, Vicia cracca, Ranunculus abortivus, Saxifraga Pennsylvanica, Uvularia grandiflora, Ph. 3d. Geranium maculatum. Apple-tree flowering. Veronica officinalis. Dr. Baldwin's Diary.—James. Comment by Ed. This area, known to geologists as the "Cincinnati anticline," is co-extensive with the fertile blue grass lands. It consists essentially of an island of Ordovician (Lower Silurian) limestone, surrounded by the later systems. The Ordovician system is especially characterized by mollusca of the cephalopod class, to which Orthoceras belongs, while the Ammonites do not appear below the Devonian. Comment by Ed. See F. A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 175. Comment by Ed. Constantin FranÇois Chasseboeuf Boisgirais, Comte de Volney, the French traveller and author, member of the brilliant group which included Holbach, Madame Helvetius, Voltaire, and the encyclopÆdists, the correspondent of Franklin and the friend of Bonaparte, travelled extensively in the interior of America during the years 1795 to 1799, and after his return to France published an account of his observations under the title, Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats-Unis d'AmÉrique (Paris, 1803). A translation was published in Philadelphia the succeeding year. Footnotes to Chapter II: Comment by Ed. The latitude is 38° 15' 8. Comment by Ed. Miguel Venegas, a native of Mexico, was born in 1680, joined the Jesuit order in 1700, and after several years' service as professor of Latin, rhetoric, and theology, went out as a missionary to the Indians. His chief work was, Noticia de la California y su Conquista temporal y espiritual hasta el tiempo presente (Madrid, 3 vols., 1757). Its importance as a contemporary account of the native tribes and mission stations of California is attested by the fact that translations were promptly made into English, French, and Dutch. The English edition is entitled Natural and Civil History of California (London, 2 vols., 1759). One bushel of earth commonly yields from one to four pounds of nitre. The process by which nature supplies the consumption of this important article has not yet been discovered. Muriate of Soda.—In the United States, common salt has been usually found in solution combined with the sulphates of lime, magnesia, and soda, and with sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The springs yielding the greatest quantity of salt, are those of the Kenhawa, and Little Sandy rivers, the United States' Salines near Shawaneetown, Illinois, Boon's Saline, near Franklin, Missouri, and Lockhart's on the Le Mine river. The Kenhawa salt-works supply about thirty thousand bushels of salt per annum. The rocks about these springs belong to the secondary formation, and are limestone, variegated sandstone, and bituminous shale: we were informed that two hundred and fifty gallons of this water yield one bushel of salt. At the Salines of the Little Sandy, ten thousand bushels are manufactured yearly. The waters, like those of the Kenhawa, hold in solution muriate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of lime, and probably a small portion of sulphate of magnesia. Limestone and sandstone are the only rocks to be met with in the neighbourhood. The United States' salines, near Shawaneetown, produce at present about a hundred and thirty thousand bushels of salt per annum; they formerly yielded more than two hundred thousand in the same time. There are now seven furnaces in operation: the water is procured from three wells, two of which are rented by Major I. Taylor. At these works the salt water formerly issued from the earth at the surface. A well of sixteen feet deep brought the workmen to a spring, which now discharges sixteen gallons of water per minute. Two hundred and fifty gallons yield fifty pounds of salt. About one thousand yards to the east of this well is a basin, or hollow, one hundred and thirty-five feet in diameter. The soil in and about it is intimately blended with fragments of earthen ware. In the middle of this basin a well has been sunk, which affords a more concentrated brine than that before mentioned; one hundred and ten gallons yielding fifty pounds of salt. In digging this well, the first fourteen feet was through a light earth mixed with ashes and fragments of earthen ware: the remaining fourteen through a bed of clay, deeply coloured with oxyde of iron, and containing fragments of pottery. The clay has something the appearance of having been subjected to the action of fire. At the eastern side of the basin appears to have been a drain for the purpose of conveying away the superabundant water. In this drain, about four feet below the surface of the earth, is a layer of charcoal about six inches deep. The stones in the vicinity appear as if they had been burnt. Four miles west of this point, a well has been sunk sixty feet through the following beds. First—— twenty feet of tenacious blue clay, at the bottom of which they came to a small spring of salt water. Second—— another bed of clay, of a similar character, twenty-five feet thick. Third—— a bed of quicksand, about ten feet deep; in which they met with a large vein of salt water. Bones of the mammoth, and other animals, were found both in the clay and sand. The original reservation at these salines comprised ninety-two thousand one hundred and sixty acres of woodland, and was transferred from the United States to the state of Illinois, at the time of the admission of the latter into the union. The rents amount to ten thousand dollars per annum. Nitrate of Lime is found in the calcareous caverns of Kentucky, accompanying nitrate of potash, with which it is intimately blended in the earth, on the floors of the caves: it is also sometimes found in delicate accicular crystals, shooting up from the walls and floors of the caverns.—James. The town of America was laid off in 1818, with the expectation that it would attain considerable size. For two or three years it grew rapidly; then low water uncovered a long bar which excluded steamers from the landing, whereupon the town declined and practically disappeared, the site now being occupied by but one or two small dwellings.—Ed. The name Cape À la Bruche is probably a corruption of Cape À la Broche (spit-like). The point was also called Cape La Croix (The Cross), which name alone survives. It is about six miles below Cape Girardeau, on the same side of the river.—Ed. "As we fell down the river, following the gentle stream of the waters, and discoursing upon those monsters, we heard a great noise of waters, and saw several small pieces of timber, and small floating islands, which were huddled down the river Pekitanoni. The waters of this stream (the Missouri) are so muddy, because of the violence of its stream, that it is impossible to drink of it; and they spoil the clearness of the Mississippi, and make its navigation very dangerous in this place. This river runs from the north-west; and I hope to discover, in following its channel to its source, some other river that discharges itself into the Mar Marvejo, or the Caliphornian Gulf. "About twenty leagues lower than the Pekitanoni, we met another river, called the Ouabouskigon; but before we arrived there, we passed through a most formidable place to the savages, who believe that a manito or devil resides in that place, to deliver such as are so bold as to come near it. This terrible manito proves to be nothing but some rocks in a turning of the river, about thirty feet high, against which the stream runs with great violence." This is probably the Grand Tower. "The river Ouabouskigon (Ohio) comes from the eastward. The Chuoanous (Shawneese) inhabit its banks; and are so numerous, that I have been informed there are thirty-eight villages of that nation situated on this river."—James. Comment by Ed. James dates the start too early, for by Marquette's account, it was near the end of June ("sur la fin de Juin"); nor is James's version quite accurate. Compare the French of Marquette's account in Jesuit Relations, lix, p. 138. For Kaskaskia River and settlement, see AndrÉ Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, note 132. For Ste. GeneviÈve, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 174.—Ed. Comment by Ed. For Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, and Fort Chartres, see AndrÉ Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, notes 132, 133, 135, 136. Prairie du Pont, one mile south of Cahokia, grew up about a water-mill built in 1754 on a creek of that name, by missionaries of St. Sulpice. Harrisonville dates from the era of American domination. It was laid out in 1808, and named for William Henry Harrison, the governor of Indiana Territory, which then included Illinois. It was, in early days, the county town. The act of February 22. 1817, authorizes the sale, in half quarter sections, or (80 acres) of the sections 2, 5, 20, 23, 30, 33, of each township. The subdivision of the quarter section is made by true meridians. The section No. 16. in every township, is by law reserved for the support of schools; the S. E. corner of that section is the centre of each township. More than 60 million acres of United States' land, have already been surveyed:— 1/36 of 60 millions is 1,666,666 acres, reserved by law for the support of schools. The section No. 16. will unquestionably be reserved in all future surveys and disposals of public lands. For colleges and seminaries of a higher grade, thirteen whole townships have already been granted by the United States to Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, &c. Thirteen townships are equal to 299,520 acres. By section 2. of the act of April 18. 1806, relative to Tennessee, 200,000 acres are in that state reserved for colleges and academies. The reservations for schools, colleges, &c. are—
which, at the minimum price established previous to the year 1820, of two dollars per acre, is $4,332,372. The area of the whole state of Ohio (the eldest of the states north of the Ohio) is about 25 millions of acres; of this about 14,400 had been surveyed anterior to the late cessions, which embrace the N. W. part of that state: 1/36 of 14,400,000 is 400,000. The free spirit of Ohio, united with signal industry and economy, has already given to section 16. in the surveyed portion of the state, a value of at least four dollars per acre, or of 1,600,000 dollars. There are instances, in which section 16. in Ohio, is worth from twenty to thirty dollars per acre.—National Intelligencer of November 10. 1819.—James. Comment by Ed. George Ord, a Philadelphia scientist and writer, was known especially for his work in ornithology. He was at one time a vice president of the American Philosophical Society, and from 1851-58 was president of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. The numbers refer to a draft. The heights are estimated, with the exception of two.
At the distance of a mile to the westward, is said to be another large mound. —James. Comment by Ed. These mounds have been effaced by the growth of the city. The map of them prepared by Long's party was not published until 1861; it will be found on page 387 of the Smithsonian Institution Report for that year. Comment by Ed. Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1816) was a Dublin dramatist and novelist. In his writings passages of undoubted eloquence were strangely mingled with extravagance and bombast. The incoherence of his plots and the inconsistency of his characters led many who recognized his genius to believe him mad. John Dougherty was later for many years agent for the Oto, Pawnee, and Omaha tribes.—Ed. Footnotes to Chapter IV: The description of Gasconade River is adequate. The "Yungar" fork of Osage is now called Niangua (Osage word for bear).—Ed. For CÔte Sans Dessein, see Bradbury's Travels, comprising our volume v, note 20.—Ed. The lands set apart for the relief of sufferers by the New Madrid earthquakes were known as "New Madrid grants." Auguste Chouteau established the first distillery in St. Louis by the aid of an extensive grant.—Ed. Carbonate of Lime. One specimen contains exclusive quantities of segments of the encrinite of small diameter, from one-fourth of an inch down to minute. Another specimen also, with numerous small encrinites, has a very wide and short radiated productus. Another specimen, a grayish chert, containing cavities formed by the solution and disappearance of encrinites. The parts of these which were originally hollow when in the state of carbonate of lime, being subsequently filled with chert, now show the nature of the fossil, being cylindrical cavities, with a solid centre and transverse partitions, the largest three-tenths of an inch wide. From Rector's-hill, adjoining the village of Clarksville, Missouri, from Dr. Sommerville's collection:— A specimen of oolite—carbonate of lime. It is composed of small spherical granules in contact with each other, which, in their fracture, exhibit rather a concentric tendency, with the appearance of a central nucleus; but we could not perceive any decided evidences of former organization in them. Imbedded in the mass are a few columnar segments of encrinites, and a portion of a compressed bivalve, which, in the form of its radiating lines, resembles a pecten. From CharboniÈre:— A specimen in argillaceous sandstone of a portion of a leaf like the nelumbium. It is only the middle portion of the impression of the leaf that remains, being of an oval form of about five inches in greatest diameter, the rest being broken away; the stalk has been broken off at the junction of the leaf. Productus spinosus. Say. A small species of terebratula, in width two-fifths, and in length more than seven-tenths of an inch—an internal cast—individuals very numerous, varying much in size, the smallest being about one-fifth of an inch wide. From the Mammelles near St. Charles:— Productus: a portion of a valve, and smaller portion of the opposite valve of a remarkably large species, of which the proportions may have been not dissimilar to that of the Ency. Meth. pl. 244. fig. 5. The striÆ are similar to those of that shell, except in being somewhat smaller; and the groove of one valve, and consequent elevation of the other, not so profound, less abrupt, and more angular in the middle, and far less prominent on the edge of the shell. It may justly be named grandis, as its hinge width was more than 3½ inches.—James. Just above Cedar Island is Jefferson City (Missouriopolis on the map,) the state capital.—Ed. The site of Smithton was a half mile west of the court house in the town of Columbia, but the difficulty in obtaining water there led to removal in 1820 to the site of Columbia. The original town was named Smithton in honor of Thomas A. Smith, land office register at Franklin. See post, note 118.—Ed. On some maps, Splice Creek is Spice Creek.—Ed. Footnotes to Chapter V: For sketch of Muhlenberg, see F. A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, note 9. AimÉ Bonpland (1773-1858) was a French scientist and traveller. It has been said that the expedition of Humboldt and Bonpland in tropical America (1799-1804) "laid the foundation of the sciences of physical geography and meteorology in their larger bearings." The fruit of their joint labors appeared at Paris in 1807, under the title Voyage aux rÉgions Équinoxiales du nouveau continent.—Ed. After getting under weigh, we passed high calcareous bluffs on the left side of the river, covered with timber, and reminding us of the deep umbrageous forests within the tropics. Franklin, July 15th. Portulacca sativa, Solanum nigrum, Urticapumila, Datura strammonium, and Phytolacca decandra, occur by the road side. Blackberries were now ripe, but not well-flavoured. Campanula Americana, the large Vernonia mentioned at Cote Sans Dessein, now flowering. Some plants were brought in, among which we distinguished the Monarda fistulosa, Achillea millefolia, Cacalia atriplicifolia, called "horse-mint," Queria canadensis, Menispermum lyoni, Verbena urticifolia. The Annona triloba is frequent about Franklin; also the Laurus benzoin, and the Symphoria now in flower, the Rhus glabrum, Cercis canadensis, Ampelousis quinquefolia, Eupatorium purpureum, in flower. Cucubalus stellatus, still flowering. The Prickly-fruited Æsculus has nearly ripened its nut, Zanthoxylon clava herculis, in fruit, a "wild gourd" not in flower. July 26th. The Gleditschia is a small tree here; Geum album, Myosotis virginiana, Amaranthus hybridus, Erigeron canadense, Solanum carolinianum, very luxuriant and still flowering. The leaf of the Tilia glabra I found to measure thirteen inches in length, and eleven in breadth. Bignonia radicans, Dioscorea villosa, a Helianthus with a leaf margined with spines, the narrow-leaved Brachystemum, the Lyatris pycnostachia, Rudbeckia purpurea, and various others in flower. Juglans porcina and cinerea, Ostrya virginica, Rhus copallinum.—August 4th. Dr. Lowry informed me he has seen Pyrus coronaria, forty feet in height, in the forests about Franklin. He showed me a Rudbeckia about three feet high with a cone of dark purple flowers, probably a new species. 5th. Eupatorium hieracifolium beginning to flower, Menispermum canadense, here called "sarsaparilla," its slender yellow roots being substituted for that article. 6th. A Mimulus is found here resembling M. ringens, but the leaves are not sessile; peduncle very short, flowers large, pink-coloured, stem acutely quadrangular; Campanula Americana, three and a half feet high.—James. The town here mentioned, two miles north of Glasgow, was laid out by Duff Green, a famous Jacksonian politician, and other associates. The growth was for a few years so rapid that one settler exchanged St. Louis lots for an equal number in Chariton; but the location proved unhealthful, and was abandoned in 1829. Monticello, on higher ground, a mile away, and Thorntonsburg, at the mouth of the Chariton, were founded in succession, but likewise disappeared. Glasgow, laid out in 1836, was the first permanent town in the vicinity.—Ed.
This species, common as it is, was never figured, nor indeed very well described, until the year 1819, when it appeared in the valuable work of Messrs. Geoffroy and F. Cuvier (Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes, 2d liv.) Its highest northern range is Canada, in North America; and it is found as far south as the river Orinoco, in South America. This species is leanest in February and March, and in best condition in October and November. The rutting season commences in November, and continues about one month, ceasing generally about the middle of December. During this season the neck of the male becomes much dilated. The fawn, towards autumn, loses its spots; and the hair becomes grayish, and lengthens in the winter. In this state the deer is said by the hunters to be in the gray. This coat is shed in the latter part of May and beginning of June, and is then substituted by the reddish coat. In this state the animal is said to be in the red. Towards the last of August the old bucks begin to change to the dark bluish colour; the doe commences this change a week or two later. In this state they are said to be in the blue. This coat gradually lengthens until it comes again to the gray. The skin is said to be toughest in the red, thickest in the blue, and thinnest in the gray. The blue skin is most valuable. The horns are cast in January. They lose the velvet the last of September and beginning of October. About the middle of March, Mr. Peale shot a large doe, in the matrix of which were three perfectly formed young, of the size of a rabbit.—James. Productus spinosus, Say.—Longitudinally and transversely subequally striated, the transverse striÆ somewhat larger than the others; a few remote short spines, or acute tubercles, on the surface, arising from the longitudinal striÆ. Breadth an inch and a half; the striÆ are somewhat indistinct—as in No. 5. Productus incurvus, Say.—Shell much compressed; hinge margin nearly rectilinear; surface of the valves longitudinally striated; convex valve longitudinally indented in the middle; the beak prominent and incurved at tip; opposite valve with a longitudinal prominence in the middle; the beak incurved into the hinge beneath the other beak, and distant from it. Width more than 22/5 inches. A few univalves also occurred, but they were so extremely imperfect that their genera could not be made out. A dark-coloured carbonate of lime, containing small TerebratulÆ like the T. ovata of Sowerby, but less than half as long. No. 1. a mass of carbonate of lime, containing segments of encrinites in small ossicula. 6. A Caryophylla of a single star, about four inches long, of an irregularly transversely undulated surface, imperfect at each end, but seems to have been attached at base. Near the base it is bent at an angle of about 45 degrees. Some small and young specimens of the Terebratula, like T. subundata of Sowerby. Miliolites centralis. Say. 12. Astrea. A species of very minute alveoles. From the state of the petrifaction no radii are perceptible, so that the genus is not determinable. Saltworks near Arrow Rock. Columnar segments of the Encrinus. Inferior portion of the head of A. Pentramea. Say. Segments of the column of an oval encrinus, much narrower in the middle than the oval vertebra of an encrinite represented by Parkinson, Vol. 2. pl. 13. f. 40.—resembling those of the genus Platycrinites of Miller.—James. Charles Pentland, of Pennsylvania, served during the War of 1812-15 as ensign and third lieutenant in the 4th Rifles. Retained in 1815, he was in 1821 transferred to the 6th Infantry, in which, two years later, he became captain. He was dismissed in 1826.—Ed. Diamond Island is near the Kansas side of the Missouri, on the line between Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties. When Lewis and Clark passed this spot in 1804, the two smaller islands of the group called Three Islands had but recently appeared. They are opposite the mouth of Nine Mile Creek, five or six miles below Leavenworth. The principal member of the group is Spar Island. The Four Islands are in front of Leavenworth, and one of the largest has the same name as the city.—Ed. Wyly Martin, a Tennesseean, had been captain in the 3d Rifle regiment at the close of the War of 1812-15, and after an honorable discharge in 1815, had been reinstated the same year. He was transferred to the 6th Infantry in 1821, and resigned two years later. Lewis and Clark note the site of the Kansa village and French fort. The former stood in a valley between two high elevations, and the latter was on another elevation a mile in the rear. They found few traces of the village, but there remained the general outline of the fortifications and some ruins of chimneys. It was near this spot that Fort Leavenworth was established, in 1827. See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 37.—Ed. A resident of Franklin, Missouri, thus described the boat and the impression it made upon the savages: "In place of a bowsprit, she has carved a great serpent, and as the steam escapes out of its mouth, it runs out a long tongue, to the perfect horror of all Indians that see her. They say, 'White man bad man, keep a great spirit chained and build fire under it to make it work a boat.'"—Ed. "Lieutenant Fields" is probably Gabriel Field, whose army record is given as follows in the registers: "Born in——. Appointed from Mo. 2nd Lieut. Rifles, 24 May, 1817; 1st Lieut., 15 April, 1818; transferred to 6th Infantry, 1 June, 1821; resigned 16 April, 1823."—Ed.
The most common species of squirrel on the banks of the Missouri river. It is allied to S. cinereus, but cannot be considered as a variety of that species; neither does it approach any of the numerous varieties of the very variable S. capistratus of Bosc. The fur of the back in the summer dress is from 3/5 to 7/10 of an inch long; but in the winter dress the longest hairs of the middle of the back are one inch and 3/4 in length. This difference in the length of the hairs, combined with a greater portion of fat, gives to the whole animal a thicker and shorter appearance; but the colours continue the same, and it is only in this latter season that the ears are fringed, which is the necessary consequence of the elongation of the hair. This species was not an unfrequent article of food at our frugal yet social meals at Engineer Cantonment, and we could always immediately distinguish the bones from those of other animals, by their remarkably red colour. The tail is even more voluminous than that of the S. cinereus. It seems to approach the Sc. rufiventer. Geoff. v. Dict. D. Hist. Nat. article Ecu. p. 104.—James. Big Blue River (Blue Earth on the map), at the mouth of which the Kansa village stood, rises in Nebraska, flows through Marshall County, Kansas, and forms the boundary between Riley and Pottawatomie counties. Near the confluence, a westward bend of the Big Blue forms a peninsula about two miles long and half a mile wide, which was the site of the village. A few years ago the exact locations of the lodges were still indicated by circular ridges and depressions, from which a map of the village was prepared (see Kansas Historical Society Transactions, 1881, p. 288). The site was partially abandoned in 1830, and three villages constructed near Topeka; these in turn were abandoned when the territory which contained them was ceded to the United States in 1846.—Ed. Comment by Ed. The reference is to An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana, etc. (Philadelphia, 1810). Pike mediated a peace treaty between the Kansa and Osage, at the Pawnee village on Republican River, September 28, 1806. Footnotes to Chapter VII: The route of the party on its return may have been across Pottawatomie and Jackson counties, and through southern Atchison; or, more probably, northern Jefferson and Leavenworth counties.—Ed. Length six and a quarter inches. Shot at Belle Fontain on the Missouri. Many specimens were obtained. The auriculars of the female are yellowish-brown. They run upon the ground like a lark, seldom fly into a tree, and sing sweetly. They were subsequently observed at Engineer Cantonment.—James. Description. Body black, anterior half with a series of continuous, dilated dull-red large circles, formed upon the skin between the scales, on the side; on many of the scales, are white marginal dashes near their bases: these scales are placed in groups each side of the vertebrÆ of the anterior moiety of the body; scales bipunctured at tip; beneath flat, so as to produce an angle or carnia each side; white slightly tinged with yellowish red, irrorate with black points, and spotted with large oblong quadrate marks, which gradually become more continuous, confluent and plumbeous towards the tail, occupying nearly the whole surface; head beneath and throat pure white; posterior canthus of the eye two-scaled; iris blackish; pupil deep-blued black, enclosed by a silvery line.
The lateral red marks are not perceptible, unless the skin be dilated so as to separate the scales; and the small white marginal lines on the bases of some of the scales are observable only on close inspection. It varies in being nearly or quite destitute of spots on the anterior portion of the body beneath, but the posterior half of the inferior surface still remains blackish. The whole animal bears strong resemblance to C. constrictor; but the scales are decidedly smaller, and the number of its plates and scales approach it still more closely to that uncertain species C. ovivorus. It is not an uncommon species on the Missouri from the vicinity of Isle au Vache to Council Bluff. Penis terminated by a hemisphere, covered with compressed, white spines, which are reflected at tip; the series interrupted on the posterior side of the member by a canal; it is much dilated, dark reddish brown, abruptly contracted at base from the exterior side, and with a prominent tubercle on the middle of the inner side: length one inch and a quarter, width about seven-sixteenths of an inch.—James. There are two streams (Big and Little) called Tarkio Creek. They flow parallel through Atchison and Holt counties, Missouri. The mouth of the Big Tarkio is opposite that of the Big Nemaha; that of the Little Tarkio is now about eleven miles below, but the channel is very changeable. Tarkio is said to mean "full of walnuts."—Ed. Comment by Ed. The reference is to Biddle's History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri, etc. (Philadelphia, 1814). See also Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (New York, 1904). For the Oto Indians, Missouri Fur Company, and Manuel Lisa, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, notes 42, 149, 64 respectively. Lisa established the post named for him, in 1812, and for a decade it was the most important trading station on the Missouri. It stood about twenty miles above the present town of Council Bluffs (Iowa), on the opposite side of the river.—Ed. Footnotes to Chapter VIII:
—James. 1. Terebratula.—A specimen considerably resembling the T. subundata of Sowerby, in the undulated line of the edges of the valves; but it is a much more depressed shell, and of a much less rounded form. In the young state, the undulation of the edge is not very distinct; but this character increases with age, so that in the young state, it appears like a totally different species from the adult. 2. In the same rock are very numerous arquated spines, like ribs of fish, some of them 1½ inches long. 3. A fragment of a terebratula or productus, imbedded, with very long spines, which may possibly be the same with the above. 4. A specimen, being a mass of comminuted fragments of shells, amongst which are only recognizable a few segments of the column of the encrinus, and minute turretted univalves of five whirls, which resemble turritella, and are about one-twentieth of an inch long. 5. Millepora cylindrica, Say.—Branched, cylindric; pores very regular, alternate, oval, placed nearer to each other than the length of their own transverse diameters, and resembling those of an alveolite. Diameter, about one-tenth of an inch. 6. Segments of the column of encrinus of authors, of a pentangular form. 7. OssiculÆ of the body of a crinoid animal of the analogous species to No. 21. 8. Fragment of Perna? 9. A mass of argillaceous sandstone, containing spines of a LinnÆan echinus, belonging probably to the genus cidarites of Lamarck. Of these spines some are elongate-conic, others slightly fusiform, obtuse and slightly dilated near the tip, both are armed with short asperities throughout their length. They resemble in some degree those of the cidarites pistillaris of Lamarck, but they are smaller, less fusiform, and the asperities are not prominent. In the same mass are segments of encrinus, and fragments of the retepore. 10. Retepore, much resembling the milleporites flustriformis of Martin, Petrif. Derbi. pl. 43. fig. 1 and 2., but the alveoles in our specimens are rather smaller. 11. Millepora cylindrica, Say.—Of the diameter of half an inch. 12. Productus subserratus, Say.—Shell transverse, convex valve semicircular, destitute of asperities or striÆ, longitudinally indented in the middle; line of the hinge rectilinear, half as long again as the length of the shell, with three or four spines or serratures on each side towards the angle; umbo not prominent; the beak hardly prominent beyond the line of the hinge. Length, more than three-tenths; breadth, more than half an inch. A large specimen was four-fifths of an inch wide. If we except the beak, the outline of this shell, as respects the hinge margin and the sides, considerably resembles that of P. spinulosus of Sowerby, but the base is far more obtusely rounded, and it is a shorter shell comparatively with its width. The serratures are very often broken off. The curvature of the sides does not in the slightest degree project beyond the angles of the hinge line. 13. An imperfect cast, very like the terebratula subundata of Sowerby, and of equal magnitude. 14. Pentagonal ossiculÆ of the trunk of encrinus of authors, which in outline may be compared to figs. 61 and 62, of plate 13. vol. 2. of Parkinson's Organic Remains, but their surfaces do not now exhibit any sculpture. 15. Many of these shells exhibit the most unequivocal evidences of having been in a plastic state, at some period or other, since their deposition in their present situations. The fine striÆ of a productus lineolatus, are so interlaced on the middle of a valve of one of our specimens, as at once to convince every observer of the shell having been thus partially dissolved, and when in this state to have been gently rubbed by some other body, in two directions proceeding obliquely to the same point, so as to throw the striÆ in that part entirely out of their proper longitudinal direction. It is very common to find shells unnaturally flattened, or compressed in various ways and degrees, often without any fracture in the shell or cast; a circumstance which certainly could never happen to the shell, unless it was in a plastic state, or in a state of partial solution. 16. A specimen of carbonate of lime, on its surface a mass of sub-parallel tubes, connected by short lateral processes. The whole much resembles, and is probably congeneric with the erismatholithus tubiporites (catenatus) of Martin's Petrif. Derbi. t. 42. fig. 2., but the connecting processes of the tubes are much shorter than they are represented in that figure; but it corresponds much more exactly with the tubiporite, figured by Parkinson in his Organic Remains, vol. 2. pl. 1. f. 1., and may with great propriety form a new genus, the type of which will be the tubipora strues of Lin. The genus is probably allied to favosites and tubipora. 17. Trilobus.—The abdomen of a species of this singular genus frequently occurs in the sandstone of the Missouri; near Engineer Cantonment they were very common. The largest was rather more than one inch long, by about one and three-tenths inches in breadth at base; but the more general length is about three-fourths of an inch. The tergum or intermediate lobe is narrow, being not more than two-thirds of the width of the flanks, and much more convex than those parts. But a single specimen occurred, which we can, without any doubt, consider as the thorax of a trilobus; but whether or not it appertains to the same species with the above, or to some other of which we have no other fragment, we are at a loss to determine. Like the above-mentioned abdomen, it is distinct from any that we have seen figures of. It is of a narrow lunate form, highly convex, the disk destitute of sculpture, and the eyes prominent. 18. Many imperfect casts of two different kinds of bivalve shells occur near Engineer Cantonment, of which one may possibly have been a cardita. 19. Tooth of a squalus, which seems to approach nearest to those of Sq. maximus, by its compressed conic form. Greatest length 21/10 inches. Thickness more than 2/5 of an inch. The sides are rounded, without any appearance of serratures; thickened near the tip, and more compressed near the base. 20. Tooth of a squalus, something like that of S. galeus, but less of a triangular form, and the lateral processes are more distinct, and also less triangular than in that species. 21. An imperfect body of a crinoid animal, encrinite of authors; the fragment is about one-half of the inferior portion of the body, from which the following description is made out, taking into view the whole circumference. The plates composing the first costal series (Miller), five in number, are longitudinally pentangular, much curved inwards towards the base, to join the first columnar joint, or perhaps the pelvis; at which part the plate is narrow, being about one-ninth of an inch, whilst the other sides are nearly three-tenths of an inch each, the superior ones being somewhat longer than the others; the second costal plates, (Miller,) five in number, are transversely pentangular, the superior joint being long, the lateral ones shortest, the former being one-half an inch in length, the latter 3/20, and the inferior sides which articulate to the segments of the pelvis, somewhat less than 3/10 of an inch; the margins of the first costal joints, as well as the superior margins of the segments of the pelvis, are armed with a few tubercles, some of which seem to have been perforated; all the superior pieces are wanting in our specimen, but the truncated surface, on which the scapulars (Miller) rested, is of a pentagonal outline, and composed of a series of horizontal equilateral triangles, two to each side, which are separated on each side from the adjacent pairs by a deep groove, which corresponds, and is nearly at right angles with the exterior sutures, which join the first costal joints to each other; these triangular surfaces are also separated from the exterior edge by two grooves, which are crenated, and enclose an oblong foramina between them; a single intercostal plate occurs, interposed between two of the second costals; it is of an oblong hexagonal form, its base resting upon the extremity of a segment of the first costals, which is truncated to receive it; the superior portion of this plate is much bent inward towards the abdominal cavity; its tip is quadrate and concave. The whole exterior surface of this reliquium, with the exception of the tubercles, and sutural impressed lines, is plain and equable. If we have not mistaken the pieces of this imperfect specimen, the pelvis is wanting, but the cavity in which it existed must have been about 3/20 of an inch in diameter. The plate-like form of the ossiculÆ, and their mode of articulation with each other, by an extension horizontally inwards, as we have described above, in the case of those plates which we have considered as the second costals, seem to indicate, that this species ought to be referred to the second division of the crinoidea, or semiarticulata of Miller. It certainly, however, cannot be at all referred to poteriocrinites, the only genus which that author has framed in this division of the family. We refrain from distinguishing it by a name either generic or specific, until other specimens can be obtained, in which the characters are less equivocal. We have two second costal plates, which made part of distinct individuals, larger than the above described one. Of these the surface of one is perfectly glabrous, whilst that of the other has light orbicular indentations instead of tubercles; a third very small one is perfectly smooth like the first, and doubtless formed part of the body of a young individual. Another plate found near the same spot with the above, is of a somewhat triangular form exteriorly, or rather like the face of a truncated pyramid, of which the middle of the summit is a little produced in the form of a right angle, thus offering a scollop on each side of the apex for the adaptation of superior ossiculÆ. On divesting it carefully of its extraneous matrix, we discovered that it was readily adjusted by its base to the summit of those segments of the fragment above described, which we have supposed to be second costals, a prominent line on its base corresponding with the inner one of those grooves which we have described, to characterize the superior face of those plates. This plate, then, agreeably to the relations in which we have viewed the preceding pieces, must be a scapula; it is susceptible of considerable hinge-like motion, and appears to have been much less firmly attached to the costals than the latter are to each other. A segment of a crinoid animal, which seemed to have been a first costal joint of a pentacrinus of Parkinson, occurred near the same place. 22. Productus pectinoides, Say.—Convex valve, with a central longitudinal indentation; the whole surface is longitudinally ribbed, each rib being marked by two striÆ, in addition to the central carina. The shell is not of frequent occurrence, and a perfect specimen has not yet been obtained, but the portions we have examined, are sufficient to show that it is perfectly distinct from either of the species we have mentioned. We do not find any species figured or described by authors like it. 23. Productus compressus, Say.—Shell much compressed, with numerous acute striÆ, upwards of fifty in number on each valve, the alternate ones rather smaller; a very slight central longitudinal indentation on the convex valve; outline suborbicular; hinge edge rectilinear, shorter than the greatest breadth of the shell. Greatest breadth from 3/5 to 1 inch. In its proportions it resembles the truncated portion of the productus of Martin, as represented on his plate 22. fig. 3. It is very common. 24. A shell of the length and breadth of three inches sometimes occurs, the convex valve of which is transversely undulated, its umbo prominent, and curved like that of a gryphÆa, its tip resting on the base of the opposite valve which is concave, with a transverse linear base; its muscular impressions seem to have been lateral. 25. A single specimen was found of a valve of a shell, in some degree resembling a pecten, but without the auricles. Length more than 23/10 inches. 26. Productus lineolatus, Say.—Valves with numerous, fine, equal, equidistant, longitudinal striÆ, and a few small tubercles; convex valve very much elongated, its basal portion is curved downwards, almost perpendicularly with respect to the disk near the umbones. So singular is the structure of this shell, that the internal cavity appears to have been perfectly transverse, with respect to the general length of the shell, and small in comparison with the length. It strongly resembles the anomites productus of Martin, as represented on plate 22. fig. 102. of his Petrif. Derbi., and like that shell it is armed with small tubercles, though fewer in number, and the striÆ are much more numerous and smaller. 27. Cast of a turretted univalve, probably a cerithium, of the length of 2½ inches. 28. Cast of the anterior portion of a valve of a shell like an ostrea, of the breadth of 2½ inches. 29. On the Missouri near the Platte, occur masses of rock, which seem to be almost exclusively composed of a remarkable petrifaction, belonging to the family of concamerated shells. This shell is elongated, fusiform, and when broken transversely, it exhibits the appearance of numerous cells disposed spirally as in the nummulite, but its longitudinal section displays only deep grooves. The shell was therefore composed of tubes or syphons, placed parallel to each other, and revolving laterally, as in the genus melonis of Lamarck, with which its characters undoubtedly correspond. But as in the transverse fracture, its spiral system of tubes cannot be traced to the centre in any of the numerous specimens we have examined, it would seem to have a solid axis, and consequently belongs to that division of the genus that Montfort regards as distinct, under the name of miliolites, which seems to be similar to the fasciolites of Parkinson, and altogether different from the miliolites of Lamarck. Our specimens are conspicuously striated on the exterior, which distinction, together with their elongated fusiform shape, sufficiently distinguish them as a species from the sabulosus which Montfort describes as the type of his genus. No aperture is discoverable in this shell, but the termination of the exterior volution very much resembles an aperture as long as the shell. The length is three-tenths of an inch; and its greatest breadth one-twelfth. We call it miliolites secalicus, Say.—Mr. T. Nuttall informs me, that he observed it in great quantities high up the Missouri. In the same mass were some segments of the encrinus, and a terebratula with five or six obtuse longitudinal waves. 30. Another petrifaction, abundant in some fragments of compact carbonate of lime, also found on the shores of the Missouri, possesses all the generic characters which we have attributed to the preceding species, excepting that in the transverse fracture the cells distinctly revolve from the centre itself, and of course the shell was destitute of the solid nucleus as in melonis, Lamarck. It has about four volutions. We have named this species, which is, notwithstanding the difference of the central portion of the same genus with the preceding miliolites centralis, Say. As in the preceding, it is entirely filled solidly with carbonate of lime, and this substance being of a greater purity in the filled-up cavities of the fossil than in the mass, its interior divisions are very obvious. The latter species we observed about one hundred miles up the Konzas river, where it forms the chief body of the rocks in extensive ranges. It seems to be a carbonate of lime containing iron.—James. Matthew J. Magee was captain of a Pennsylvania company of volunteers during the first two years of the War of 1812-15. In 1814 he was made captain in the 4th Rifles. After being discharged at the close of the war, he was reinstated (1816) as first lieutenant of ordnance with brevet rank as captain. A little later he was made captain, and in 1818 was transferred to the rifles. In 1821 he was transferred to the infantry. His death occurred in 1824.—Ed. On the Pawnee and Pawnee Loups, see respectively Brackenridge's Journal, in our volume vi, note 17, and Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 44. The Pawnee nation consisted of four principal tribes: 1. Pawnee proper (Grand Pawnee); 2. Pawnee Republican, who dwelt on the Republican fork of Kansas River; 3. Tapage, on the Platte; 4. Pawnee Loups (Skidi; Pani-mahas). The Omaha and Ponca were closely related tribes of Siouan stock. For their early history and present condition, see our volume v, notes 49, 63. The Sioux (Dakota) were the chief branch of the great family to which they have given their name. The branch was divided into a number of tribes, including the Yankton and Teton, mentioned below in the text. Sketches of the Osage, Sauk and Foxes, and Iowa will be found in our volume v, notes 21, 22. The Padouca were a powerful tribe when visited by Bourgmont in 1724 (see succeeding volume, note 29), but the nation disintegrated and lost its identity before the close of the eighteenth century, if, indeed, the name was not from the beginning applied collectively to several kindred tribes of the plains. Their habitat was the banks of the upper Kansas River; later they removed to the Platte, the North Fork of which is sometimes designated by their name. The Indians here called La Plais (La Playes) were reported by Lewis and Clark (Statistical View) to be a numerous tribe of Shoshoni stock, inhabiting the plains at the heads of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Later authorities seem not to have distinguished them from the kindred Comanche.—Ed. Body above brownish cinereous, beneath cinereous; head elongated; eyes and ears concealed; whiskers long, the longest nearly attaining the back of the head; nose naked emarginate; front teeth black, lateral ones piceous; feet whitish, five-toed; nails prominent, acute, white; tail short, subcylindric, of moderate thickness, slightly thicker in the middle, whitish beneath.
Mr. Peale caught this animal in a pitfall, which he had dug for the purpose of catching a wolf. It is a female. Barton, in his Medical and Physical Journal for 1806, p. 67, says, that, "Sorex minutissimus of Zimmerman, has been discovered in the trans-Mississippi part of the United States, in the country that is watered by the Missouri;" —had he reference to this species? This sorex minutissimus, is probably synonymous with S. exilis, to which our specimens cannot be referred, whilst the character attributed to that species, of "tail very thick in the middle," is considered essential. 2. Sorex brevicaudus, Say.— Blackish-plumbeous above, beneath rather lighter; teeth, blackish; tail, short, robust.
Above blackish plumbeous, when viewed from before; silvery plumbeous when viewed from behind; fur dense, rather long; beneath rather paler; head large; eyes very minute; ears white, entirely concealed beneath the fur, aperture very large, with two distinct semisepta, (tragus and antitragus?) which are sparsely hairy at tip; rostrum short, with a slightly impressed, abbreviated line above; nose livid brown, emarginate; mouth margined with whitish and with sparse short hairs; teeth piceous-black at tip; feet, white, the second, third, and fourth toes subequal, the first and fifth shorter, the former rather shortest, anterior with but very few hairs, nearly naked; nails nearly as long as the toes; tail with rather sparse hairs, nearly of equal diameter, but slightly thickest in the middle, depressed, and nearly as long as the posterior feet. This specimen, which is a male, closely resembles S. parvus, but it is much larger; the head is proportionably much larger and more elongated; the tail more robust, and the inferior anterior pair of incisores are similar to those of S. constrictus, fig. 7. pl. 15. of the Mem. du Mus. by Mr. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The incisors of the superior jaw are twelve in number, in a cranium belonging to this species, five on each side in addition the two larger anterior ones; the posterior tooth of the lateral ones is smallest. May not this be the animal mentioned by the late professor Barton in his Medical and Physical Journal, for March, 1816, which, he says, "may be called the black shrew?" I do not know that the black shrew has ever received any further notice, unless it is the same species to which Mr. Ord has applied the name of Sorex niger.—James. This bat is common in this region, and was observed by Mr. Thomas Nuttall at Council Bluffs. It is a fine large species, and remarkable for its many-coloured fur. It has much affinity with the New York bat, (V. novaboracensis,) but is more than double its size, and is distinguished from it by many minor characters. The late professor Barton, presented a specimen of this bat to the Philadelphia museum, that had been captured in Philadelphia. 2. Vespertilio arquatus.—Head large, ears rather shorter than the head, wide, and at tip, rounded, hairy at base, posterior edge with two slight and very obtuse emarginations; the anterior base distant from the eye; tragus arquated, obtuse at tip; interfemoral membrane naked, including the tail to one half of the penultimate joint. Total length 5 inches: tail 1½ inches. Expansion more than 13 inches. This bat might be readily mistaken for the Carolina bat, (V. carolinensis, Geoff.) which it resembles in colour, but differs from it in being of a larger size, the ears broader and proportionally shorter, and an arquated tragus, curving in an almost luniform manner towards the anterior portion of the ear, like that of the V. serotinus, Daub. Geoff., though not so broad. The upper incisor teeth, like those of several of our species of bats, are not prominent; they are very much inclined forward, and do not rise at their tips above the level of the intermediate callosity.—James.
Taken in a trap, baited with the body of a wild cat. The line on the anterior side of the anterior feet, near the wrist, is wanting in a second specimen. This species varies very much in size; another specimen measured—
The snout was narrower than in the preceding specimens, but in colour similar. Another specimen was destitute of the cinnamon colour, excepting on the snout, where it was but slightly apparent; the general colour was, therefore, gray with an intermixture of black, in remote spots and lines, varying in position and figure with the direction of the hair. 2. Canis nubilus.—Dusky, the hair cinereous at base, then brownish-black, then gray, then black; the proportion of black upon the hair is so considerable as to give to the whole animal a much darker colour than the darkest of the latrans; but the gray of the hairs combining with the black tips, in the general effect, produce a mottled appearance; the gray colour, predominates on the lower part of the sides; ears short, deep brownish-black, with a patch of gray hair on the anterior side within; muzzle blackish above; superior lips, anterior to the canine teeth, gray; inferior jaw at tip, and extending in a narrowed line backwards, nearly to the origin of the neck, gray; beneath dusky ferruginous, greyish, with long hair between the hind thighs, and with a large white spot on the breast; the ferruginous colour is very much narrowed on the neck, but is dilated on the lower part of the cheeks; legs brownish-black, with but a slight admixture of gray hairs, excepting on the anterior edge of the hind thighs, and the lower edgings of the toes, where the gray predominates; the tail is short, fusiform, a little tinged with ferruginous black above, near the base and at tip, the tip of the trunk hardly attaining to the os calcis; the longer hairs of the back, particularly over the shoulders, resemble a short sparse mane.
The aspect of this animal is far more fierce and formidable than either the common red wolf, or the prairie wolf, and is of a more robust form. The length of the ears and tail distinguish it at once from the former, and its greatly superior size, besides the minor characters of colour, &c., separate it from the prairie wolf. As the black wolf (C. lycaon,) is described to be of a deep and uniform black colour, and his physiognomy is represented to be nearly the same as that of the common wolf, it is beyond a doubt different from this species. It has the mane of the mexicanus. It diffuses a strong and disagreeable odour, which scented the clothing of Messrs. Peale and Dougherty, who transported the animal several miles from where they killed it to the cantonment. 1. Sylvia celatus.—Above dull greenish-olive; rump and tail coverts purer greenish-olive; primaries and tail feathers blackish-brown, olive-green on the exterior margins, and white on the interior margin; head very slightly and inconspicuously crested; crest with the feathers orange at base; bill horn colour, slender, base of the inferior mandible whitish beneath; beneath olivaceous yellow; inferior tail coverts pure yellow; legs dusky. Length 5¼ inches. Shot at Engineer Cantonment early in May. This bird is distinguished by the colour of the feathers on the crown of the head, which are of a fulvous colour, tipped with the same colour as that of the neck and back, so that the fulvous colour does not appear at first sight. The wings are destitute of any white band, and the margins of the six exterior primaries are much paler than those of the others. We cannot find any description of this bird; it seems, however, to approach nearest to the S. leucogastra, Steph., Nashville warbler of Wilson; but in our specimen the belly is not white, neither does Wilson's description of the colour of the head of his Nashville warbler agree at all with that of our bird. 2. Sylvia bifasciata.—Above bluish; all beneath white; head highly varied with darker; between the eyes and bill blackish; bill black; interscapulars lineate with blackish; wings blackish; shoulders bluish; wing coverts with two white bands; primaries margined with white on the inner side, and with plumbeous on the exterior side; tail black; feathers blackish, white on the inner margin, and plumbeous on the exterior margin; and, excepting the two middle ones, with a white spot on the inner side, near the tip; flanks spotted with plumbeous; feet black. Length rather more than 4¾ inches. Shot in May, near Engineer Cantonment. This species seems to approach very closely to S. cÆrulea. Genus Limosa, Cuv. Limosa scolopacea.—Dusky cinereous; bill, straight; upper mandible a little longer, and very slightly arquated towards the tip; the grooves continue to near the tip, about as long again as the head, yellowish green; tip black, dilated, rugose, with a dorsal groove; palate with reflected, cartilaginous spines; head with a line from the upper mandible, passing over the eye and inferior orbit; white cheeks, chin, throat, and origin of the breast, cinereous; the plumage margined with dull whitish; back beneath the interscapulars, white; rump, plumage white, fasciate with black; tail coverts, and tail white fasciate with black, which latter colour is more abundant; lesser wing coverts margined with whitish; greater wing coverts black, terminal margin white: secondaries black, margin and submargin white; primaries black, interior ones very slightly edged with white; outer shaft white, a little longer than the second; breast and belly white; sides spotted or undulated with blackish cinereous; inferior tail coverts with black abbreviated bands, the white prevailing; feet dirty greenish; toes webbed at base, the exterior one reaching the first joint of outer toe, the interior one very short; hind toe rather long.
Tail projecting more than one inch beyond the tip of the wing. Several specimens were shot in a pond near the Bowyer creek. Corresponds with the genus scolopax, Cuv. in having the dorsal grooves at the tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated and rugose; but the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the head; which two latter characters, combined with its more elevated and slender figure, and the circumstance of the thighs being denudated of feathers high above the knee, and the exterior toe being united to the middle toe by a membrane, which extends as far as the first joint, and the toes being also margined, combine to distinguish this species from those of the genus to which the form and characters of its bill would refer it, and approach it more closely to limosa. In one specimen the two exterior primaries on each wing were light brown, but the quills were white. It may perhaps with propriety be considered as the type of a new genus, and under the following characters, be placed between the genera scolopax and limosa. Bill longer than the head, dilated and rugose at tip: tip slightly curved downwards, and with a dorsal groove: nasal groove elongated; feet long, an extensive naked space above the knee; toes slightly margined, a membrane connecting the basal joints of the exterior toes; first of the primaries rather longest. Genus Pelidna, Cuv. 1. Pelidna pectoralis.—Bill black, reddish-yellow at base; upper mandible with a few indented punctures near the tip; head above black, plumage margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown line from the eye to the upper mandible; cheeks and neck beneath cinereous very slightly tinged with rufous, and lineate with blackish; orbits and line over the eye white; chin white; neck above dusky, plumage margined with cinereous, scapulars, interscapulars, and wing coverts black, margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior tips with whitish; primaries dusky, slightly edged with whitish, outer quill shaft white; back, (beneath the interscapulars, rump) and tail coverts black, immaculate; tail feathers dusky, margined with white at tip, two intermediate ones longest, acute, attaining the tip of the wings, black, edged with ferruginous: breast, venter, vent and inferior tail coverts white, plumage blackish at base; sides white, the plumage towards the tail slightly lineate with dusky; feet greenish-yellow; toes divided to the base.
This bird in many respects resembles cinclus, but as the average size of that bird is stated at seven inches and one or two lines, ours is doubtless a distinct species. Many flocks of them were seen at Engineer Cantonment, both in the spring and autumn, the individuals of which corresponded in point of magnitude: we add a description for the information of ornithologists. It is described from a specimen in the autumnal plumage. In the spring dress, the colour of the superior part of the bird is much paler, almost destitute of black, and the feathers are brownish, margined with pale cinereous; the superior part of the head is always darker than any part of the neck, and margined with ferruginous; the plumage of the neck beneath, and the breast, does not appear to be subject to so much change, as that of the superior part of the body. 2. Pelidna cinclus. Var.—Above blackish-brown, plumage edged with cinereous, or whitish; head and neck above cinereous with dilated fuscous lines; eyebrows white; a brown line between the eye and corner of the mouth, above which the front is white; cheeks, sides of the neck, and throat, cinereous, lineate with blackish-brown; bill short, straight, black; chin, breast, belly, vent, and inferior tail coverts pure white, plumage plumbeous at base; scapulars and lesser wing coverts margined with white; greater wing coverts with a broad white tip; primaries surpassing the tip of the tail, blackish, slightly edged with whitish, exterior shaft white, shafts whitish on the middle of their length; rump blackish, plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with rufous; tail coverts white, submargins black; tail feathers cinereous margined with white, two middle ones slightly longer, black, margined with white; legs blackish. A male.
This bird was shot in November, near Engineer Cantonment, and it is probably a variety of the very variable cinclus in its winter plumage.—James. Description. Body above, olivaceous; tinged with brown on the vertebrÆ; scales impunctured at tip, posterior edges and basal edge black; skin black, beneath yellow, rather paler behind; inferior jaw beneath white to the origin of the plates; head with nine plates above, two longitudinal series, of about four large scales each, intervening on each side between the two posterior plates and the three posterior supermaxillary plates; intermaxillary plate somewhat heptagonal, dilated, emarginate at the mouth, superior angle obtusely pointed; eye black-brown, pupil deep black, surrounded by a whitish line, posterior canthus with two plates. Plates 176, scales 84 Plates 174, scales —
Three specimens were found. The inferior surface of one was immaculate, but that of the smaller one had on each side of the plates an obsolete double series of reddish-brown spots, irregularly alternate on each side; these were so indistinct as not to be noticed at the first glance of the eye. The tip of the tail in this last is deficient. 2. Coluber parietalis.—Above blackish, with three yellowish fillets, and about eighty red concealed spots; beneath bluish; a series of black dots each side. Description. Body above black-brown, a vertebral greenish yellow vitta, and a lateral pale yellow one, beneath which is a fuliginous shade; between the dorsal and lateral vitta are about eighty concealed red spots or semifasciÆ, formed upon the skin and lateral margins of the scales, obsolete towards the cloaca, at which the series terminates; scales elongated, all carinate, and slightly reflexed at the lateral edges; head dark olive, beneath white, parietal plates with a double white spot at the middle of the suture; intermaxillary plate subhexagonal, emarginate at the mouth, and at tip hardly angulated, almost rounded in that part, transverse diameter nearly double the longitudinal; superior maxillary plates white, intermediate sutures blackish; eye yellowish, pupil black, posterior canthus two-scaled, beneath bluish green, a longitudinal series of black dots each side at the base of the scuta, terminating at the cloaca. Plates 165, scales 88.
This is a common serpent in this section of country. In order to render the lateral red spots very apparent, it is necessary to dilate the skin, when they exhibit a very striking character, being of a vermilion red. It varies in having the lateral series of red spots alternating with a series of smaller red spots nearer to the dorsal line. In common with ordinatus it has a double common white spot on the parietal plates, and a series of black spots on each side of the interior surface of the body; but in addition to the proportions of plates, and scales, and length of tail, the red colour of the lateral concealed spots very sufficiently denotes its specific dissimilarity from that most common of the serpents of the United States. 3. Coluber proximus.—Body above black, trilineate, vertebral line ocraceous, lateral one yellowish, a double white spot on the parietal plates. Description. Body above black, with three vittÆ; vertebral vitta ocraceous, occupying the dorsal series of scales and a moiety of each one of the second series each side; lateral vitta greenish-yellow, occupying more than the moiety of the seven and eight series of scales: beneath the lateral vitta the black is tinged with greenish-blue; head with seven olivaceous plates above; parietal ones with a double, white, longitudinal spot: intermaxillary plate pentangular, the superior termination obtusely rounded; posterior canthus of the eye three-scaled, of which the two inferior ones are white; anterior canthus white; supermaxillary plates bluish-green; maxillary angles with a small black dot; inferior maxilla white beneath; beneath pale greenish-blue. Plates 178, scales 86.
Resembles Coluber saurita, ordinatus and parietalis. Numerous longitudinal, abbreviated white lines, may be observed by dilating the black portion of the skin as in ordinatus; these lines or spots are obsolete upon the neck and upon the posterior portion of the body. The extreme tip of the tail is wanting in this specimen. It differs from saurita in the numerical proportion which its subcaudal scales bear to its plates; from ordinatus it may be distinguished by being destitute of the two series of black points beneath; it is a much more slender serpent than parietalis, and the tail is proportionally longer.—James. Footnotes to Chapter X: Comment by Ed. With the account of the Omaha here given, compare Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology," in Bureau of Ethnology Report, 1881-82, p. 205. In St. Louis, on the 3d April, 1821, B. O'Fallon, agent for Indian affairs on Missouri, met a deputation from the Saukee nation of Indians, on the subject of a most destructive war, carried on by them against the Otoes, Missouries, and Omawhaws of his agency, and spoke to them as follows:— "Saukees, "I am glad you have arrived, before my departure for the Council Bluff, as it affords me an opportunity to address you on a subject that has agitated my mind for some time past. Yes, Saukees, for some time past I have wished to speak to you on a subject that even now makes the blood run warm in my veins. "In addressing you upon this important subject, I shall not speak to please your ears, but to strike your hearts. "Saukees, you must recollect to have seen me frequently; but you do not know me, and I know you well. I recollect when I first visited your land, your balls whistled round my ears. I was then a boy, and wished to be a man—I am now a man, with a heart as strong as my strength. "A few winters since, I was a chief to the red skins of the upper Mississippi (Sioux and Foxes); I am now chief to the red skins of Missouri, some of whose blood you have spilt. Listen that you may hear me; dispose your minds to understand me; and remember well what I am now going to tell you, and carry my words to your nation, that they may not deceive themselves. "When I first climbed the rapid Missouri, I found the red skins as wild as wolves. Without ears they roved through the plains, only thirsting for each other's blood. They could only see the storm as it gathered around them; they could only see the clouds when they obscured the sun, and hear it thunder when it rained: but when I sat down on their land, they assembled around me; they listened to my words; I settled the difference that existed between them, and gave peace to the land. They then sat down to rest; but they could not rest long, for the Saukees of the Mississippi, you whom the Big Knives, like fools, have suffered to live, came and disturbed them in their sleep. When disturbed, not like women did they mourn their misfortunes; but like men, they rose in arms and came to me. I did not consult my feelings; I consulted the feelings of my nation, and I was for peace. I told them to sit down, and they did so. Keep your ears open that you may hear me, and raise your eyes that you may see me, for I have saved your blood. Yes, Saukees, I restrained their arms, and they sat down in tears. But you were not satisfied: you presumed upon their forbearance, and came again; but they were not asleep, and you did not spill their blood, but you stole their horses: you stole horses from the whites, who, like fools, had still suffered you to live; and you murdered some traders, who were also white. They again raised their arms; every body who were there at the time, both whites and red skins, raised their arms, and looked around them; but they could not see you; for, like the timid wolf, you had sought the wood, where they could not follow you, until they had consulted me—I, whose blood began to boil in my veins. Saukees, my heart was for war; but my nation was too much for peace, and it was my business to promote peace; therefore I gave them some tobacco, and told them once more to sit down, and endeavour to restrain their feelings: they did so; and I left them smoking their pipes, and came away to see the great American Chief. After I left them, you returned again to their land: you found them asleep; you stole their horses, murdered their women and children, took their scalps, and carried some of them prisoners to your villages. "How long, how long, Saukees, will you continue to disturb the repose of other nations? How long will you (like the serpent creeping through the grass) continue to disturb the unsuspecting stranger passing through your country? Be cautious how you disturb the red skins of Missouri; or your women and children shall mourn the loss of husbands and fathers—husbands and fathers shall mourn the loss of wives and children. "Yes, Saukees, the Otoes, Missouries, and Omawhaws, are unwilling to be disturbed any longer. They will no longer suffer you to make slaves of their children, and dance their scalps in your villages. "Saukees, be cautious; you live in the woods, and the game of your country is nearly exhausted. You will soon have to desert those woods in which the red skins of Missouri cannot find you, and follow the buffalo in the plains, where the red-skins are not less brave than you, and as numerous as the buffalo. As long as you have the wood to conceal your warriors, you may continue to disturb the women and children of Missouri; but when hunger drives you from those woods, your bodies will be exposed to balls, to arrows, and to spears. You will only have time to discharge your guns, before, on horseback, their spears will spill your blood. I know that your guns are better than those of Missouri, and you shoot them well: but when you reach the prairies, they will avail you nothing against the Otoes, Missouries, Omawhaws, and Pawnees. As you have seen the whirlwind break and scatter the trees of your woods, so will your warriors bend before them on horseback. (Here B. O'Fallon paused, to give the Saukees an opportunity to reply; when one of their most distinguished partisans arose and spoke with energy and animation, recounting many of his feats in war. He mentioned how often he had struck upon the tribes of Missouri, and that the Otoes had killed his brother, whom he loved as a father, and whose spirit could not be appeased as long as an Oto walked erect upon the earth. He also spoke of the difficulty of restraining his young warriors, who were unwilling to die in obscurity. To which B. O'Fallon spoke to the following effect:) "Saukees, one of your partizans, forgetting to whom he was speaking, has had the presumption to recount his feats in war, how often he had struck the red skins of Missouri, and to insinuate that he was unwilling to restrain his young men. I believe him to be a man of sense; but he has spoken without reflection, he has spoken like a fool. "Saukees, it has always been, and still is, my business to prevent (if possible) the effusion of human blood—to give peace and happiness to the land: but when I cannot stop the running of blood, I will probe the wound, and make it run more fast. "I wish you to understand that the Otoes and Missouries, though few in number, and much exposed, do not beg for peace; and I do not ask it for them. They have not as yet revenged the death of some of their murdered countrymen: the spirits of these dead are not satisfied. No, Saukees, these red skins, whom you persecute, have opened their ears to my words, and are constantly looking towards me. They do not wish a dishonourable peace. I would sooner see you drink their blood, than suffer them to make a dishonourable peace. You have a few of their children as prisoners among you; if you consult the interest of your nation, you will send them to their mothers: if you do not deliver them up, the red-skins of Missouri will go after them; and in hunting them they may find some of yours. "I tell you to be cautious, Saukees, how you disturb the red skins of Missouri. They call themselves my children: be cautious how you disturb my children, or I will no longer look to the pacific disposition of my nation, but consult my own feelings, and probe the wound which I cannot heal. "I am not like many white chiefs whom you have been accustomed to see. I never act an humble part. I am one of those white men who never fear a red skin—when I move amongst them, it is not like a dog with his tail between his legs, but as becomes a man; and when I speak, I feel the strength of my nation. "On the Missouri I have guns, powder and balls, blankets, breech-clouts, and leggings, and I am now getting more. I know where you have your village, and I know the face of the country over which you stretch your limbs. I know how and where you are scattered on hunting excursions. I know where you are most exposed, and what I do not know I can easily learn from the whites, and other red skins of the Mississippi. "I have every thing that a red skin wants; and you all know he wants only the means of war. You know that all red skins are fond of war, and that I can make brother fight brother. "Saukees; you are a strong nation of red skins; but if you don't endeavour to restrain the ungovernable disposition of some of your young men, they will expose your hearts in the midst of your strength. "Yes, Saukees, be cautious how you offend me; lest I assemble an army of red skins, and from some high peak on Missouri, show them where to find your village, and your exposed and scattered lodges. I know that the red skins of Missouri cannot destroy you directly; but they can give you unpleasant dreams. Be cautious, Saukees, how you deceive yourselves, or suffer others to deceive you, or the day will come when some of your children will have the misfortune to behold the dogs fighting over the bones of their fathers upon this land; and as I may have many years to live, I don't intend to sit still; and if I continue to increase in strength as I have done, I may live to see the day when I can make you smile, or shed tears of blood. Saukees, I have done, I am going to the Council Bluff." The Chief of the Saukees, after consulting each warrior separately, replied, (in substance) as follows:— "American Chief, I have been attentive, and I have heard your words, and those of the red head (Gov. Clark). Yours entered one ear, and his the other: they shall not escape until my nation hears them. I feel the truth of all you have said, and have never been more for peace than now. All those braves have expressed their wish for peace with the red skins of Missouri. This partizan, who without reflection spoke exultingly of his feats, since he has heard your words is also for peace; not from any fear of those whom he has bled, but from an unwillingness to displease you, whom he conceives to be a man of truth. "At our village on Rock river, and encampment at the De Moyen, we have five Oto prisoners, whom I will promise to deliver up, when you send for them. "My brother, I only regret that my nation was not present on this occasion, to have heard your words. The wisdom of my nation, all the reflecting men, are for peace; but we have many young men difficult to restrain, whose ears, (I believe,) would open to words coming from your mouth, when mine, for the want of strength, may fail. "My brother, I wish you to pause—I wish you to forbear until I disclose your words to my people, and you hear from them. "My brother, we receive you as the son of the red head; and inasmuch as we love him, we love you, and do not wish to offend you."—James. horizontal rule 100 Original spelling, hyphenation, and grammar has been mostly retained, with a few exceptions. Hyphenation questions, when the hyphen occurred at the end of a line, were settled in favor of consistency, whenever possible. Footnotes were moved from the bottoms of pages to the end of the book. Footnotes to the Preface have only one or two digits, e.g. "[11]"; footnotes to the body of the book have three e.g. "[011]". In tables, "ditto", and "do." were replaced with repetitive text for clarity. Sometimes blank space indicated repetition in a printed table. The first table in Footnote 187 is an example, wherein the words "Length" and "inches." occurred on the first line only, in the original, but are repeated on each line in this ebook. Whenever it was clear to the transcriber that repetition was indeed meant by white space, text was substituted for the blank. There are rare cases of this which are perhaps debatable. For example, see Footnote 83--tumulus No. 4. In this table, the "Longitudinal base" has measurement 84 feet, and the "top" has measurement 45 feet. The original table had white space under "Longitudinal", suggesting that "Longitudinal top" was meant; and that meaning has been embodied herein. Footnote 055: two periods inserted, to end the sentence, and at the end of the footnote. Page 248: "permisssion" changed to "permission". Page 307: comma inserted after "hoes" in "camp-kettles; knives, hoes squaw-axes,". Page 308: period deleted from "having disposed of his hunting apparatus,. she rubs his". This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. 1.F. 1.F.3. 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