[001] John Biddle, a Pennsylvanian, entered the army July 6, 1812, as second lieutenant in the 3d Artillery. In March following he became first lieutenant, and in the succeeding October captain in the 42d Infantry. He was transferred to the artillery corps in 1815, made major and assistant inspector-general in 1817, and disbanded in 1821. He was in Long's party only during the first season.

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.

[002] Allegheny arsenal is on the Pittsburg side of Allegheny River, opposite the upper end of McCullough's Island. The grounds lie between Thirty-ninth and Fortieth streets. The site was purchased in 1814; a wall inclosing the grounds was completed in 1829. The arsenal was for many years used in the manufacture of war materials, a force of twelve hundred men being employed there during the War of Secession. Since 1868 it has been used as a military post, and as a quartermaster's depot. There were recently (1904) discovered there the principal documents relating to the equipment of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was largely outfitted therefrom.—Ed.

[003] Caprimulgus vociferus.—James.

[004] Triton lateralis. Say.—Body and extremity above brown, with irregular black spots; tail much compressed, subacutely edged above and beneath, lanceolate; a black vitta from the nostrils passes through the eyes, and is dilated on the sides, and becomes obsolete on the tail; a vertebral indented line, from the neck to the origin of the caudal carina, more faintly indented on the head; head somewhat rectilineary attenuated from the anterior branchia, to the vicinity of the nostril, and truncate or subemarginate before; nostrils minute; eyes very small, whitish, crossed with the lateral line of the head; beneath pale flesh-colour; chin and jaws to the branchia, and tail from the posterior feet, with the exception of the areola of the anus, coloured like the back; mouth moderate, angles beneath the eyes; lips covering the jaws freely, inferior lip with a duplicature each side, which is white and covered by the superior lip; tongue free, fleshy, rounded, extending beyond the angles of the mouth; teeth, lower jaw in a single row, obtusely conic, small, rather distant; a few smaller ones near the angle, elevated on a slightly prominent portion of the jaw; superior jaw, with a double series of teeth similar to the others, but rather smaller, an unarmed depression corresponding with the elevation in the lower jaw, and a few elevated teeth nearer the angle; throat with a duplicated cuticle; branchiæ permanent. Legs short, weak, four-toed.

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 œsophagus. The œsophagus 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 œsophagus 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 œsophagus, 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.

[005] Maclure.—James.

[006] Geological Survey of Rensselaer county, p. 11.—James.

[007] When central Pennsylvania began to seek an outlet for her population, the fertility of the soil produced by the disintegration of the limestone flooring of the northeast-and-southwest valleys of the mountains, and the barriers to Western migration imposed by the parallel ridges, directed most of the pioneers southwestward.—Ed.

[008] See Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 46. Also St. Pierre's Paul and Virginia.—James.

[009] The great coal field of which that of western Pennsylvania is a part, is eight hundred miles in length and one hundred and eighty in width. Besides Pennsylvania, it includes southeastern Ohio, the western part of Maryland, most of West Virginia, portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the northern end of Alabama. In Pennsylvania, the main field does not extend farther north than a central east-and-west line, but several great projections reach almost to the northern boundary. East of the Alleghenies the deposits are anthracite, while the bituminous fields occupy the southwestern section of the state.—Ed.

[010] The uses of petroleum have been known from time immemorial; but the quantities laboriously gathered from springs like those here described were economically insignificant. The importance of the industry dates from the discovery, in 1858, that vast quantities of oil could be obtained by drilling wells. The excitement which ensued was comparable to that caused by finding gold in California. Among United States exports, petroleum products now rank near the top of the column.—Ed.

[011] James implies that the Onondaga salt deposits are in the Carboniferous system. Such deposits, however, occur in almost every geological system, from Silurian to Recent, and the New York areas are found in the Silurian; the Kanawha salt district is Carboniferous. The Onondaga springs were known to Jesuit missionaries as early as 1646, and soon after were utilized in making salt for the Indian trade. The existence of salt licks and springs west of the mountains was an important factor in the settlement of the trans-Allegheny country. The pioneers could not have ventured so far from the coast without a native supply of this necessity.—Ed.

[012] So-called gas springs were known to settlers long before any attempt was made to utilize the product; about 1821, burners were first devised by which it was made to serve for lighting purposes. For several years after the beginning of the oil industry, gas was generally considered as a worthless and troublesome by-product, and not many wells were drilled for it until after 1870. The pressure of the gas is sometimes enormous—as much as three hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch has been noted. Natural gas consists essentially of carburetted hydrogen.—Ed.

[013] Olean is situated at the head of navigation of the Allegheny, at the mouth of Olean Creek, in Cattaraugus County, New York. The first settlers came prior to 1805. It was the southern terminus of the Genesee Valley canal (begun in 1836), until in the fifties when that waterway was extended to the Pennsylvania line. The growth of Olean has been rapid since the inception of the oil industry; it now being one of the most important storage and shipping points in the oil fields.—Ed.

[014] For sketch of Wheeling, see André Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, note 15.—Ed.

[015] For note on national road, see Harris's Journal, in our volume iii, note 45.—Ed.

[016] Charleston, the seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, is situated on the Great Kanawha, about fifty miles above its mouth. The site was included in a grant made (1772) by Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, to Thomas Bullitt. In 1786 Bullitt transferred his claim to George Clendenin, who was the first settler on the spot; he built Clendenin's fort in 1786 or 1787.—Ed.

[017] April 3d. Dentaria laciniata, Lamium amplexicaule, Draba verna, Poa anua, Alsine media, Houstonia cerulea, Saxifraga virginiensis.

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.

[018] For Point Pleasant and the battle fought there, see Thwaites and Kellogg, Documentary History of Lord Dunmore's War (Madison, Wis., 1905); Croghan's Journals, in our volume i, note 101; and Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 156. Chief Logan was not present at this battle. The full text of his famous speech is given in Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia;" Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1894), iii, p. 156; Roosevelt, Winning of the West (New York, 1889), i, p. 237. It has long ranked as one of the great masterpieces of Indian oratory; but its genuineness was attacked by Luther Martin, of Maryland, and others. A summary of the evidence pro and con is given in Brantz, Tah-Gah-Jute; or Logan and Cresap (Albany, 1867), appendix No. 2. It is now generally conceded that it was delivered by Logan substantially as we have it.—Ed.

[019] For sketch of Maysville, see André Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, note 23.—Ed.

[020] Washington, four miles southwest of Maysville, was founded in 1786, and was an important town in the early days of Kentucky. It was for some time the seat of Mason County.—Ed.

[021] For the early history of Cincinnati, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 166.—Ed.

[022] For sketches of Glen and Drake, see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 35.—Ed.

[023] Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, page 64. To that work, Cranmer's [Cramer's] "Navigator," published at Pittsburgh in 1814, and Gilleland's "Ohio and Mississippi Pilot," we refer our readers for very minute, and in general very accurate, accounts of the country along the Ohio.—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.

[024] Cincinnati College, the forerunner of Cincinnati University, grew out of a school established in 1814 on the model of the new English system of Lancaster and Bell. The college was chartered in 1815. Possibly the reference is to the recently-established medical college, for which see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 35.—Ed.

[025] Population by census of 1820, 9,642; of 1830, 24,831.—Ed.

[026] The Cincinnati mounds are now obliterated. A good description of them, with diagram, is given in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge (Washington, 1852), iii, art. vii.—Ed.

[027] Voy. a l' ouest des monts Alleghany, 1804. p. 93.—James.

Comment by Ed. See F. A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 175.

[028] Pers. Nar. vol. i. p. 357. Philadelphia Edition.—James.

[029] Salt's Abyssinia, p. 49. Amer. Edit.—James.

[030] The cotton-wood-tree is of very rapid growth. It has been ascertained that one individual, in the term of twenty-one years, attained the height of one hundred and eight feet, and nine inches, and the diameter of twenty and an half inches, exclusive of the bark. Barton's Supp. Med. and Phys. Jour. p. 71.—James.

[031] Sir James Edward Smith (1759-1828), founder and first president of the Linnæan Society (1788).—Ed.

[032] Charles Schultz, Jr., was the author of Travels on an inland voyage through the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and through the territories of Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Orleans; performed in the years 1807 and 1808 (New York, 1810).—Ed.

[033] On Louisville and the Falls of the Ohio, see Croghan's Journals, in our volume i, note 106.—Ed.

[034] For sketch of Shippingsport, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 171.—Ed.

[035] For the history of the canal at the Falls of the Ohio, see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 40.—Ed.

[036] On Clarksville see André Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, note 123.—Ed.

[037] New Albany, founded in 1813, is just below Louisville, in Floyd County, Indiana.—Ed.

[038] Corn Island was the site of the first settlement at Louisville. George Rogers Clark built a fort on the island in the spring of 1778, to protect his supplies. The twenty families who had followed him to Kentucky established themselves at the lower end, where the land was most elevated, and during the summer raised the crop of corn from which it is said the island derived its name. It stood just above the present Louisville-Albany bridge, in the elbow of the stream; in Clark's time it had an area of at least seven acres, but it has now been almost entirely obliterated both by the erosion of the stream and the operations of a neighboring cement mill which has used the island as a quarry.—Ed.

[039] Jeffersonville, laid out in 1802, is opposite Louisville, in Clark County, Indiana.—Ed.

[040] The same name is applied locally to the hills which extend nearly fifty miles to the northward of the river.—Ed.

[041] Volney.—James.

Comment by Ed. Constantin François Chassebœuf 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.

[042] The Indiana coal fields are now known to embrace an area of about seven thousand square miles, chiefly in the southwest quarter of the state.—Ed.

[043] Observations were made, at Shippingsport, to ascertain the rate of going of our chronometer, the latitude of the place, and for other purposes; according to these, the Falls are in 38° 15′ 23″ N.— James.

Comment by Ed. The latitude is 38° 15′ 8″.

[044] Page 108.—James.

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).

[045] For historical importance of the Wabash River and origin of the name, see Croghan's Journals, in our volume i, note 107; for sketch of the site of Shawneetown, see ibid., note 108.—Ed.

[046] Testudo geographica of Leseuer.—James.

[047] Usually called Cave-in-Rock. For additional facts relative to its history, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 180.—Ed.

[048] Nitrate of Potash.—This salt occurs in most of the caves in the western states and territories. It is found in efflorescences and incrustations frequently combined with nitrate of lime. Its colour is grayish or yellowish white. The manufacture of nitre, in the numerous caves in Kentucky, is conducted as follows: The earths containing the nitrates of lime and potash are lixiviated; the lixivium is afterwards passed through the ashes of wood, by the alkali of which the nitrate of lime is decomposed. If the earths, after having been lixiviated, are replaced in the caves, they again become impregnated with the same salts.

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.

[049] Smithland is now the seat of Livingston County. The deserted settlement three miles below the mouth of Cumberland River was laid out about 1800 by one Coxe; upon the failure of his plans, the site was converted into a farm.—Ed.

[050] See Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 43.—Ed.

[051] The correct name of this stream is Cache River. The French explorers applied the term "cache" (hiding-place) to many streams, probably because of articles hidden there by them. This particular stream is about thirty miles long, being navigable for small boats about a third of the distance.

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.

[052] For a description of the Iron Banks, see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 54.—Ed.

[053] Although the range from extreme high to extreme low water amounts to sixty feet perpendicular, in many parts of the Ohio, it does not exceed twenty feet at this place, owing to the width to which the Ohio spreads in this neighbourhood, when the river is high. This may be considered a circumstance much in favour of the place, when compared with the disadvantages most other positions on the Ohio labour under, from inundation in high water, and the difficulty of unlading in low.—James.

[054] Rockport is the seat of Spencer County, Indiana, one hundred and forty miles below Louisville, measured on the river's course.—Ed.

[055] Green River enters the Ohio from the Kentucky side, thirty-five miles below Rockport.—Ed.

[056] On Cherokee purchase, see Cuming's Tour, in volume iv, this series, note 190.—Ed.

[057] Latitude 36° 59′ 47.99″; longitude, 89° 9′ 31.2″.—Ed.

[058] Schultz's Travels, vol. 2. p. 92.—James.

[059] The cymbidium hiemale of Willdenow, which has been placed by Mr. Nuttall under the genus corallorhiza of Haller, occurs in the fertile soils of the Mississippi, with two radical leaves, as described by the early authors. Mr. N.'s amended description is therefore only applicable to the plant as it occurs in the eastern states, where it is commonly found to have but a single leaf.—James.

[060] Tyawapatia (Tywappity, Tiwappaty) Bottom was the name formerly applied to the flood plain on the Missouri side, in the present Scott County. It extended from the mouth of the Ohio to Commerce, near the site of which was the settlement referred to. Americans began to enter the bottom as early as 1798, and in 1823 the town of Commerce was laid out on the site of a trading post already twenty years old.

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.

[061] The name Au Vaise is a corruption of Rivière au Vase (Muddy River); the present name is Big Muddy. It enters the Mississippi from the northeast, at the northwest corner of Union County, Illinois, and boats ascend forty or fifty miles.—Ed.

[062] Opposite the town of the same name, in Jackson County, Illinois.—Ed.

[063] They left the Illinois about the middle of June. Of the rocky cliffs below the confluence of that river, Father Marquette speaks as follows: "Among the rocks I have mentioned, we found one very high and steep, and saw two monsters painted upon it, which are so hideous that we were frightened at first sight, and the boldest savages dare not fix their eyes upon them. They are drawn as big as a calf, with two horns like a wild-goat. Their looks are terrible, though their face has something of human figure in it. Their eyes are red, their beard is like that of a tiger, and their body is covered with scales. Their tail is so long that it goes over their heads, and then turns between their fore-legs under the belly, ending like a fish-tail. There are but three colours, viz. red, green, and black; but those monsters are so well drawn that I cannot believe the savages did it; and the rock whereon they are painted is so steep that it is a wonder to me how it was possible to draw those figures: but to know to what purpose they were made is as great a mystery. Whatever it be, our best painters would hardly do better.

"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.

[064] Spelled also Brazos and Brazeau—a Perry County (Missouri) tributary of the Mississippi.—Ed.

[065] The Bois Broulé (Burnt Wood) Bottoms lie chiefly in Perry County, Missouri. The tract is about eighteen miles long and from four to six wide.

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.

[066] Among the nobles who fled from France during the Revolution was the father of Charles Dehault Delassus, last governor of Upper Louisiana under Spanish domination. The elder Delassus came to Ste. Geneviève, and was placed in command of a post established for him on a bluff overlooking the river, two or three miles below the town; this post was named New Bourbon (La Nouvelle Bourbon), in honor of the fallen French dynasty. The town which grew up around it was still in existence in 1812.—Ed.

[067] Portland was one of many towns laid out along the Mississippi by speculators who hoped that important cities would arise on the sites chosen. This particular venture was undertaken by a company organized in Cincinnati in 1819; but inhabitants failed to come, and the buildings erected by the promoters fell into ruins. The site was near the present town of Chester; an Illinois state penitentiary now stands on the spot.—Ed.

[068] It is stated by Mr. Schultz that Fort Chartres, which was originally built one-fourth of a mile from the river, was undermined in 1808. Vol. 2, p. 37.—James.

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.

[069] Ample information on the subject of land titles, is contained in Stoddart's Sketches of Louisiana, pages 243-267.—James.

[070] The statement here is not accurate. Marquette's descent of the Mississippi was just one hundred and fifty years earlier, and the French settlements in Illinois date from the beginning of the eighteenth century; while Ste. Geneviève, the first in Missouri, was not established before 1732.—Ed.

[071] Herculaneum, laid out in 1808, was another of the now extinct river towns. It was thirty miles below St. Louis, and was at one time seat of Jefferson County.—Ed.

[072] A township is a square, whose sides (limited by true meridians and parallels to the equator) are each 6 miles in length: area 36 square miles, or sections, each containing 640 acres. Each township contains 23,040 acres. A quarter-section is a square whose sides (bounded by meridians and parallels), are each half a mile, and contain 160 acres. The corners of each section are distinctly marked by the United States' deputy-surveyors. The sections are numbered from 1 to 36, beginning at the N. E. corner of the township, and going from right to left, to the N. W. corner; and then returning from left to right to the east boundary of the township, and so on.

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.

[073] The Meramec River (the name is a corruption of an Indian word meaning "Catfish") forms part of the boundary between Jefferson and St. Louis counties, Missouri. It flows from the southwest, its chief sources lying in Dent County, and is navigable for steamboats for almost a hundred miles.—Ed.

[074] Genus Mus. L.— M. Floridanus, Ord, Say. Body robust; back plumbeous; sides, sacrum, and origin of the tail, ferrugineous-yellowish; fur plumbeous near its base; all beneath white; tail hairy, above brown, as long as the body; head plumbeous, intermixed with gray, gradually attenuated to the nose; ears large, prominent, patulous, obtusely rounded, naked or furnished with obsolete sparse hairs behind, and on the margin within; eyes moderately prominent; whiskers, some black, and some white bristles, elongated, longest surpassing the tips of the ears, arranged in six longitudinal series, superior labia, and those of the angles of the mouth, folded into the mouth, and hairy within; legs subequal, robust; anterior legs with a few white projecting setæ near the foot behind; feet white; toes annulate beneath, with impressed lines, intermediate ones equal, exterior ones equal; shorter thumb minute; palm with five tuberculous prominences, of which the anterior ones are placed triangularly, and the others transversely; nails concealed by the hairs; posterior feet, inner toe shortest, 2d, 3d, and 4th subequal, the third slightly longest, all beneath annulated; nails concealed by the hairs; palm with six tubercles, of which the three posterior ones are distant from each other. Entire length, from nose to tip of tail, sixteen inches nearly; tail seven inches, ear rather more than ⁹⁄₁₀ of an inch long, greatest breadth one inch. From tip of nose to anterior canthus of the eye, ¹⁄₂₀ inches. Length of the eye nearly ²⁄₅.—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.

[075] Near the mouth of the Merameg were collected the Rudbeckia hirta, and R. purpurea, a small white flowering species of Houstonia, the Galium tinctorium Smyrnium aureum, a phlox, a new species of potentilla, a conyza, the trifolium reflexum, a beautiful aira, the campunula perfoliata, diospyros virginiana, rhus glabra, and many others. Dr. Baldwin's MS. Notes.—James.

[076] Vide Poche (Empty Pocket), more properly Carondelet, now included in St. Louis, was at this time five miles south of the original city. It is of about the same age.—Ed.