[139] For Bissel, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, note 182.

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.

[140] The Kansas River and its tributaries drain most of the state of the same name. It heads in the prairies of eastern Colorado, and joins the Missouri at the point where the latter enters the State of Missouri. It is still sometimes called the Kaw. The name appears in various forms on early French maps—as Cans, Rivière des Kancés, Rivière des Quans, etc.— Ed.

[141] The Little Platte (which the French called Petite Rivière Platte, or Little Shallow River), rises in southern Iowa and flows south to its confluence with the Missouri in Platte County. Its mouth is now opposite Diamond Island, for the channels of the two rivers have, in their shifting, been brought together several miles above the old confluence. The abandoned lower channel is still visible.

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.

[142] Isle au Vache (Isle des Vaches, Isle de Vache, Buffalo Island), now Cow Island, is on the line between Atchison and Leavenworth counties.

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.

[143] For the early history of the Kansa, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 37.—Ed.

[144] White Plume became the chief of the tribe, and some fifteen years later was still in power. Catlin, in North American Indians (London, 1866), ii, p. 23, described him as urbane and hospitable, and of portly build.—Ed.

[145] The surprise of the Indians will hardly be cause for wonder, after reading the following description of the "Western Engineer," which appeared in the St. Louis Enquirer, June 19, 1819, ten days after the expedition arrived at that place: "The bow of the vessel exhibits the form of a huge serpent, black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high as the deck, darted forward, his mouth open, vomiting smoke, and apparently carrying the boat on his back. From under the boat, at its stern issues a stream of foaming water, dashing violently along. All the machinery is hid. . . . The boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles an hour. Neither wind nor human hands are seen to help her; and to the eye of ignorance the illusion is complete, that a monster of the deep carries her on his back smoking with fatigue, and lashing the waves with violent exertion."

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.

[146] Willoughby Morgan, a Virginian, served during the War of 1812-15 as captain and major of infantry. In 1815 he was retained in the rifle regiment as captain, with brevet of major, becoming lieutenant-colonel in 1818. In 1821 he was transferred to the infantry; he became colonel of the 1st Infantry in 1830, and died in 1832.

"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.

[147] Independence Creek owes its name to Lewis and Clark, who reached this point on July 4, 1804. Its mouth is on the line between Atchison and Doniphan counties, Kansas. Lewis and Clark named another small stream, fifteen miles below, Fourth of July Creek. They also visited the site of the Indian village here mentioned, and thought it must have been a large one, judging from the remains.—Ed.

[148] The color is due to the presence of yellow ochre.—Ed.

[149] For data relative to the Nodaway River, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 5.—Ed.

[150] The name of Wolf River or Creek (Rivière du Loup of early French maps), is a translation of the Indian name. The stream debouches four miles below the town of Iowa Point, in Doniphan County, Kansas.—Ed.

[151] Sciurus macrurus. Say.—Body above each side, mixed gray and black; fur plumbeous, black at base, then pale cinnamon, then black, then cinereous, with a long black tip; ears bright ferruginous behind, the colour extending to the base of the fur, which, in its winter dress, is prominent beyond the edge; within dull ferruginous, the fur slightly tipped with black; side of the head and orbits pale ferruginous, cheek under the eye and ear dusky; whiskers black, in about five series, of which the four inferior ones are more distinct, hairs a little flattened; mouth margined with black; teeth reddish yellow; head beneath, neck and feet above pale ferruginous; belly paler; fur pale plumbeous at base; palms black; toes, anterior ones four, the thumb tubercle not longer than its lobe in the palm, and furnished with a broad flat nail; posterior toes five; tail beneath bright ferruginous, the colour extending to the base of the fur, with a submarginal black line; above mixed ferruginous and black; fur within pale cinnamon, with the base and three bands black; tip ferruginous.

	ft.	in.
From nose to tip of tail (exclusive of the hair)	1	7¼
Tail, from base to tip (exclusive of the hair)		91⁄10
Ear, from head to tip		0¾

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.

[152] See sketch of Charbonneau in Brackenridge's Journal, volume vi of our series, note 3.—Ed.

[153] Hay Cabin Creek and Blue Water are now known respectively as the Little Blue River and Big Blue River (or Creek; not to be confounded with the Big Blue of Kansas). Both debouche in Jackson County, Missouri. The Warreruza is the modern Wakarusa (the meaning of which is variously given as "thigh deep" and "river of big weeds"), which flows across Shawnee and Douglas counties, Kansas, to the northeast corner of the latter. Full Creek (or River) is the present Upper Mill Creek, another southern tributary of the Kansas, the mouth of which is in northeastern Wabaunsee County, by a direct line about fifty miles above the confluence of the Wakarusa. Pike's chart of 1806, which Say's party possessed, shows Hay Cabin Creek, Blue Water, Warreruza, and Full River successively, south of the Missouri and Kansas. There are several other creeks, however, between the Blue Water and Warreruza which Pike does not show, and the Warreruza is a larger stream than his chart indicates. Say's party apparently mistook one of the small streams for the Warreruza, and, upon reaching the latter, mistook it in turn for Full Creek. They could hardly have traced the course of Full Creek from the lower Warreruza, where they must have been on August eleventh. This error explains their doubt, while encamped on the Kansas on August sixteenth, whether they were above or below the Indian village, which is plainly shown on Pike's chart as situated at the mouth of Blue Earth (Big Blue) River.—Ed.

[154] When Say's party reached the Kansas, they had crossed Johnson and Douglas counties, following the high prairie country which lies from six to fifteen miles south of the river. The camp on the thirteenth was probably not far from Lecompton; by the sixteenth, they must have been near Topeka.

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.

[155] The Vermillion is a Pottawatomie County stream about twenty miles east of the Big Blue.—Ed.

[156] Pike, p. 144.—James.

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.

[157] For sketch of the Missouri Indians, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 26.—Ed.

[158] For a description of the dog dance of the Sioux, see Smithsonian Institution Report, 1885, part ii, pp. 307, 308.—Ed.

[159] Grasshopper Creek rises near the northern line of the state, its mouth being in Jefferson County, opposite Lecompton. The name was changed to Delaware River when the tribe of that name was removed to its lower course.

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.

[160] Jessup's MS. Report.—James.

[161] The guilandina dioica of Linn., Marshall, &c. but referred by Michaux to the new genus gymnocladus, of which it is the only well ascertained species. It is common throughout the western states, and territories, and in Canada, where it is called by the French Chicot, or stump tree, from the nakedness of its appearance in winter. In the English gardens, where it has been cultivated many years under the name of the hardy bonduc, it has attained considerable magnitude, but has not hitherto been known to produce flowers.—James.

[162] Fringilla grammaca, Say.—Above blackish-brown; head lineated; beneath white, a black line from the inferior base of the inferior mandible, above this a dilated white line; from the angle of the mouth proceeds a black line, which is much dilated and ferruginous behind the eye, and terminates in a contracted black line; a black line from the eye to the superior mandible, enclosed, as well as the eye, by a dilated white line, which is more contracted behind the eye; top of the head with two dilated lines, which are black on the front and ferruginous on the crown and hind head, and separated from each other by a cinereous line; interscapulars and lesser wing coverts margined with dull cinereous or brownish; wings dusky brown, a white spot on the outer webs of the second, third, and fourth primaries, near their bases; back dirty olive-brown; tail rounded; tail feathers twelve, blackish-brown, two intermediate ones immaculate, adjoining ones with a small white spot at tip, which, on the lateral ones, increases in size until on the exterior one it occupies half of the total length of the feather; the exterior web of the outer feather is white to its base; chin and throat white; neck and breast dull cinereous; abdomen and vent white; feet pale, tinged with orange; nail of the middle toe slightly dilated on the inner side.

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.

[163] Coluber obsoletus, Say.—Body black above, beneath whitish, with large subquadrate black spots, which are confluent, and pale bluish towards the tail; throat and neck pure white; sides between the scales with red marks.

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.

One specimen,	Pl. 228 — Sc. 67 ?
Another specimen	Pl. 233 — Sc. 84
Another specimen	Pl. 228 — Sc. 84
Total length —	4 feet 115⁄8 inches.
Tail length	4 feet 101⁄8 inches.

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.

[164] The Grand Nemahaw, now usually called Big Nemaha, does not rise so far to the west as is here implied. Its sources are in Lancaster County, Nebraska, almost directly north of the mouth of Republican River. The confluence of the Big Nemaha is just above the Kansas-Nebraska line.

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.

[165] The Little Nemaha flows through the Nebraska county of the same name; its mouth is between the towns of Aspinwall and Nemaha.—Ed.

[166] Nishnabotna is an Indian word signifying "canoe making river." Fifteen years earlier, Lewis and Clark found the divide between the rivers about three hundred yards wide. At that time the mouth of the Nishnabotna was on the line between Atchison and Holt counties, Missouri. Since then its waters have found their way across Grand Pass, and the old channel below that point has been abandoned. In 1804 the main current of the Missouri ran north of L'Isle Chauve (Bald Island), the middle of which lay opposite Grand Pass. The channel now runs south of this island, while the Nishnabotna, reaching the old channel of the Missouri at the middle of the island, follows it to the confluence of the island's foot. This was the condition in 1879 (see Map of the Missouri River, from the government survey, plates xx and xxi), but the channels are constantly shifting.—Ed.

[167] Lewis and Clark applied the name "Bald Hills" to "the ridge of naked hills" here described, and "Bald-pated Prairie" to the low lands at their base.—Ed.

[168] Lewis and Clarke, vol. i. p. 28.—James.

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).

[169] This velocity of current is equalled by that of the Cassiquiare in South America, and probably surpassed by the Oronoko, the average descent of whose bed is thirteen inches to the mile of 950 toises (6 feet 4.376 inches per toise). See Humb. Pers. Nar. vol. v. p. 637, and vol. iv. p. 452. La Condamine and Major Rennel suppose the mean descent of the Amazon and the Ganges, scarce four or five inches to the mile, which is about equal to that of the Mississippi, according to the most satisfactory estimates we have been able to make.—James.

[170] Platte River (sometimes called Flatwater and Nebraska, all three names having the same meaning) is the largest tributary of the Missouri. It joins the latter between Sarpy and Cass counties, Nebraska, 640.8 miles from the Mississippi. Its mouth is taken as the line between the "upper" and "lower" Missouri.—Ed.

[171] Species of apios, the glycine of Lin.—James.

[172] See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 40.—Ed.

[173] The Mosquito is on the Iowa side, in Pottawatomie County, its mouth being a few miles below Council Bluffs.

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.

[174] The camp was in the southeast corner of Washington County, Nebraska. Boyer River rises in Sac County, Iowa, flows southwest through Crawford and Harrison counties, and debouches in Pottawatomie County, nearly opposite the boundary between Washington and Douglas counties, Nebraska.—Ed.

[175] Height of the bluff, ascertained by Lieutenant Graham.

Trigonometrically,	271 feet.
Barometrically,	277 feet.

—James.

[176] We add some notices of a few of the most important.

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.

[177] John Gale, of New Hampshire, was surgeon in the rifles. He entered the army in 1812, as surgeon's mate in the 23d Infantry. After an honorable discharge in 1815, he was the same year reinstated as surgeon's mate in the 3d Infantry, and in 1818 made surgeon in the rifles. Three years later he became major-surgeon. He died in 1830.

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.

[178] Ietan, as he was called by the whites, is said to have been the son of Big Horse (Shonga-tonga). The name may have been given him for some exploit against the Ietan (Comanche) tribe. His Indian name (Shamonekusse, Shongmunecuthe) means Prairie Wolf. In 1821-22 Ietan accompanied a deputation of chiefs to the East; the Indians made careful observations of what they saw, after their own fashion, and, it is said, attempted to count the people of New York by means of notched sticks. Among his fellows Ietan was noted for his wit and sagacity, as well as for warlike prowess. His death resulted (April, 1837) from a wound received while pursuing some young braves who had seduced two of his wives.—Ed.

[179] The Ietan Indians, more commonly known as Comanche, were a branch of the Shoshoni family. Their range was the upper Arkansas, Canadian, and Red rivers.

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.

[180] The Indian name for Americans. On the origin of the term, see Thwaites, Daniel Boone (New York, 1902), p. 111, note.—Ed.

[181] This quarrel, and the resulting loss of part of the nose of one of the contestants, has given rise to a number of fables. In one of them Ietan and his brother are the combatants, and it is Ietan who loses the tip of his nose. In his thirst for revenge he pursues his brother across the plains and through the forest, both in friendly and hostile villages, only to fall a prey to bitter remorse when, after many months, he overtakes the fugitive and slays him.—Ed.

[182] Elkhorn River (Corne de Cerf, of the French explorers) is a considerable northern tributary of the Platte, into which it falls on the western line of Sarpy County. The head waters are only a few miles from the Niobrara River, in Rock County.—Ed.

[183] One of the half-breed sons of Pierre Dorion (Durion), who accompanied Lewis and Clark as interpreter. See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 7.—Ed.

[184] Red-head was the customary Indian name for Governor William Clark, and St. Louis was "Red-head's Town." For sketch of Clark, see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 105.—Ed.

[185] It was a party of the Grand Pawnees that robbed and ill-treated Lieutenant Pike and his party, when traversing the country within their range.—James.

[186] See Appendix C at the end of volume xvii.—Ed.

[187] 1. Sorex parvus, Say.—Brownish cinereous above; beneath cinereous; teeth blackish; tail short, of moderate thickness.

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.

Length from tip of nose to root of tail,	2 3⁄8 inches.
Length of tail,	0 3⁄4 inches.
Length from the upper teeth to tip of nose,	0 3⁄20 inches.

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.

Total length from nose to tip of tail,	45⁄8 inch.
Total length of the tail,	1
Total length from the upper teeth to the tip of nose,	01⁄8

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.

[188] See Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Appendix, vol. vii, doc. xviii.—Ed.