1 Chapter viii of volume ii of the original London edition.—Ed.

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

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

4 Pinus flexilis. N. S.—James.

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

Comment by Ed. See volume xiv, note 179.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

17 Genus Sciurus, L.—S. quadrivittatus, Say.—Head brownish intermixed with fulvous, and with four white lines, of which the superior one on each side passes from the tip of the nose immediately over the eye to the superior base of the ear; and the inferior one passes immediately beneath the eye to the inferior base of the ear; ears moderate, semi-oval, incisores reddish-yellow; back with four broad lines, and alternate mixed black and ferruginous ones; sides fulvous, beneath whitish; tail moderate, hair black at base, then fulvous black in the middle, and paler fulvous at tip; beneath fulvous with a submarginal black line; thumb of the anterior feet a prominent tubercle.

—James.

18 Genus Sciurus, L.—S. lateralis, Say.—Above brownish cinereous intermixed with blackish; on each side of the back a dull yellowish-white dilated line, broader before, margined above and beneath with black, originating upon the neck anterior to the humerus, and not attaining the origin of the tail; no appearance of a vertebral line; thigh, neck anterior to the tip of the white line, and top of the head tinged with ferruginous; orbits whitish; tail short, thin, with a submarginal black line beneath; nails of the anterior feet elongated: thumb tubercle furnished with a broad nail; sides dull yellowish-white; beneath pale, intermixed with blackish.—James.

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

20 Hirundo lunifrons, Say.—Above brownish-black, more or less varied with violaceous on the back and wing-coverts; top of the head exclusively blackish-violaceous, a large white frontal lunule; bill black; rump and tail coverts pale ferruginous; chin, throat, and neck beneath, dark ferruginous extending in a narrow band upon the hind head; breast pale rufous ash; axillæ and inferior wing coverts dirty brownish; shoulders dull whitish, with small black and pale ferruginous spots; belly and vent flanks white, obsoletely dashed with brown; inferior tail coverts dusky, margined with white; tail entire, not surpassing the tips of the wings, the exterior feather margined with white on the inner web; wing and tail-shafts brown above, white beneath; the tail feathers in some lights have a slightly-banded appearance. Length 5½ inches.—James.

21 Genus Coluber.—C. testaceus, Say.—Pale sanguineous, or testaceous above, beneath sanguineous immaculate. Pl. 198. Sc. 80?

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

22 Emberiza amœna, Say.—Head and neck bluish green; back brownish black more or less intermixed with blue and a little brown ferruginous; rump pure blue; smaller wing coverts dull blue, brown at base, and tipped with white, forming a band; greater wing coverts blackish, tipped with white, forming a narrow band; wing and tail feathers blackish-brown with blue exterior margins; belly, inferior tail coverts and lower part of the breast white; superior portion of the breast pale ferruginous; neck bright green; bill and feet pale.—James.

23 Genus Crotalus, Lin.—C. confluentus, Say.—Brownish, varied with greenish-yellow, a triple series of brown spots, the anterior vertebral ones confluent, and the posterior ones separated into bands.

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

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

François Marie Daudin, whose specialty was reptiles, wrote Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des Reptiles (Paris, 1802-04), which is probably the work cited.—Ed.

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

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

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

28 Another name for the Nez Percés. See Franchère's Narrative, in our volume vi, note 145.—Ed.

29 This description of the two species of bears occurs under date of May 3, 1806. See Original Journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition, v, p. 65.—Ed.

30 On Lahontan see J. Long's Voyages, in our volume ii, note 3; also Lahontan, Voyages in North America (Thwaites, ed., Chicago, 1904).—Ed.

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

32 Vid. Trans. of the New York Literary and Philosophical Society.—James.

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

33 Grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis, Ord).—Hair long, short on the front, very short between and anterior to the eyes, blacker and coarser on the legs and feet, longer on the shoulders, throat, and behind the thighs, and beneath the belly, and paler on the snout; ears short, rounded; front arquated, the line of the profile continued upon the snout, without any indentation between the eyes; eyes very small, destitute of any remarkable supplemental lid; iris burnt sienna or light reddish brown; muffle of the nostrils black, the sinuses very distinct and profound; lips, particularly the superior one, anteriorly extensile, with a few rigid hairs or bristles; tail very short, concealed by the hair. The hair gradually diminishes in length upon the leg, but the upper part of the foot is still amply furnished; teeth, incisores six, the lateral one with a tubercle on the lateral side; canines large, robust, prominent; a single false molar behind the canine, remaining molares four, of which the anterior ones are very small, that of the upper jaw particularly, that of the lower jaw resembling the second false molar of the common dog; anterior feet, claws elongated, slender fingers, with five suboval naked tubercles separated from the palm, from each other, and from the base of the claws by dense hair; palm on the anterior, half naked, transversely oval; base of the palm with a rounded naked tubercle, surrounded by the hair; posterior feet with the sole naked, the nails moderate, more arquated, and shorter than the anterior ones.

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

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

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

Dimensions (from the prepared Specimen).

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

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

36 Tyrannus verticalis, Say.—Head above pure pale plumbeous; vertex with a bright orange spot; back pale plumbeous, very slightly tinged with olivaceous; wings brown; tertials margined exteriorly with white; inner webs of the primaries towards the base whitish, narrowed at their tips, the first feather remarkably so; tail coverts and tail deep brown black; exterior web of the lateral tail feather white; a dusky line before the eye; chin whitish; neck beneath, colour of the head; breast, belly, and inferior tail coverts bright yellow; bill furnished with clusters above, and each side at base; superior mandible perfectly rectilinear above, from the base to near the tip, where it rather suddenly curves much downward. Total length 8 inches; bill from the anterior edge of the nostrils to tip ¹¹/₂₀ of an inch.—James.

37 There are no fewer than fifteen peaks within the state of Colorado which exceed Pike's Peak in altitude.—Ed.

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

39 Thomas Pennant (1726-98) was the author of British Zoölogy (London, 1766), History of Quadrupeds (1781), and other works on natural science. Those mentioned were held in high estimation, and passed through several editions.—Ed.

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

41 See volume xvii.—Ed.

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

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

44 This was the Purgatory, which they reached the day after.—Ed.

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

46 Genus Sciurus. S. Grammurus, Say.—Line-tailed squirrel. Body cinereous, more or less tinged with ferruginous; fur very coarse, much flattened, canaliculate above, plumbeous or blackish at base, then whitish or ferruginous, tip brownish; above the neck and shoulders the whitish is prevalent; from the middle of the back, the sides and the exterior surface of the legs, the ferruginous colour prevails, the terminal brown of the fur being obsolete; superior and inferior orbits of the eye white; tail moderate, whitish, fur triannulate with black, the base and tip of each hair being whitish, beneath whitish tinged with ferruginous; thumb tubercle armed; iris burnt umber; pupil black.

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

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

48 See p. 171 [p. 260 of our volume xv].—James.

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

50 See Bradbury's Travels, p. 161, second edition.—James.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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