143 Genus Troglodytes. Cuv.—T. obsoleta, Say.—Above dusky-brownish, slightly undulated with pale, tinted with dull ferruginous on the top of the head, and superior portion of the back; sides of the head dull whitish, with a broad brown line passing through the eye to the origin of the neck; primaries plain, being entirely destitute of undulations or spots; tail coverts pale, each with four or five fuscous bands; chin, neck beneath, and breast whitish, each feather marked by a longitudinal line of light brown; belly white; flanks a little tinged with ferruginous; inferior tail coverts white, each feather bifasciate with black-brown; tail simple, broadly tipped with ferruginous-yellow, and with black before the tip, the remaining portion colour of wings, and obsoletely banded; these bands are more distinct on the two middle feathers, which are destitute of the black and yellowish termination; exterior plume marked by four yellowish white spots on the exterior web, and by two larger ones on the inner web; the tip is dusky, length six inches; bill, from the corner of the mouth, rather more than one inch.—James.
144 The North Fork of the South Platte encloses South Park on the north, flowing from west to east; while the other branch, which retains the name South Platte, encircles South Park on the south and east. The Denver, Leadville, and Gunnison Railroad now enters the mountain district through Platte Cañon. It is probable that Pike entered South Park in 1806 (see volume xvi, note 14); but Long's failure to penetrate the mountains at this point left the famous park unknown, save to wandering hunters, until Frémont's time, more than twenty years later.—Ed.
145 Among many plants collected in this excursion, some of them new to us, we recognized an old acquaintance in the bearberry (Arbutus uva-ursi, L.) an inhabitant of the mountainous districts of New York and New England; also the Dodecatheon integrifolium, Ph.; and a beautiful little plant referable to the genus Mentzelia of Plumier. On the higher parts of the mountain an oak is common, approaching in character to the Quercus banisteri, Mx. Also a small undescribed acer, the Juniperus communis and I. virginiana; in the ravines, the Rhus toxicodendron, Spiræa opulifolia, olc; and at the base of the mountains the Prenanthes runcinata, leaves runcinate pinnatifid, ⅔ inches long, five lines wide. Resembles P. Juncea, Saxifraga nivales, L. A. cerastium, olc.—James.
146 The words "of the same day" should here be inserted; so reads the Philadelphia edition.—Ed.
147 A series of erroneous dates begins here. The expedition undoubtedly left Platte Cañon July 8, of which day the text gives no account. July 9 was Sunday, instead of July 10, as the text states below. A compensating error is introduced by giving the date July 12 to accounts of the journeys of parts of two days. The Philadelphia edition also has the erroneous dating of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh, but includes the remainder of the chapter under the last date, thus failing entirely to account for the twelfth, and really including the operations of three days (tenth, eleventh, and twelfth) under date of July 11. The itinerary for these days is more accurately indicated on the map.—Ed.
148 The camp of July 8 and 9 was probably near the site of Sedalia, at the confluence of the east and west forks of Plum (here called Defile) Creek.—Ed.
149 The route described on the next few pages is an impossible one. Chittenden characterizes it as "wholly indefinite and unsatisfactory" (American Fur Trade, p. 59). The date "July 12th," on the next page, does not appear in the Philadelphia edition, and was apparently inserted to remedy the confusion; it increases it, however, since the accounts of the journeys of two days (July 10 and 11) are intermingled in the text itself. From the camp of July 8 and 9, the party might, by noon of the tenth, have arrived opposite Castle Rock, which gives its name to the present seat of justice of Douglas County. This, however, would not bring them to a tributary of the Arkansas; by noon of July 11 they could have reached the upper waters of Monument, a branch of Fountain Creek, which unites with the Arkansas at Pueblo. The camp of July 10 is probably accurately located on the map, a short distance below Castle Rock. On the morning of the eleventh, the direction taken was almost due south, across the watershed between the Platte and Arkansas, which at this point is almost on the line between Douglas and El Paso counties. The map exaggerates the length of Boiling Spring Creek (see succeeding volume, note 10), or Fountain Creek, a branch of which (Monument Creek) they first encountered almost on the county line. The afternoon march carried them somewhat south of the base of Pike's Peak, necessitating the retracing of their route on the morning of the twelfth. The route on the eleventh probably lay through the region now famous as the Garden of the Gods.—Ed.
150 A. cœrulea, James.—Leaves twice ternate; flowers terminal, remote, nectaries strait and very long. It inhabits shady woods of pine and spruce within the mountains, rising sometimes to the height of three feet. In passing from the headwaters of the branch of the Platte, called Defile creek, to those of one of the northern tributaries of the Arkansa, we noticed some change in the soil, and soon met with many plants we had not before seen. Several of these, as the common juniper and the red cedar, (Juniperus virginiana, Ph.) the black and hemlock-spruce, (Abies nigra and A. canadensis) the red maple (Acer rubrum, Mx.) the hop horn-beam (Ostrya Virginica, L.) the Populus tremuloides, Mx. Pinus resinosa, Pyrola secunda, Orchis dilatata, olc. are common to mountainous districts in all the northern parts of the territory of the United States; many others are here found, which require more careful and extensive comparison with the plants of Mexico, Siberia, and other countries, than have yet had the opportunity to make.—James.
151 One of these is a large and conspicuous plant of the natural family of the Cruciferæ, which may be referred to the new genus, Stanley of Nuttall, and distinguished as S. integrifolia; stem simple, leaves entire, ovate oblong, tapering to both ends; stem angular. Flowers in a terminal raceme, which is a little branched below; about six inches in length; stipe of the silique, about as long as the pedicle; flowers large yellow. The whole plant, seen at a little distance, has a remote resemblance to Lysimachia thyrsifolia. The leaves are ⅚ inches long, ⅔ wide, glaucous, and veined, nearly resembling those of the common cabbage, but smoother, which they are not wholly unlike in taste. The calyx is large, and of a brighter yellow than the other parts of the flower: it inhabits the summits of the sandstone ridges, along the base of the mountains. The S. pinnatifida, N., the original type of this genus, was found by its discoverer, Mr. Nuttall, to act as a violent emetic. It had been eaten by several of the party who accompanied him, as a substitute for cabbage.—James.
152 He was probably a member of the party of Chouteau and De Munn, arrested in 1817. See ante, note 134.—Ed.
153 Probably one of the branches of Cheyenne Creek.—Ed.
154 Cheyenne Mountain(?).—Ed.
155 Cactus cylindricus of Humboldt.—James.
156 Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. i. p. 362. Philadelphia Edit.—James.
157 Cucumis perennis, S.—Calyx, seated upon the germ, rugose, coloured campanulate, exterior divisions subulate.
Masc. Three filaments, short, closely covering the central disc. Fœm. Style short, stigmas three bipartite.
Fruit. Pome large, orbicular, smooth, about four celled seeds, ovate, gibbous, margin acute; dissepiments torn, spongy; seeds in a double order; leaves alternate, triangularly cordate, margin undulate, tendrils axillary trichotomous; stems numerous, procumbent, grooved; flowers nearly as large as those of Cucurbita pepo; fruit round, smooth, and green, nearly sessile, resembling a small unripe water-melon. The leaves are rough, of a glaucous green colour, bitter and nauseous to the taste, and the whole plant emits a fœtid odour.
Root fusiform, very large, six feet in length, and often four inches in diameter, descending perpendicularly into the earth. It inhabits the arid and sandy wastes, along the base of the Rocky Mountains, from the confluence of the Arkansa, and Boiling Spring Fork, to the sources of Red River. By means of its long and somewhat succulent root it is peculiarly adapted to the soil it occupies, and is found to thrive with considerable vigour in wastes whose thirsty and burning soils bid defiance to almost every other vegetable. It flowers in July, and continues flowering and perfecting fruit during the summer. Some plants of this interesting species are growing in the garden of the University of Philadelphia, from seeds brought by Major Long, but they have not yet flowered. The leaves are thick and robust, from six to eight inches long, and four or five in width, on foot-stalks equalling the leaves in length; they are crowded along the stems, and usually stand erect. It does not appear that any insect or animal preys upon the leaves or other parts of this plant. It forms, by its deep green, a striking contrast to the general aspect of the regions it inhabits, which are exceedingly naked and barren.
This plant has been mentioned by Mr. Brackenridge, from the information of hunters, but no detailed account of it has hitherto been given. The annexed figure is from a drawing by Mr. Peale, made of the plant in its native locality. The petioles and the extremities of the stems are usually affected with morbid enlargements, resembling galls. They may perhaps be caused by the irritation of the intense reflected light and heat of the sun, in the situations where the plant usually grows. In the gardens it has not hitherto produced these enlargements.—James.
158 1. Fringilla psaltria, Say.—A very pretty little bird, was frequently seen hopping about in the low trees or bushes, singing sweetly, somewhat in the manner of the American gold-finch, or Hemp-bird (Fringilla tristis). The tints, and the distribution of the colours of its plumage resemble, in a considerable degree, those of the autumnal and less brilliant vesture of that well-known species. It may, however, be distinguished, in addition to other differences, by the black tip of its tail-feathers, and the white wing spot.
The head is capped with black; the cheeks are dusky; the bill yellow, with a black tip; iris burnt umber; neck above, and half its side, back, and rump olivaceous, more or less intermixed with dusky; smaller wing coverts blackish, edged with olivaceous; greater wing coverts brown-black, tipped with white, forming a narrow band; primaries fuscous, and, excepting the exterior one, slightly edged with white; third, fourth, and fifth feathers white towards the base, so as to exhibit a white spot beyond the wing coverts; secondaries margined with white exteriorly towards their tips: tail coverts black, varied with olivaceous on their shafts; tail emarginate, feathers blackish, slightly edged with dull whitish; the three exterior ones pure white on their inner webs, excepting at base and tip; all beneath yellow; feet pale. A specimen is deposited in the Philadelphia Museum.
2. Fringilla frontalis, Say.—Crimson-necked Finch. Head, throat, neck beneath, and upper portion of the breast brilliant crimson, most intense near the bill and over the eyes; rump and tail coverts paler crimson; between the bill and the eye grey; bill dark horn colour, lower mandible paler; vertex, occiput, neck above and each side brown, tinged with reddish, the feathers margined with pale; back dusky brownish; wings and tail fuscous, the latter feathers edged on the inner side with white; the primaries broadly margined within, towards the base, with white, and exteriorly edged with a grayish; coverts and tertials edged with dull grayish; inferior portion of the breast, the belly, and vent whitish, each feather with a broad fuscous line.
Female, dusky brown, the feathers margined each side with dull whitish; wings fuscous, the margining and edging of the feathers not as distinct as in the male; all beneath, excepting the tail and wing feathers, whitish, each feather with a brown streak.
This bird is much more closely allied, both in size and colouring, to the purple Finch (F. purpurea) than to the crimson-headed Finch (F. rosea), and may prove to be only a variety of it, when a comparison of many individuals can be made. The male, from which the above description is drawn out, may not be in its ultimate state of plumage, as it seems probable that the middle of the head, the upper part of the neck, and the back, in the perfect plumage, is more obviously tinted with crimson than we have observed those parts to be. It differs, however, from the Purple Finch in the tint of the crimson colour, which is far more lively and brilliant, and also in having each feather of the belly, vent, and inferior tail coverts broadly streaked with brown. We apply to it provisionally the name of F. frontalis. A prepared specimen of this bird is in the Philadelphia Museum.—James.
159 Having followed in general the course of Cheyenne Creek, the party must have encamped a short distance south of the site of Colorado Springs, where the stream flows into Fountain Creek. From this point there is a magnificent view of Pike's Peak, which Pike himself usually called Grand Peak. His estimate of the height was 18,581 feet; the error was due partially to his assumption of the excessive elevation of 8,000 feet for the plain at the base. See the estimate of Lieutenant Swift, in succeeding volume, note 11.—Ed.
160 One of the horses has been since found.—James.