BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 491 
trance, around which a heap of naked earth forms a little 
elevation, from which the inmates survey the village. A 
small species of owllives peaceably with the marmot; it is 
a restless little bird, apparently on good terms with the 
marmots, but ever on the alert, for fear of the rattle-snake ; 
which, strange to say, inhabits the same quarters, but is pro- 
bably an intruder. This owl seems to have as good a sight 
in the noon-day sun as its European kindred have at night ; 
for I have remarked it moving about all day, passing and 
repassing from one burrow to another. When I visited 
these habitations at sunrise, I never failed to see alternately 
marmots, owls, or rattle-snakes peeping out of the apertures. 
In a plain at Shienne River, on the upper Missouri, I found 
one large village deserted by marmots, and tenanted solely 
by rattle-snakes ; the latter having probably overpowered and 
destroyed the legitimate occupants, or driven them out. 
On the earth-heaps of these burrows, I saw Solanum tri- 
: florum, and never elsewhere, it grows prostrate in patches ; 
Œnothera pinnatifida, Sida coccinea and Lupinus pusillus 
are here also together. 
The scarlet colour, with which tracts of thousands of acres 
may be seen glowing during the months of May or June, is 
occasioned by the Sida coccinea ; the white, by GZnothera pin- 
natifida and coronopifolia; blue and purple by several species 
of Pentstemon, and yellow by the dense masses of Helianthus 
tubeformis and petiolaris. 
Before closing the description of this region, I must men- 
tion the great inconveniences to which the traveller is exposed 
in it; foremost come the incessant rains during the months of 
May and June, which fall so heavy, that the water runs an 
inch deep upon the ground, accompanied too with violent 
winds. Next are the mosquitoes during calm nights, and 
.swarms of blood-thirsty horse-flies by day, plaguing alike 
man and beast incessantly. Not less annoying are the night 
watches, necessary here to guard the animals from the ma- 
rauding Pawnees, especially after a hard journey and in bad. 
weather. However, after weary day and sleepless night are 
