30 BOTANICAL. INFORMATION. 



related tribe to the Shoshonies, however, have almost nothing 

 of the skilful horsemanship of their cousins j but live the 

 most wretched life of any Indians in the West. They are 

 generally designated a Root-diggers " and are very well des- 

 cribed by Captain Bonneville. Oftentimes, when they can 

 get neither game nor roots to live on, they eat grass- 

 hoppers ; a species of Gryllus, very large and fat, of every 

 shade of brown and black, wherewith these deserts abound. 

 For this purpose they are caught in large quantities, boiled 

 alive without ceremony and eaten like craw-fish. It is said 

 that the soup of them is very sweet and a favourite drink ; 

 even gentlemen of the Hon. Hudson Bay Company, who 

 had been compelled to live on it, spoke to the same 

 effect. In case of scarcity of such grasshoppers, the Ban- 

 naks make soup of a large species of ants, which abounds 

 towards the uppermost waters of the Arkansas River, and 

 further south in the Sierra de los Mimbras, Upper Cali- 

 fornia and Texas. Few quadrupeds exist in the wide 

 deserts; antelopes may have been abundant once, now 

 they are very few in number and so shy that they never 

 come within rifle-shot. A middle-sized species of hare, white 

 with a black tail, dwells in the neighbourhood of the Oases, 

 but is very rare. Small birds are scarcely seen. 



It is hardly necessary to say anything about the difficul- 

 ties the traveller has to endure traversing these wide deserts. 

 Want of water and of game, and the hot noon-day sun, are 

 rather trying ; but still not worth while mentioning, for the 

 ever-bright sky and the cool nights make ample amends for 

 them. The atmosphere is pure and exhilarating, so that if 

 there is no want of food in the camp, I am sure every 

 traveller will be disposed to number those days among the 

 best on the long journey, not forgetting the wild blazing 

 camp-fires of Artemisia bushes. 



enriched his collection of paintings by a great number of sketches, taken 

 on the spot, partly by himself and partly by able artists, during his re- 

 peated visits and long stay among the Shoshonies. They are as true a* 

 nature itself. 



