THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 459 



talons ; also a few White-fronted Geese, some Blue-winged 

 Teal, and some Cormorants/ but none with the head, 

 neck, and breast pure white, as the one I saw two days ago. 

 The strength of the current seemed to increase ; in some 

 places our boat merely kept her own, and in one in- 

 stance fell back nearly half a mile to where we had 

 taken in wood. At about ten this evening we came 

 into such strong water that nothing could be done 

 against it ; we laid up for the night at the lower end of a 

 willow island, and then cleaned the boilers and took in 

 200 fence-rails, which the French Canadians call " perches." 

 Now a. perchc in French means a pole; therefore this must 

 be patois. 



29th. We were off at five this rainy morning, and at 9 

 A. M, reached Booneville,^ distant from St. Louis about 204 

 miles. We bought at this place an axe, a saw, three files, 

 and some wafers ; also some chickens, at one dollar a 

 dozen. We found here some of the Santa Fe traders with 

 whom we had crossed the Alleghanies. They were await- 

 ing the arrival of their goods, and then would immedi- 

 ately start. I saw a Rabbit sitting under the shelf of a 

 rock, and also a Gray Squirrel. It appears to me that 

 Sciunis macrourus ^ of Say relishes the bottom lands in 



1 What Cormorants these were is somewhat uncertain, as more than one 

 species answering to the indications given may be found in this locality. 

 Probably they were Phalacrocorax dilophus Jloridanus, first described and 

 figured by Audubon as the Florida Cormorant, P. floridanus : Om. Biog. 

 iii., 1835, p. 387, pi. 251 ; B. of Amer. vi., 1843, P- 43°' P'- 4i7- The alterna- 

 tive identification in this case is P. mexicanus of Brandt. — E. C 



2 In present Cooper County, Mo., near the mouth of Mine River. It was 

 named for the celebrated Daniel Boone, who owned an extensive grant of 

 land in this vicinity. Booneville followed upon the earlier settlement at 

 Boone's Lick, or Boone's Salt Works, and in 1819 consisted of eight houses. 

 According to the Missouri River Commission charts, the distance from the 

 mouth of the Missouri River is 197 miles. — E. C. 



3 Say, in Long's Exped. i., 1823, p. 115, described from what is now 

 Kansas. This is the well-known Western Fox Squirrel, S. hidovicianus of 

 Custis, in Barton's Med. and Phys. Joum. ii., 1806, p. 43. It has been re- 

 peatedly described and figured under other names, as follows : S. subauratus^ 



