506 AUDUBON 



drawn without much difficulty; this is quite white; the 

 exterior is a dirty, dark brown. The roots are woody. 

 The flowers were not in bloom, but I perceived that the 

 leaves are ovate, and attached in fives. This plant is col- 

 lected in great quantities by the Indians at this season 

 and during the whole summer, and put to dry, which ren- 

 ders it as hard as wood; it is then pounded fine, and 

 makes an excellent kind of mush, upon which the Indians 

 feed greedily. I will take some home. We found pieces 

 of crystallized gypsum ; we saw Meadow Larks whose 

 songs and single notes are quite different from those of 

 the Eastern States; we have not yet been able to kill one 

 to decide if new or not.^ We have seen the Arkansas Fly- 

 catcher, Sparrow-hawks, Geese, etc. The country grows 

 poorer as we ascend; the bluffs exhibit oxide of iron, 

 sulphur, and also magnesia. We have made a good day's 

 run, though the wind blew rather fresh from the north- 

 west. Harris shot a Marsh Hawk, Sprague a Night- 

 hawk, and some small birds, and I saw Martins breeding 

 in Woodpeckers' holes in high and large cotton-trees. 

 We passed the " Grand Town " ^ very early this morning; 

 I did not see it, however. Could we have remained on 

 shore at several places that we passed, we should have 

 made havoc with the Buffaloes, no doubt ; but we shall 

 have enough of that sport ere long. They all look 

 extremely poor and shabby; we see them sporting among 

 themselves, butting and tearing up the earth, and when 

 at a gallop they throw up the dust behind them. We 



1 This is Audubon's first mention of the Western Meadow Lark, which 

 he afterward decided to be a distinct species and named Stitrnella ues^lecta, 

 H. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 339, pi. 487. It is interesting to find him noting the 

 difference in the song from that of the Eastern species before he had had 

 an opportunity of examining the bird itself. — E. C. 



2 "Grand Town" is perhaps the large prairie-dog village which once cov- 

 ered several acres on the right bank of the Missouri, in the vicinity of the 

 butte known as the Dome, or Tower, between Yankton and Fort Randall. 

 — E. C. 



