210 Morris, Letter of Edzvard Harris. Tm'' 



from the books establish any specific difference, — though I have 

 no doubt wlien we can place a number of them alongside of the 

 common one there will be something to distinguish them. It is 

 impossible that the same bird in different parts of the country 

 can have notes so decidedly different as to strike all of us as new 

 notes. But as we cannot set these notes down on paper and as 

 no bird has yet received its specific character from its note alone 

 we must wait patiently for some stronger development before it 

 can be published. We saw the Lazuli Finch, a very rare bird, 

 for the first time. It is worthy of remark that all the rare birds 

 we have found have a range much farther east than has been 

 heretofore assigned to them. Some of them have not been found 

 before on this side of the mountains. This gives us great hopes 

 of doing more than we expected in the bird line — as for the 

 quadrupeds the chance of securing them while ascending the 

 river does not equal Mr. i\udubon's expectations. We hope to 

 make it up when we reach the Yellow Stone and on our way 

 down the river." 



The remaining notes for the 24th inst. describe the movements 

 of the neighboring herds of buffalo and tell of the habits and 

 characteristics of the Townsend's hare, Mr. Harris and Mr. 

 Bell having observed one of these animals while on shore. The 

 25th was a cold and rainy day. the time being spent almost 

 entirely in the cabin of the steamboat. The journal for the 26th 

 is given over mostly to a description of the geological formations 

 of the county together with interesting remarks on the habits 

 and characteristics of the black-tailed deer, prairie dog, etc. 

 At five p. i\r. they left the boat for the purpose of going across 

 an isthmus which separated two bends in the river, their plan 

 being to meet the steamer on the farther bend the following day. 

 After tramping some distance and having killed a fine buck black- 

 tail, they camped for the night and had a supper of venison. 



The 27th and 28th are descriptive chiefly of the Indians, who 

 seemed to be none too friendly in their demonstrations, having 

 several times fired at the boat. A short stop was made at a 

 place called Fort George. They here met a Mr. Cutting, the 

 brother of a gentlemen with whom Mr. Harris had previously 

 travelled in Europe. 



