350 FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. 



revoking it himself. Time passed, and finally 

 when Fremont moved his troops down the Mis- 

 souri in pursuit of the enemy, complaints which 

 had been constantly growing louder at last broke 

 out. It was charged that his administration was 

 at once arbitrary and inefficient ; that it was ex- 

 travagant and pompous. These complaints were 

 investigated by the Secretary of War, and Fre- 

 mont was relieved from his command Nov. 1, 



1861, just as he had overtaken the enemy at 

 Springfield. The citizens of St. Louis gave him 

 an enthusiastic reception on his return. In March, 



1862, he was given command of a newly consti- 

 tuted department, " the mountain district " of 

 Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In June his 

 army met a superior force under Gen. Jackson, 

 and for eight days there was constant skirmish- 

 ing, while Jackson was retreating. The pursuit 

 ended in a severe battle at Cross Keys, in which- 

 Gen. Ashby, Jackson's chief of cavalry, was 

 killed, and then Jackson escaped, having accom- 

 plished his purpose of hindering re-enforcements 

 to McClellan. Fremont claimed that if he had 

 been re-enforced by McDowell, as had been prom- 

 ised him by the President, Jackson's retreat 

 could have been cut off. On June 26, the Presi- 

 dent issued an order creating the Army of Vir- 

 ginia, with Gen. John Pope as its commander, 

 and Fremont's corps was to be included in it ; 

 whereupon he asked to be relieved, as he could 

 not serve under Gen. Pope for personal reasons. 

 He was relieved, and went to New York, where 

 he remained throughout the remainder of the 

 war, being given no other command, although, 

 he says, he was promised one. 



In May, 1864, a body of Republicans who were 

 adverse to Mr. Lincoln's administration, held a 

 convention at Cleveland, in view of the coming 

 election, and nominated Fremont as their can- 

 didate for the presidency. He accepted the nomi- 

 nation, but was visited in September by a com- 

 mittee of Administration Republicans, and urged 

 to withdraw his name, which he consented to do. 

 In his letter of withdrawal he said : " I do this 

 not to >aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but 

 to do my part toward preventing the election of 

 the Democratic candidate." 



After the war Gen. Fremont withdrew from 

 public affairs and interested himself chiefly with 

 railroad matters. He obtained from the Legisla- 

 ture of Texas a grant of land in the interest of 

 the Memphis and El Paso Railway, which was 

 to form part of a transcontinental road from 

 Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco. The 

 French agents employed to place the land-grant 

 bonds of this road on the French market made 

 the false declaration that they were guaranteed 

 by the United States Government. In 1869 the 

 Senate granted Fremont's road the right of 

 way through the Territories, his opponents hav- 

 ing failed in an attempt to fix upon him the 

 blame for the false presentation in France. The 

 Government of that country prosecuted him for 

 fraud in connection with the misstatement, and, 

 by default, sentenced him to fine and imprison- 

 ment. From 1878 to 1881 Fremont was Gov- 

 ernor of Arizona. 



He published " Report of the Exploring Ex- 

 pedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and 

 to Oregon and North California in 1843-'44" 

 (Washington, 1845 ; New York, 1846 ; London, 



FUNGI, EDIBLE. 



1849) ; " Col. J. C. Fremont's Explorations," an 

 account of all five of his expeditions (2 vols., 

 Philadelphia, 1859) ; and " Memoirs of my Life " 

 (first volume, New York, 1886). See also the 

 campaign biographies by John Bigelow (New 

 York, 1856), and Charles Went worth Upham 

 (Boston, 1856.) 



FUNGI, EDIBLE. The eminent German 

 chemist C. F. Morner says that the amount of 

 nitrogen in edible fungi varies between 2 and 

 8-64 per cent, in the dry material ; that 41 per 

 cent, of the total nitrogen is made of use in ali- 

 mentation ; that the remainder belongs to non- 

 assimilable bodies ; and that fungi constitute a 

 very poor kind of food, because the investigation 

 made related to dry material and not to the 

 moist. In this connection Morner gave several 

 tables showing the amounts of several kinds of 

 fungi that would be required to equal a pound 

 of beef as follows. Mushrooms, 9 pounds : Lac- 

 tarius deliciosus, 24 pounds ; chanterelle, 41 

 pounds; morel, 15 pounds; Polyporus ovinus, 

 67 pounds. Recent experiments at the agri- 

 cultural experiment station of the State of New 

 York do not appear to sustain the statements of 

 Prof. Morner. A quantity of mushrooms (Aga- 

 ricus campestris) growing in a pasture was 

 gathered and subjected to analysis, and the di- 

 gestibility of the albuminoids was determined 

 by the pepsin method. The results were as fol- 

 low : 





The total nitrogen found in the dry substance 

 was about 2*5 times as great as the highest fig- 

 ures given by the German chemist, while the di- 

 gestibility placed it among the exceptionally 

 rich nitrogenous foods. Experiments were also 

 made with puff-balls. A very large one was found 

 to have been broken into many fragments by 

 careless hands, but many of the broken fragments 

 were gathered and taken for analysis. This spec- 

 imen was in fine edible maturity. Another fresh 

 one, a fine large specimen of Lycoperdon gigan- 

 teum was examined. The following measure- 

 ments were taken in connection with the anal- 

 ysis : Greatest diameter, 12-5 inches ; height, 7-5 

 inches : horizontal circumference, 37*25 inches ; 

 vertical circumference, 53'5 inches ; weight, 2,864 

 grammes, or 6 - 35 pounds. 



