THE AflSSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



459 



I during autumn 

 t, and here they 

 soil of the river 

 r it is somewhat 

 ctomys monax, or 

 e, and the night 

 ning of the 28th, 

 were in sight oi 

 :he State House 

 up and down the 

 J exception of the 

 on is a poor place, 

 This is^a^'^tobe 

 'e saw many Gray 

 passed under long 

 stupendous rocks 

 in them, where we 

 , dusk Harris saw 

 e rocky shores are 

 edar quite satisfac- 

 several places; at 

 rere abundant and 

 ed, " Game is very 

 ;gin to be trouble- 

 they are obliged 

 each night. 

 ;loudy and looked 

 ■arm, the thermom- 

 Inoon. We saw a 

 with a bird in its 



Ion Woodchuck, Arctmfi 



Ithe mouth of the river is 

 ]i45^mile,s. The name 



Eagles (Haliaetui lluc^ 



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 pcrche in French means a pole ; therefore this must 

 be patois. 



20th. 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 F6 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 

 Sciurus macrourus^ of Say relishes the bottom lands in 



I 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 floridanus, first described and 

 figured by Audubon as the Florida Cormorant, P. Jloridanus : Orn. Biog. 

 iii., 1835, p. 387, pi. 251 ; B. of Amer. vi., 1843, P- 43°' P'- 4'7- '^'^^ alterna- 

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



* 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 18 19 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. 



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



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



I 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^ 



.iHi^lplll 



