104 NOTES TAKEN. 
panther, bounding towards him and within twenty paces. In- 
stantly changing the direction of his rifle, he fired and sue- 
ceeded in dispatching the animal—the Indian guide also, once 
lured a doe and fawn within range, when a panther anti- 
cipated him by seizing the fawn, but was immediately shot. 
A large horned adder was added to our collection to-day, 
sunset found us again on the march, and ten miles brought us 
toa branch of the Trinity where we fixed our camp for the 
next day. 
July 11th.—The country we had been passing over, since 
leaving the Cross Timbers, was a rolling prairie, very thin in 
soil and timber very scarce. At this point we began to find 
the Mesquite trees in great abundance. 
This growth is a very singular one, variously called Mes- 
quite, Mezkeet, Musquit and Muckeet. The trees grow short 
and scrubby, seldom attaining a height of twenty feet, with 
the trunk, from four to fifteen inches in diameter. The 
limbs are short, crooked and very thickly studded with sharp 
thorns, The leaf is pinnated, long, and the leaflets elliptical, 
the bark a dark gray, resembling that of the peach tree, the 
wood coarse grained and very brittle, with the heart like 
dark mahogany. It burns readily, with a clear flame, leaving 
a very hot and perfect coal, like hickory. 
The trees grow singly, and at such regular intervals as to 
resemble a plantation, and so much like a peach orchard that 
one cannot divest himself of the idea, in entering a grove, 
