226 NOTES TAKEN. _ 
the command arrived at the first settlement than he made his 
appearance, and told the officer that the trail he ordered him 
to follow, terminated there, having with indomitable perseve- 
rance followed it several hundred miles through that wild 
country, subsisting upon what he could kill, but determined 
to obey orders to the letter. 
Their sagacity in detecting and describing signs in the 
prairie I have before remarked upon, and it appears to be intui- 
tive and peculiar to the Indian. In crossing a trail one day, one 
of them picked up a blade of grass that had been crushed, 
and said that the trail was two days old, when to all appear- 
ance it was perfectly fresh; subsequent events proved he 
was correct. At another time, the attention of one of them 
was called to some tracks in the sand, looking like the 
impression made by the toes, foot and heel of a bear, he 
immediately pointed to some blades of grass hanging about 
ten inches over the marks, and explained that when the wind 
blew, the blades were pressed over, and their oscillations 
scooped out the light sand in the form seen. 
These traits, besides their wonderful powers of judging of 
country and knowledge of Indian character and habits, 
render them invaluable on the frontier, and it would be 
_ Well for the government to attach a few to each company of 
troops engaged in this service, thus enabling them to operate 
to much greater advantage against the prairie tribes. 
The Shawnees live on Little River, a tributary of the 
Canadian, They assimilate to the Delawares, and inter- 
