506 AUDUBON 



drawn without much difficulty; this is quite white; the 

 exterior is a dirty, dark brown. The roots are woody. 

 The flowers were not in bloom, but I perceived that the 

 leaves are ovate, and attached in fives. This plant is col- 

 lected in great quantities by the Indians at this season 

 and during the whole summer, and put to dry, which ren- 

 ders it as hard as wood; it is then pounded fine, and 

 makes an excellent kind of mush, upon which the Indians 

 feed greedily. I will take some home. We found pieces 

 of crystallized gypsum ; we saw Meadow Larks whose 

 songs and single notes are quite different from those of 

 the Eastern States; we have not yet been able to kill one 

 to decide if new or not. 1 We have seen the Arkansas Fly- 

 catcher, Sparrow-hawks, Geese, etc. The country grows 

 poorer as we ascend; the bluffs exhibit oxide of iron, 

 sulphur, and also magnesia. We have made a good day's 

 run, though the wind blew rather fresh from the north- 

 west. Harris shot a Marsh Hawk, Sprague a Night- 

 hawk, and some small birds, and I saw Martins breeding 

 in Woodpeckers' holes in high and large cotton-trees. 

 We passed the "Grand Town" 2 very early this morning; 

 I did not see it, however. Could we have remained on 

 shore at several places that we passed, we should have 

 made havoc with the Buffaloes, no doubt; but we shall 

 have enough of that sport ere long. They all look 

 extremely poor and shabby; we see them sporting among 

 themselves, butting and tearing up the earth, and when 

 at a gallop they throw up the dust behind them. We 



1 This is Audubon's first mention of the Western Meadow Lark, which 

 he afterward decided to be a distinct species and named Sturnella neglecta, 

 B. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 339, pi. 487. It is interesting to find him noting the 

 difference in the song from that of the Eastern species before he had had 

 an opportunity of examining the bird itself. — E. C. 



2 " Grand Town" is perhaps the large prairie-dog village which once cov- 

 ered several acres on the right bank of the Missouri, in the vicinity of the 

 butte known as the Dome, or Tower, between Yankton and Fort Randall. 

 — E. C. 



