Expedition, &c. 31 



never able to discover, to what use this implement could 

 have been applied; nor do we recollect to have met with ac- 

 counts of any thing analogous to it, except, perhaps, those 

 " tubes of a very hard stone," mentioned by the Jesuit 

 Venegas, as used by the natives of California, in their treat- 

 ment of the sick.* That it may have passed, by means of 

 the intercourse of various tribes of Indians, from the primi- 

 tive mountains of California, to the rapids of the Ohio, is 

 not perhaps, improbable. Indirect methods of communica- 

 tion may have conveyed the productions of one part of the 

 continent to another, very remote from it. The savages of 

 the Missouri, receive an intoxicating bean, from their neigh- 

 bours on the south and west ; these again, must probably 

 procure it from other tribes inhabiting, or occasionally visit- 

 ing, the tropical regions. 



In the Philadelphia museum, are many Indian pipes, 

 of that red indurated clay, found only, (as far as hitherto 

 known,) on the Pipe Stcne branch of the little Sioux river 

 of the Missouri; one of these, however, was found on the 

 banks of the Rio de la Plata, in South America; several 

 were found in the territory now called New England, and 

 in the north eastern part of the continent. 



On the 26th we passed the mouth of the Wabash, and 

 arrived at Shawaneetown, ten miles below. Near the mouth 

 of the Wabash, an accident happened to the engine, which 

 rendered it necessary for us to drift down, until we should 

 arrive at some place, where repairs might be made. Some 

 of the gentlemen of the party, determined to go on shore, 

 and walk to Shawaneetown. In swimming across a creek, 

 three miles above that place, Lieutenant Graham dropped his 

 rifle in the water, and, having spent some time, in attempts 

 to recover it, did not arrive at Shawaneetown, until after 

 the boat had reached that place. 



* Page 108. 



