Rocky Mountains. 77 



bot formerly from Kentucky, has been resident here for nine 

 years. His farm is in a high state of cultivation, and furnish- 

 es abundant supplies of poultry, eggs, potatoes, and the nu- 

 merous products of the kitchen garden, of which he sent a 

 handsome present on board our boat. He informed us that 

 peach trees succeed well in the most fertile parts of the 

 island. 



The first dwellings constructed by the white settlers, are 

 nearly similar in every part of the United States. Superior 

 wealth and industry are indicated by the number, and mag- 

 nitude of corn-cribs, smoke houses, and similar appurte- 

 nances; but on the Missouri, we rarely meet with any thing 

 occupying the place of the barn in the northern States. The 

 dwellings of people who have emigrated from Virginia, or 

 any of the more southern states, have usually the form of 

 double cabins, or two distinct houses, each containing a sin- 

 gle room, and connected to each other by a roof, the inter- 

 mediate space, which is often equal in area to one of the cab- 

 ins, being left open at the sides, and having the naked earth 

 for a floor, affords a cool, and airy retreat, where the family 

 will usually be found in the heat of the day. The roof is 

 composed of from three to five logs, laid longitudinally, and 

 extending from end to end of the building; on these are laid 

 the shingles, iour or five feet in length; over these are three 

 or four heavy logs, called weight poles, secured at their ends 

 by withes, and by their weight supplying the place of nails. 



They have corn mills, consisting of a large horizontal 

 wooden wheel, moved by a horse, and having a band passed 

 round its periphery, to communicate motion to the stone. 

 These are called band mills, and are the most simple, and 

 economical of those in which the power of horses is employ- 

 ed. The solitary planter, who has chosen his place remote 

 from the habitation of any other family, has some times a 

 mill of a more primitive character, called a hand mill, proba- 

 bly differing, little from those used among the ancient Egyp- 



