106 Expedition to the 



had left in Tennessee ; but he did not wish to spend all his 

 life in one place, and he had learned, from experience, that a 

 man might live in greater ease and freedom where his 

 neighbours were not very numerous. 



A person upwards of sixty years old, who had recently 

 arrived at one of the highest settlements of the Missouri, 

 inquired of us very particularly of the river Platte, and of 

 the qualitv of the lands about its source. We discovered that 

 he had the most serious intention of removing with his fami- 

 ly to that river. On the last day of July and the .first of Au. 

 gust about two inches of rain fell : the prevailing winds 

 were from the north-east ; but the superior strata of the at- 

 mosphere carried clouds of different descriptions in differ- 

 ent, and sometimes opposite directions. The moon, soon af- 

 ter rising, passed behind a long dense body of cirrus clouds, 

 that floated over the eastern horizon. Long and distinct 

 radii were soon after seen converging to a point fifteen or 

 twenty of the moon's diameters to the eastward of its disk. 

 Such is the refracting power of the aqueous vapors some- 

 times suspended in the atmosphere. 



Horizontal strata of sandstone, and compact limestone, are 

 disclosed in the cliffs on both sides the valley of the Mis- 

 souri. These rocks contain numerous remains of Caryophilla, 

 Productus, and Terebratulse.* 



* From Fort Osage. 



Productus spinosus. Say. Longitudinally and transversely subequally 

 striated, the transverse striae somewhat larger than the others; a few re- 

 mote short spines, or acute tubercles,, on the surface, arising from the lon- 

 gitudinal striae. 



Breadth an inch and a half; the striae are somewhat indistinct — as in 

 No. 5. 



Productus incurvus. Say. Shell much compressed ; hinge margin nearly 

 rectilinear; surface of the valves longitudinally striated; convex valve 

 longitudinally indented in the middle ; the beak prominent and incurved 

 at tip ; opposite valve with a longitudinal prominence in the middle ; the 

 beak incurved into the hinge beneath the other beak and distant from it. 



Width more than 2 2-5 inches — A few univalves also occurred, but 

 they were so extremely imperfect that their genera could not be made 



OUti 



