Rocky Mountains, 1^9 



fraxinus, with pinnated or many-parted leaves. Trees of 

 the family of the conifers are not of frequent occurrence 

 on the .Missouri. About the summits of rocky cliffs are 

 here and there a few cedars or junipers, the only trees that 

 retain their verdure during the winter. 



The prairies, for many miles on each side of the Missouri, 

 produce abundance of good pasturage ; but as far as our ob- 

 servation has extended, the best soil is a margin from ten 

 to twelve miles in breadth, along the western bank of the 

 river. In the summer very little water is to be found in the 

 prairies, all the smaller streams failing, even though the 

 season be not unusually dry. On account of the want of wood 

 and of water, the settlements will be, for a long time, con- 

 fined to the immediate vallies of the Missouri, the Konzas, 

 and the larger rivers ; but it is probable, forests will hereafter 

 be cultivated in those vast woodless regions, which now form 

 so great a proportion of the country ; and wells may be made 

 to supply the»deficiency of running water. 



We have seen at Bellefontain, as well as at several other 

 points on this river, a pretty species of sparrow, which is 

 altogether new to us ;* and several specimens of a serpent 



ed species. It is common throughout the western states and terri- 

 tories, and io Canada, where it is called by the French Chicot, or stump 

 tree, from the nakedness of its appearance in winter. In the English, 

 gardens, where it has been cultivated many years under the name of the 

 Hardy Bonduc,it has attained considerable magnitude, but has not hither- 

 to been known to produce flowers. 



* Fringilla grammacn. Say. Above blackish- brown- head lineated; 

 beneath white, a black line fro ; the inferior base of the inferior man- 

 dible, above this a dilated white line; from the angle of the mouth proceeds 

 a black line, which is much dilated and ferruginous behind the eye, 

 and terminates in a contracted black line; a black line from the eye to 

 the superior mandible enclosed, as well as the eye, by a dilated white 

 line which is more contracted behind the eye; top of the head with two 

 dilated lines, which are black on the front and ferruginous on the crown 

 and hind head, and separated from each other by a cinereous line; inter- 

 scapulars and lesser wing coverts margined with dull cinereous or brown- 

 ish; wings dusky brown, a white spot on the outer webs of the second, third, 



