Rocky Mountains, 409 



the size, and the general appearance of small acorns, but are 

 much more palatable. . The large farinaceous root is some- 

 times used by the Indians as an article of diet, as are also 

 the nuts. 



Our path lay through extensive and fertile meadows, 

 stretching away to the distant horizon, and bounded some- 

 times by the verge of the sky, and sometimes by the margin 

 of a forest. The elk, the deer, and the bison, the indigenous 

 inhabitants of these delightful meadows, had been long since 

 driven away by the incursions of the white settlers, scattered 

 at remote intervals on the borders of the forests. The dense 

 and uniform growth of grass, had risen untrodden and un- 

 cropped, and was now waving with ceaseless undulations, as 

 the wind swept lightly over the surface of the plain. The 

 slender and graceful panicles of the Heuchera Americana 

 rising above the grass, resembled a grove of spears, bristling 

 above the heads of an embattled host. Along the margins of 

 the brooks, we noticed the beautiful spiraea opulifolia, and 

 a slender species of viburnum, bending under their clusters 

 of snowy flowers. 



Through the day, the weather had been fine but warm. 

 At sunset a thunder storm rose in the west, and the day 

 was succeeded, almost without any interval of twilight, by 

 the most impenetrable darkness. The wind soon rose to a 

 tempest, and hailstones of uncommon magnitude, began to 

 fall, accompanied with thunder and lightning. Our first 

 thought was to dismount from our horses, and shelter our- 

 selves from the hail, on the leeward side of their bodies. 

 We were in the middle of an extensive prairie, where no 

 other protection could be looked for. The hailstones, how- 

 ever, diminished in size, and soon ceased to fall, but such 

 torrents of rain ensued, that the plain became inundated, and 

 the frequent flashes of lightning, were reflected to our eyes, 

 from the surface of a vast lake. The plains in many places 

 having little inclination, the water of a sudden shower is 



VOL. i. 52 



