414 Expedition to the 



name, pnlustris, would seem to imply. Our course, inclining 

 considerably towards the Missouri, made it necessary to 

 leave the elevated region of the plains and betake ourselves 

 to the forests, soon after passing the Grand prairie. In these 

 forests the linden, the hop horn beam, maple, beech, and ash, 

 attain an uncommon magnitude. The blue beech, (ostrya 

 virginica) sometimes occurs, and is of a larger growth than 

 in New England. 



Extensive and very accessible beds of coal have been open- 

 ed near Thrall's plantation. The inhabitants assert that, in 

 sinking wells the trunks of large trees have been met with, 

 at a great depth below the surface. We could, however, dis- 

 cover no satisfactory confirmation of this statement. The 

 soil appeared to us to exhibit no evidence of having been dis- 

 turbed at any period, since the deposition of the coal beds, 

 and the accompanying sandstones. - 



On the 8th of June we arrived at Franklin. Here we de- 

 layed several days, in the expectation of receiving from 

 Washington some farther instructions, and the supply of 

 funds necessary for the prosecution of the duties of the expe- 

 dition. Having anxiously awaited one weekly arrival of the 

 mail, and being disappointed of the expected communica- 

 tions, Major Long resolved to continue the journey, and to 

 proceed in the accomplishment of the services assigned him, 

 as far as the means then at his command would allow. As 

 the great part of our proposed route to Council Bluff lay 

 through the wilderness, we now thought it necessary to pro- 

 cure two horses in addition to those we already had, one of 

 them to be loaded with provisions, and the other for the use 

 of a man, whom we had engaged to accompany us. 



We left Franklin on the 14th, and proceeding by a rugged 

 and circuitous road across a tract of hilly forests, arrived at 

 Charaton the same evening. 



From Charaton to the mouth of Grand river, the trace, as 

 the paths are here called, passes through a tract of low allu- 



