Reeky Mountains. 419 



seem tedious. We pursued our course during the greater 

 part of the day along the same wide plain, and at evening 

 the woody point in which we had encamped en the pre- 

 ceding night, was yet discernible. 



Nothing is more difficult than to estimate by the eye, the 

 distance of objects seen in these plains. A small animaL, as a 

 wolf or a turkey, sometimes appears of the magnitude of a 

 horse, on account of an erroneous impression of distance. 

 Three elk, which were the first we had seen, crossed our path 

 at some distance before us. The effect of the mirage^ to- 

 gether with our indefinite idea of the distance, magnified 

 these animals to a most prodigious size. For a moment we 

 thought we saw the mastodon of America, moving in those 

 vast plains, which seem to have been created for his dwell- 

 ing place. An animal seen for the first time, or any object 

 with which the eye is unacquainted, usually appears much 

 enlarged, and inaccurate ideas are formed of the magnitude 

 and distance of all the surrounding objects; but if some well 

 known animal, as a deer or a wolf, comes into the field of vi- 

 sion so near as to be recognized, the illusions vanish, and 

 all things return to their proper dimensions. 



Soon after we had left our encampment, on one of the 

 bright sunny mornings which occurred, when we were in the 

 country near the sources of Grand river, we discovered as 

 we thought, several large animals feeding in the prairie, at 

 the distance of half a mile. These we believed could be no 

 other than bisons, and after a consultation respecting the best 

 method of surprising them, two of our party dismounted, 

 and creeping with great care and caution, about one-fourth 

 of a mile through the high grass, arrived near the spot, and 

 discovered an old turkey, with her brood of half grown young, 

 the only animals now to be seen. 



On the evening of the :20th. May, we encamped in a low 

 muddy bottom, overgrown with netdes and phacelias, but 

 the only place we could find combining the three requis:: 



