Rocky Mountains. 449 



grateful fragrance. The Symphoria glomerata, common in 

 all the country west of the Mississippi thus far , is also a beau- 

 tiful shrub very frequent at this place; the flowers are white, 

 with a faint and delicate tinge of red, having the inside of 

 the corrolla densely villous, like the Mitchilla, to which 

 plant it is manifestly allied. On the hills, at a little distance 

 from the river, we observed the Cactus fragilis. This plant, 

 which was first detected on the Missouri by Lewis and 

 Clark, has been accurately described by Mr. Nuttall. The 

 articulations or joints of which it consists, are small, oblong, 

 and tapering, but separate from each other with great readi- 

 ness, and adhere by means of the barbed spines, with which 

 they are thickly set, to whatever they may happen to touch. 

 This has led to a saying among the hunters, that the plant 

 grows without roots. 



In the afternoon a young Indian belonging to the Ankara 

 nation on the Missouri, but who resided among the Paw- 

 nees, stopped at our camp, on his return from a solitary 

 excursion to the Arkansa. He had brought with him, from 

 one of the upper branches of that river, two masses of salt, 

 each weighing about thirty pounds. This salt is pure and 

 perfect, consisting of large crystalline grains, so concreted 

 together as to form a mass about twenty inches in diameter 

 and six in thickness. It had evidently been formed by the 

 evaporation of water in some pond or basin, and that surface 

 of the mass, which was its lower in its original position, 

 was intermixed with red sand, indicating the sort of soil in 

 which it is found. Mr. Peale procured some specimens in 

 exchange for tobacco. 



This Indian had been many days absent, on his excursion, 

 and as he sat upon his horse before our encampment we had 

 an opportunity to note a trait in the Indian character, 

 which has been the subject of remark by many authors, and 

 which we had previously observed in several instances 

 ourselves; we allude to the apparent coolness which friends, 



vol. i. 57 



