10 Expedition to the 



only spot in the boundless landscape, where the eye could 

 rest on the work of human hands. 



Astronomical observations were attempted at camp, but 

 in the middle of the day the moon was too near the sun, and 

 in the evening the sky was cloudy. 



The sickness experienced by almost all the party, was, 

 probably, occasioned by eating currants, which were abun- 

 dant about the camp. It is not to be supposed, this illness 

 was caused by any very active deleterious quality in the 

 fruit, but that the stomach, by long disuse, had, in a great 

 measure, lost the power of digesting fruits. Several continu- 

 ed unwell during the night. 



On the morning of the 9th, we resumed our journey, tra- 

 velling somewhat east of south, along a small tributary of 

 the Platte.* 



The bed of this stream lies from south to north, along a 

 narrow valley, bounded on each side by high cliffs of sand- 

 stone. The rock is similar to that already mentioned, its 



* A beautiful species of pigeon was shot near the mountain. The head 

 is of a purplish-cinereous colour; the back of the neck and its sides brilliant 

 gul 'en green, thi feathers at base brownish purple; above this patch, and 

 at base of the head, is a white semi-band; the under part of the neck is pale 

 vinaceous-purplish, this colour becomes paler as it approaches the vent, 

 which, with the inferior tail-coverts, is white; anterior portion of the back, 

 the wing-coverts and scapulars, are brownish-ash, the larger wing-feathers 

 dark brown, approaching black, the exterior edges whitish; the lower 

 part of the back, the rump and tail coverts, inferior wing-coverts and sides, 

 bluish-ash, paler beneath the wings; the shafts of the body feathers and 

 tail coverts are remarkably robust, tapering rather suddenly near the tips; 

 the tail is medial, rounded at tip, consisting of twelve feathers, a definite 

 black band at two thirds their length from the base, before which the co- 

 lour is bluish-asb and behind it dirly whitish; the bill is yellow, tipped with 

 black, somewhat gibbous behind the nostrils; the irides red; the feet yel- 

 low; claws black. 



This species seems to be most intimately allied to the ring-tailed pigeon 

 (C. caribcta.)^ from which it diflers in the colour of the legs and bill, and 

 in not having the gibbosity at the base of the latter, so remarkable; it is pos- 

 sible that it may be an intermediate link between the ring-tailed pigeon 

 and the stock pigeon of Europe, with the latter of which it has in common 

 the exterior white edging to the greater wing feathers. It may be dis- 

 tinguished by the name of band-tailed pigeon {( :o\umhA fasciata.) and may 

 be seen with other specimens of natural objects, collected in this expedi- 

 tion, in the Philadelphia Museum. 



