Rocky Mountains. 4,5 



a huge pile of architectural ruins. From this point, the 

 bearing of James' Peak* was found to be due north. 



The Arkansa valley between our encampment of the 18th 

 and the mountains, a distance of about thirty miles, has a 

 meagre and gravelly soil sustaining a growth of small cotton- 

 wood trees, rushes, and coarse grass. Above the rocky bluffs 

 on each side spreads a dreary expanse of almost naked sand, 

 intermixed with clay enough to prevent its drifting with the 

 •wind, but not enough to give it fertility. It is arid and sterile, 

 bearing only a few dwarfish cedars, and must forever remain 

 desolate. 



Observations were made at camp, for ascertaining the lati- 

 tude, longitude, Sec. and all the party were occupied in their 

 appropriate pursuits. Among the animals taken here, was 

 the four-lined squirrel, (S. 4-vittatusf) a very small and 

 handsome species, very similar in its dorsal markings, to 



* " From the information of Indians and hunters who have frequently 

 visited this part of the country, as also from the account given by Pike, 

 relative to this Peak, it appears thai no person either civilized or savage, 

 had ever ascended it to its summit, and that the ascent was deemed by 

 them, utterly impracticable. Dr. James hrjving accomplished this difficult 

 and hazardous task, I have thought proper to call the Peak after his name, 

 as a compliment, to which his zeal and perseverance, together with the 

 skilful attention with which he has examined its character and produc- 

 tions, give him the fairest claim. Pike has indeed given us notice that there 

 is such a Peak, but he only saw it at a distance. The unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances under which he came into its neighbourhood, preventing his 

 arrival, even at its base. He attempted to ascertain its altitude, but it is 

 believed tl)at his estimate is very erroneous." Extract from Major 

 Long's jMS. J^oles,July, \5lh, 1820. 



f Genus Sciurus, L. 



S. quadriviltaluf. Say. Head brownish intermixed with fulvous, and with 

 four white lines, of which the superior one on each side, passes from the tip 

 of the nose immediately over the eye to the superior base ofthe ear, and the 

 inferior one passes immediately beneath the eye to the inferior base of the 

 earjcarsmoderate. semi-oval; incmorf* reddish-yellow; fertcA" with four white 

 broad lines, and alternate mi.xed black and ferruginous ones; sidci fulvous; 

 henfifttk wiiitish; tail moderate, hair black at the base, then fulvous, black 

 in the middle, and paler fulvous at tip, beneath fulvous with a submargi- 

 nal black line; thumb ofthe anterior feet a prominent tubercle. 



Length from the nose to the base ofthe tail, 4 1-4 inches, 

 ofthe tail, .... 3 



of the hair at tip of the tail, . . 1 nearly. 



