122 Expedition to the 



leaved elms. This tree (the Ulmus alata^ N.) is not known 

 in the Eastern States, but is common in many parts of Ten- 

 nessee, Missouri, and Arkansa. When found in forests in- 

 termixed with other trees, it is usually of a smaller size than 

 the Ulmus Americana, and is distinguished from it by the 

 smallness of the leaves and the whiteness of the trunk. On 

 the borders of the open country, where large trees often 

 occur entirely isolated, the Ulmus alata has decidedly a 

 more dense and flattened top than any other tree we have 

 seen. When standing entirely alone, it rarely attains an 

 elevation of more than thirty or thirty-five feet, but its 

 top, lying close to the ground, is spread over an area of 

 sixty or seventy feet in diameter, and is externally so close 

 and smooth as to resemble, when seen from a distance, a 

 smdl grassy hillock. 



Near our camp was a circular breast-work, constructed 

 like those already mentioned, and large enough to contain 

 eighty or an hundred men. We were not particularly pleas- 

 ed at meeting these works so frequently, as they indicate 

 a country subject to the incursions and ravages of Indian 

 war parties, 



16th. The greater part of the flesh of the bison, killed 

 on the preceding evening, had been dried and smoked in 

 the course of the night, so that we had now no fear of 

 immediate suffering from hunger, having as much jerked 

 meat as was sufficient to last several days. 



The sky continued clear, but the wind was high, and the 

 drifting of the sand occasioned much annoyance. The heat 

 of the atmosphere became more intolerable, on account of 

 the showers of burning sand driven against us, with such 

 force as to penetrate every part of our dress, and proving so 

 afflictive to our eyes, that it was with the greatest difficulty 

 we could see to guide our horses. The sand is carried from 

 the bed of the river, which is here a naked beach, of more 

 than half a mile wide, and piled in immense drifts along the 

 bank. Some of these heaps we have seen covering the trunk 



