Rocky Mountains. 255 



nor any pin sufficiently large to impale it, we substituted 9 

 wooden peg, by which it was attached to the inside of a 

 hat. I'his species so closely resembles, both in form, colour, 

 ind magnitude, the gigantic bird-catching spider of South 

 America,* that from a minute survey of this specimen, 

 which is a female, we cannot discover the slightest character- 

 istic distinction. But as an examination of the male compara- 

 tively with that of the avicularia, may exhibit distinctive 

 traits, we refrain from deciding positively upon the species. 



Distance, twenty-four miles. 



rth. The Illinois is called by the Osages, Eng-wah-con- 

 dah, or Medicine-stone creek. At our fording place, near 

 the saline, it was about sixty yards wide, with clear water, 

 and pebbly shores, like those of the Neosho. We proceeded 

 on through a country wooded with small oaks, interspersed 

 with occasional small prairies, and crossed a deep ravine, 

 called Bayou Viande. These bayous, as they are named 

 in this country, unlike those of the lower portion of the 

 Mississippi river, are large, and often very profound ra- 

 vines or water courses, which, during the spring season, or 

 after heavy rains, receive the water from the surface of the 

 prairies, and convey it to the river; but in the summer and 

 early autumn, the sources being exhausted, the water subsides 

 in their channels, occupying only the deeper parts of their 

 bed, in the form of stagnant pools, exhaling miasmata to the 

 atmosphere, and rendering their vicinity prejudicial to health. 



The extreme temperature of the day was 93 degrees, but 

 it was rather abruptly reduced by a strong wind with 

 thunder and lightning, from the S. E. which brought up a 

 heavy rain, that continued to drench us until the evening, 

 when, after a ride of fourteen miles, we encamped at Bayou 

 Salaison, or meat salting Bayou. At our mid-day refectory, 

 we were much annoyed by great numbers of small ticks, 

 that were excessively abundant amongst the grass, and crawl- 



* Mygale avicularia. 



