
          This is the "Moss" that cattle, deer, hogs, and in former
times the Bison, [?] with so much avidity. In the
summer cattle, deer & hogs go into the sholes &
and feed upon it - Indians & frontier hunters [?] to
[secrete?] themselves by the shoals to shoot the deer
when they come to feed on the moss in the River.
[crossed out: I am here] One of our creeks Itchee Conna,
meaning deer trap. the deer had but one place at a
certain shoal to get to the creek to feed & when
the Indian found him, he was as safe as in a
trap, he was sure of it, and hence the name.
One fact in relation to ruminating and I have
done with this long note.  a gentlemen of
unquestionable veracity who on a boat on
Flint River, after remarking how excessively
fond cattle were of the moss, said that
cattle [added: & swallow] in feeding on the moss take in [crossed out: their]
with it a great many small pebbles [added: entangled in the moss] & that
during the night, while rechewing the previous
days ingesta, they along with it regurgitate
the pebbles & in this second regurgitation take
care to drop the pebbles out of their mouths.
He had often seen a large handful of
pebbles thus spit out by a single cow in the
course of one night  thus the moss gives
us an additional cause for contemplating
the wisdom of deity in constituting the
order of Ruminacea  They would have
been a useful fact to the Compilers of
the Bridgewater Treatises 
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9. ["?] Schwalbea. Polyg. viridescens & [?]
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10. Solanum Hirsutum (Nutt) abundant here.
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11 - Asclepiadiae. Certainly not described
in any authority to which I can refer. & if
you assent to the course persued by Mr.  

        