[ 7 ]                             392                                 /
The mounds made by the gophers or sand rats were more abundant than heretofore, and in several places a number of'these mounds had been made so close together that the distinctness of each was completely lost in the mass, covering an area of five or six feet.
Our road was full of plovers, feharadrius marrmratus;) they would run along before us with great rapidity; then stop until we approached quite close, when they would run off again. Thus they kept travelling before us all day. We shot several of them, and I preserved some of their skins, more as a memento of the prairies than as a curiosity, for these birds are very abundant in the United States, from Canada to the gulf of Mexico.
As we proceeded on our journey, we heard the confused hum of thousands of grasshoppers, now and then broken by tjie chirping of the cricket. These insects are fou,nd in great abundance, and obtain greater size than any I have seen elsewhere. I got a cricket this morning that rneasuied 1}-, inches in length of its body.
We now enUred on the level prairie, where nothing was to be seen but a wiae expanse of green grass, and the, sky above filled with cumulus clouds, the shadows of which, as they fell upon us, added to the lefreshing effects of the delightful breeze one generally meets upon the prairie. After travelling a long distance over a country, the irregularities of which were so imperceptible that one almost doubled their existence, we reached that position which I took to be the lop of the divide. Here lay the half devoured carcass of an ox that had, doublle?s, succumbed to the fatigues of the journey and deprivation of water ; for these aniin. 3s suffer ma oh inore from the want of watw than the muip. Some turkey vultures, sailing above our heads, showed that they were not igno-l'i.iit of the locality of the carrion.
In a little while after passing the ox's carctss, we reached 110 mile creek, wSiich is 22 nines distant from our last merit's camp. At this creek there is a fine grove of timber, containing all the varieties found in the vicinity of the Karu;-!S jiver.
About 12 o'clock we reached this creek, and we here found the robin, (tuidus rnigiatorius.) the cat bird and the bMse bird; and, high above us, the swallow-tailed hawk (nruclerus furtatus) was sweeping round in graceful circles, its white head glancing- in the sunlight. I asked the Indian lad-to shoot it for me with his rifle; but he gazed upwards at the bird, and seemed so struck with the beauty of its movements U.-at he uttered not a '.vord. but shook his head to signify that !he bird was too fail- for him to kill it. I should think it impossible for smaller birds ever to escape this hawk, which unites tlieforra am! swiftness of the swallow wi'.h the boldness and strength of wing of the falcon.
.Nigh the banks of the. stream there was a low piece of giound covered with the purple monarda, (monarda allophvlla.) The gaudy butterflies that I hsve spoktr. of before, as flit'in^ around the ssclepias were now sucking the sweets of these flowers.
Before ne had fairly pitched our tents, young Mr. Nourse, of Washington city, entered our camp.     He had, r.lone, boldly set