Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1843-07-22

ed by DR.. Gideon b. Smith, from this distinguish
by his friends:
Missouri RIVER, MAY p, 1913.
My DEAR FRIEND: AS IL happens now
fast a bar, about $50 miles below Fort s.. Pier
re, one of the many establishments of the Amer-
can Fur Company, | have taken It into my head
10 bore you with another letter, and you must
m Ike the best Of it; will however try 10 give 1t
some interest as far as can, Since my last 10
yon dated May IS, the country has assumed a
different aspect, and that for the worse. The
river has become more contracted between the
hills through which it passes, and has also become
more straight; we meot with less water, fewer
snags, and many more sand bars. The bluffs
have become moro abrupt and more picturesque
in their forms, for the effects of cold and thaws
take place, their upper portions lose their softer
paris, and the harder parts assume the shapes Of
battlemenis, towers, &c, and when viewed from
q distance look not unlike curIously built Giles.
The trees are becoming scarcer, and OF extremely
stuuted growth, and IN tho rnvines, that wind
their way between the hills, the grow IS prin-
cipalIy red cedar. The hills themselves, which
gradually ascend TO plains of immense extent,
and oil of the very poorest description;
81 much 50 that one can scarcely conceive how
millions OF buff lIoes aDtelopes, deer, &C. mana go
to subsist, and yet they do so, and grow fat be-
tween this and autumn. Then, my dear friend,
we have reached these wild, and, 10 my eye, mel.
muIttudes of monsrous size animals live, and
die more by the and rifle bullet than even
by drowning whilst attempting TO cross the rapid
Missouri. The shores strewed with their
cnrcasses, on which the wolf, the raven, and the
vulture gorge themselves at leisure and unmo-
Tested, for hunters rarely If ever shoot any Of
these. We have many eiks, abundance ot
deer, anteIopes, buff loes, wild cats. wolves. and
one hear. Our folks have sho, huffilocs, but
have no, done so. SIMPLY because they worth
less through poverty, and when killed only dis
play mass Of bones and skin. with n very thin
por ion Of flesh and If YOU shoot bull the rank
ness of its better parts is quite enough to revolt
the stomach of all but starving mon
The winter has been severe, that BuffAloes
have been 3 or 400 miles lower down The river
than they have been far twenty years. The
calves have been nearly oil DESTROYED. In The
way Of plants, we have seen some Catacuses IN
known to US previously, md intend TO take plenty
Of specimens homo with us We have also found
BEAUTIFUL dwarf sweet-scented Pea, that perfumes
the whole atmosphere. 1t grows all the
sandy and gravey, dreary plains and hills o
which have spoken. There exists root called
here he white apple. which is farnacious anc
makes good mJsh when dried and pounded fine
OF these, also, we shall take specimens We
have collected every thing hat in bloom
and shall continue to d. SO. when IN seed and ripe
/ for all our friends. far and near. In Zoology. we
have done pretty fair; in Ornthoogv better. n:
we have already four netr birds. and will, doub
find more. We have felt oil the transitions o
weather that have had at the Eastward, tn
thermometer ranging from III to o. IN the sam
day. We are sadly ANNOYED by heavy and al
most consan, winds that rctaFd our progress
more or less. almost daily. We have caught onl
!e ca, fish and these do not much reiist
Ne 0'leTs, beavers, mlsk~rats, or even njnks, ar