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Show JOWAY RIVER----INDIAN WIGWAM. 135 stag, which we would willingly have followed had not a rising tempest compelled us to return on board. Vivid lightning flashed in the horizon, the rain soon poured down in torrents, and at night a storm arose which, at midnight, raged with such fury, that we might have felt some alarm, had not our vessel been so well protected by the bank. The storm frequently forced open the doors of the upper cabin, and the rain beat into the room. Towards daybreak the tempest returned with increased violence ; the flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder were incessant during the twilight, and everybody thought that the vessel must be struck. The 9th of May set in with rain, a cloudy sky, and high wind ; the thermometer, before so high, fell, at half-past seven o'clock, to 56°. When the storm had passed over, our vessel quitted the place where it had taken shelter. We passed along wild, desolate banks, then a green prairie, by a chain of steep hills, partly bare, partly covered with forests, or with isolated fir trees and picturesque ravines, with dark shadows, into which the close thicket scarcely allowed the eye to penetrate. We here saw, for the first time, a plant which now became more and more common; namely, the buffalo-berry-bush (Sheperdia argentea, Nutt.J, with pale, bluish-green, narrow leaves. At the mouth of the Joway River, which runs into the Missouri, on the south bank, at a very acute angle, clay-slate appeared to stand out on the bluffs, divided into narrow, horizontal strata, the lower of which were blackish-blue, and those above of yellowish-red colour. Our hunters and wood-cutters landed, on which occasion we lost a hound, which had strayed too far into the forest. Five or six hundred paces further up, we saw, among the thickets of willow and poplar, an old Indian wigwam,* near which the red willow, mixed with the common willow, was in blossom. The thermometer, which had been at 56° in the morning, rose at ten o'clock, when the sun broke through the clouds. We frequently observed the wild geese, which endeavoured to take their young, of which they never had more than four or six, to some place on shore, where they would be safe from us. When we came very near, the mother fluttered anxiously to a little distance, and called them to her. We continued our voyage, but soon lay to at the prairie, on the right bank, because Mr. Me Kenzie wished to form a plantation at this place. The whole plain was covered with high, dry grass. On the bank of the river there was a fine border of tall timber trees, in which the turtle-dove cooed, and flocks of blackbirds were flying about. The hills of the prairie were covered with the finest verdure, and the singular forms of the hills afforded us an interesting subject of observation on the otherwise uniform appearance of the country. We halted for the night near the high trees that bordered the prairie, where there were numbers of ducks and plovers. As soon as it was dark, the young men set fire to the dry grass of the prairie, to give us the pleasure of seeing how the fire spread, but the attempt did not fully succeed, because there was * Wigwam is the name given to the Indian huts. The word comes from the Ojibua language, in which uikiuam signifies hut. This word has been corrupted, and applied by the whites to the habitations of all the Indian tribes. |