ten miles of the Missouri, the country is more broken and hilly, and with a still smaller proportion of wood.
There is in company a gentleman of whom I have already spoken, Mr. Nuttal, engaged in similar pursuits, to which he appears singularly devoted, and which seems to engross every thought, to the total disregard of his own personal safety, and sometimes to the {120} inconvenience of the party he accompanies. To the ignorant Canadian boatmen, who are unable to appreciate the science, he affords a subject of merriment; le fou is the name by which he is commonly known. When the boat touches the shore, he leaps out, and no sooner is his attention arrested by a plant or flower, then every thing else is forgotten. The inquiry is made ou est le fou? where is the fool? il est apres ramassee des racines, he is gathering roots. He is a young man of genius, and very considerable acquirements, but is too much devoted to his favorite pursuit, and seems to think that no other study deserves the attention of a man of sense. I hope, should this meet his eye, it will give no offence; for these things, often constituted a subject of merriment to us both.
The day after this fortunate junction, we continued our voyage, but were opposed by a strong wind from the N. E. which, compelled us, after we had proceeded a few miles, to encamp for the remainder of the day.
Took my gun, and set off to make an excursion. The country is altogether open, excepting some groves of cotton-wood in the bottom. {121} The upland rises into considerable hills, about one third covered with a very short grass, intermixed with a great variety of plants and flowers, the rest consists of hills of clay, almost bare of every kind of vegetation. On the tops of the higher hills, at some distance from the river, there are masses of granite, of several tons weight, and great quantities of pebbles. In the course of my ramble, I happened on a village of barking squirrels,
