Audubon and his Journals Volume I Part 29

"Cedar Island is said to be 1075 miles from the mouth of the Missouri.

On the steep banks of this long, narrow island which lies near the southwest bank, there were thickets of poplars, willows, and buffalo-berry; the rest of the island is covered with a dark forest of red cedars, of which we immediately felled a goodly number. The notes of numerous birds were heard in the gloom of the cedar forest, into which no ray of sun could penetrate. Here, too, we found everywhere traces of the elks and stags, and saw where they had rubbed off the bark with their antlers." ("Travels in North America," Maximilian, Prince of Wied, p. 144.)

[294] Translating the usual French name (_pomme blanche_) of the _Psoralea esculenta_.

[295] This is Audubon's first mention of the Western Meadow Lark, which he afterward decided to be a distinct species and named _Sturnella neglecta_, B. of Am. vii., 1844, p. 339, pl. 487. It is interesting to find him noting the difference in the song from that of the Eastern species before he had had an opportunity of examining the bird itself.--E. C.

[296] "Grand Town" is perhaps the large prairie-dog village which once covered several acres on the right bank of the Missouri, in the vicinity of the b.u.t.te known as the Dome, or Tower, between Yankton and Fort Randall.--E. C.

[297] May 24 is the date given by Audubon, B. Amer. viii., p. 338, as that on which Mr. Bell shot the specimen which became type of _Emberiza Le Conteii_, figured on plate 488. This bird is now _Ammodramus_ (_Coturniculus_) _lecontei_; it long remained an extreme rarity.--E. C.

[298] The common Prairie Hare, _Lepus campestris_, for which see a previous note.--E. C.

[299] La Riviere Blanche of the French, also sometimes called White Earth River, and Mankizitah River; a considerable stream which falls into the right bank of the Missouri in Lyman Co., South Dakota, at the 1056 mile point of the Commission charts.--E. C.

[300] So called from its size, in distinction from the Cedar Island already mentioned on p. 505. This is Second Cedar Island of Warren's and Nicollet's maps, noticed by Lewis and Clark, Sept. 18, 1804, as "nearly a mile in length and covered with red cedar." It was once the site of an establishment called Fort Recovery. The position is near the 1070th-mile point of the Missouri.--E. C.

[301] Audubon probably refers to the brief description in his own Synopsis of 1839, p. 103, a copy of which no doubt accompanied him up the Missouri. He had described and figured what he supposed to be _Emberiza pallida_ in the Orn. Biogr. v., 1839, p. 66, pl. 398, fig.

2; B. Amer. iii., 1841, p. 71, pl. 161, from specimens taken in the Rocky Mts. by J. K. Townsend, June 15, 1834. But this bird was not the true _pallida_ of Swainson, being that afterwards called _Spizella breweri_ by Ca.s.sin, Pr. Acad. Philad., 1856, p. 40. The true _pallida_ of Swainson is what Audubon described as _Emberiza shattuckii_, B.

Amer. vii., 1844, p. 347, pl. 493, naming it for Dr. Geo. C. Shattuck, of Boston, one of his Labrador companions. He speaks of it as "abundant throughout the country bordering the upper Missouri;" and all mention in the present Journal of the "Clay-colored Bunting," or "_Emberiza pallida_," refers to what Audubon later named Shattuck's Bunting--not to what he gives as _Emberiza pallida_ in the Orn. Biog.

and Synopsis of 1839; for the latter is _Spizella breweri_.--E. C.

[302] Situated on the right bank of the Missouri, in Presho Co., South Dakota. See "Lewis and Clark," ed. of 1893, p. 127.--E. C.

[303] This "cabin on the opposite sh.o.r.e" was somewhere in the vicinity of Rousseau, at or near the mouth of present Little Medicine Creek (formerly East Medicine Knoll River, originally named Reuben's Creek by Lewis and Clark, after Reuben Fields, one of their men).--E. C.

[304] Or Antelope Creek, then as now the name of the small stream which falls into the Missouri on the right bank, about 10 miles below the mouth of the Teton. It has also been known as Cabri Creek, Katota Tokah, and High-water Creek, the latter being the designation originally bestowed by Lewis and Clark, Sept. 24, 1804. It runs in Presho Co., S. Dak.--E. C.

[305] The _old_ fort of this name was three miles above the mouth of the Teton River; this was abandoned, and another fort built, higher up, on the west bank of the Missouri. The Prince of Wied reached this fort on the fifty-first day of his voyage up the Missouri, and Audubon on the thirty-third of his; a gain in time which may possibly be attributed both to better weather and to the improvement in steamboats during ten years. The Prince says: "Fort Pierre is one of the most considerable settlements of the Fur Company on the Missouri, and forms a large quadrangle surrounded by pickets. Seven thousand buffalo skins and other furs were put on board our boat to take to St. Louis.... The leather tents of the Sioux Indians, the most distinguished being that of the old interpreter, Dorion (or Durion), a half Sioux, who is mentioned by many travellers, and resides here with his Indian family.

His tent was large, and painted red; at the top of the poles composing the frame, several scalps hung." ("Travels in North America," p. 156, Maximilian, Prince of Wied.)

[306] W. G. Bakewell was Audubon's brother-in-law; James Hall, brother of Mrs. John W. Audubon; J. W. H. Page, of New Bedford. Thomas Mayo Brewer, who became a noted ornithologist, edited the 12mo edition of Wilson, wrote Part I. of the "Oology of North America," which was published by the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution in 1857, and was one of the authors of Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's "History of North American Birds." He died in Boston Jan. 23, 1880, having been born there Nov.

21, 1814. He is notorious for his mistaken zeal in introducing the English Sparrow in this country.--E. C.

[307] The Teton, or Bad River, has long ceased to be known as the Little Missouri,--a name now applied to another branch of the Missouri, which falls in from the south much higher up, about 23 miles above present Fort Berthold. Teton River was so named by Lewis and Clark, Sept. 24, 1804, from the tribe of Sioux found at its mouth: see the History of the Expedition, ed. of 1893, p. 131, and compare p.

267. The Indian name was Chicha, Schicha, or s.h.i.+sha.--E. C.

[308] Wilson's Meadow Mouse. This is the name used by Aud. and Bach.

Quad. N. Am. i., 1849, p. 341, pl. 45, for the _Arvicola riparius_ of Ord, now known as _Microtus riparius_. But the specimen brought to Audubon can only be very doubtfully referred to this species.--E. C.

[309] This is spelt thus in the Journal, and also on Tanner's map of 1829: see also Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, p. 152. The "Moroe" River of the above text is present Moreau River, falling into the Missouri from the west in Dewey Co., S. Dak. Grand River was also known by its Arikara name, Weterhoo, or Wetarhoo. Rampart River is about two miles above Grand River; it was also called Maropa River.--E. C.