[143] Genus Troglodytes. Cuv.—T. obsoleta, Say.—Above dusky-brownish, slightly undulated with pale, tinted with dull ferruginous on the top of the head, and superior portion of the back; sides of the head dull whitish, with a broad brown line passing through the eye to the origin of the neck; primaries plain, being entirely destitute of undulations or spots; tail coverts pale, each with four or five fuscous bands; chin, neck beneath, and breast whitish, each feather marked by a longitudinal line of light brown; belly white; flanks a little tinged with ferruginous; inferior tail coverts white, each feather bifasciate with black-brown; tail simple, broadly tipped with ferruginous-yellow, and with black before the tip, the remaining portion colour of wings, and obsoletely banded; these bands are more distinct on the two middle feathers, which are destitute of the black and yellowish termination; exterior plume marked by four yellowish white spots on the exterior web, and by two larger ones on the inner web; the tip is dusky, length six inches; bill, from the corner of the mouth, rather more than one inch.—James.
[144] The North Fork of the South Platte encloses South Park on the north, flowing from west to east; while the other branch, which retains the name South Platte, encircles South Park on the south and east. The Denver, Leadville, and Gunnison Railroad now enters the mountain district through Platte Cañon. It is probable that Pike entered South Park in 1806 (see volume xvi, note 14); but Long's failure to penetrate the mountains at this point left the famous park unknown, save to wandering hunters, until Frémont's time, more than twenty years later.—Ed.
[145] Among many plants collected in this excursion, some of them new to us, we recognized an old acquaintance in the bearberry (Arbutus uva-ursi, L.) an inhabitant of the mountainous districts of New York and New England; also the Dodecatheon integrifolium, Ph.; and a beautiful little plant referable to the genus Mentzelia of Plumier. On the higher parts of the mountain an oak is common, approaching in character to the Quercus banisteri, Mx. Also a small undescribed acer, the Juniperus communis and I. virginiana; in the ravines, the Rhus toxicodendron, Spiræa opulifolia, olc; and at the base of the mountains the Prenanthes runcinata, leaves runcinate pinnatifid, ⅔ inches long, five lines wide. Resembles P. Juncea, Saxifraga nivales, L. A. cerastium, olc.—James.
[146] The words "of the same day" should here be inserted; so reads the Philadelphia edition.—Ed.
[147] A series of erroneous dates begins here. The expedition undoubtedly left Platte Cañon July 8, of which day the text gives no account. July 9 was Sunday, instead of July 10, as the text states below. A compensating error is introduced by giving the date July 12 to accounts of the journeys of parts of two days. The Philadelphia edition also has the erroneous dating of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh, but includes the remainder of the chapter under the last date, thus failing entirely to account for the twelfth, and really including the operations of three days (tenth, eleventh, and twelfth) under date of July 11. The itinerary for these days is more accurately indicated on the map.—Ed.
[148] The camp of July 8 and 9 was probably near the site of Sedalia, at the confluence of the east and west forks of Plum (here called Defile) Creek.—Ed.
[149] The route described on the next few pages is an impossible one. Chittenden characterizes it as "wholly indefinite and unsatisfactory" (American Fur Trade, p. 59). The date "July 12th," on the next page, does not appear in the Philadelphia edition, and was apparently inserted to remedy the confusion; it increases it, however, since the accounts of the journeys of two days (July 10 and 11) are intermingled in the text itself. From the camp of July 8 and 9, the party might, by noon of the tenth, have arrived opposite Castle Rock, which gives its name to the present seat of justice of Douglas County. This, however, would not bring them to a tributary of the Arkansas; by noon of July 11 they could have reached the upper waters of Monument, a branch of Fountain Creek, which unites with the Arkansas at Pueblo. The camp of July 10 is probably accurately located on the map, a short distance below Castle Rock. On the morning of the eleventh, the direction taken was almost due south, across the watershed between the Platte and Arkansas, which at this point is almost on the line between Douglas and El Paso counties. The map exaggerates the length of Boiling Spring Creek (see succeeding volume, note 10), or Fountain Creek, a branch of which (Monument Creek) they first encountered almost on the county line. The afternoon march carried them somewhat south of the base of Pike's Peak, necessitating the retracing of their route on the morning of the twelfth. The route on the eleventh probably lay through the region now famous as the Garden of the Gods.—Ed.
[150] A. cœrulea, James.—Leaves twice ternate; flowers terminal, remote, nectaries strait and very long. It inhabits shady woods of pine and spruce within the mountains, rising sometimes to the height of three feet. In passing from the headwaters of the branch of the Platte, called Defile creek, to those of one of the northern tributaries of the Arkansa, we noticed some change in the soil, and soon met with many plants we had not before seen. Several of these, as the common juniper and the red cedar, (Juniperus virginiana, Ph.) the black and hemlock-spruce, (Abies nigra and A. canadensis) the red maple (Acer rubrum, Mx.) the hop horn-beam (Ostrya Virginica, L.) the Populus tremuloides, Mx. Pinus resinosa, Pyrola secunda, Orchis dilatata, olc. are common to mountainous districts in all the northern parts of the territory of the United States; many others are here found, which require more careful and extensive comparison with the plants of Mexico, Siberia, and other countries, than have yet had the opportunity to make.—James.
[151] One of these is a large and conspicuous plant of the natural family of the Cruciferæ, which may be referred to the new genus, Stanley of Nuttall, and distinguished as S. integrifolia; stem simple, leaves entire, ovate oblong, tapering to both ends; stem angular. Flowers in a terminal raceme, which is a little branched below; about six inches in length; stipe of the silique, about as long as the pedicle; flowers large yellow. The whole plant, seen at a little distance, has a remote resemblance to Lysimachia thyrsifolia. The leaves are ⅚ inches long, ⅔ wide, glaucous, and veined, nearly resembling those of the common cabbage, but smoother, which they are not wholly unlike in taste. The calyx is large, and of a brighter yellow than the other parts of the flower: it inhabits the summits of the sandstone ridges, along the base of the mountains. The S. pinnatifida, N., the original type of this genus, was found by its discoverer, Mr. Nuttall, to act as a violent emetic. It had been eaten by several of the party who accompanied him, as a substitute for cabbage.—James.
[152] He was probably a member of the party of Chouteau and De Munn, arrested in 1817. See ante, note 134.—Ed.