[99] Bufo cognatus.—Fuscous, with cinereous lines; head canaliculate, groove abbreviated before. Body above, dark brownish, papillous, the papillæ and their basal disks black; they are more numerous, prominent, and acute, on the sides and legs; not prominent on the back. A vertebral cinereous vitta, from which an oblique cinereous irregular line is drawn from the vertex to the side behind the anterior feet; another double one from the middle of the back to the posterior thighs. Sides and legs with irregular cinereous lines. Head with a groove, which hardly extends anteriorly to the line of the anterior canthus of the eyes; verrucæ behind the eyes, moderate; superior maxilla emarginate; beneath granulated.
Length from the nose to the cloaca, 3¾ inches. A specimen is placed in the Philadelphia museum.—James.
[100] The Arrapaho, or Rappaho nation, is known to the Minnetarees of the Missouri, by the name of E-tâ-léh, or Bison-path Indians.—James.
[101] The intoxicating bean is the fruit of a variety of mesquite tree (prosopis glandulosa), which is common in the semi-arid districts of the Southwest. It bears a pod similar to that of the locust, to which it is related, containing eight to twelve beans. The Indians use the bean as food for themselves and their horses, as well as in the preparation of an alcoholic drink.—Ed.
[102] Amongst the herds of these animals, we frequently saw flocks of the cow bunting (emberiza pecora). The manners of this bird, in some respects, are very similar to those of the Tanagra erythroryncha of Lord Stanley, in Salt's travels; flying, and alighting in considerable numbers on the backs of the bisons, which, from their submission to the pressure of numbers of them, seem to appreciate the services they render, by scratching and divesting them of vermin. This bird is here, as well as in the settlements, remarkably fearless. They will suffer us to pass very near to them, and one of them to-day, alighted repeatedly on the ground near our horses' feet: he would fly along our line, and balance himself on his wings, to gratify his curiosity, within striking distance of a whip.—James.
[103] This is the first notice of any of the natural features along the route since the division of the expedition two weeks previous, and two hundred and fifty miles up stream. The Great Bend of the Arkansas begins in Ford County, Kansas, and culminates in Barton County. The chord of this great arc is nearly a hundred and twenty-five miles long. Above the bend the country north of the river is flat, while to the south it is hilly, causing the deflection of the stream toward the northeast.—Ed.
[104] See preceding volume, note 134.—Ed.
[105] "Demun's Creek" is Pawnee River, flowing eastward from Finney County and emptying into the Arkansas at the present town of Larned, Pawnee County, on the west side of the Great Bend. Eight miles above its mouth is the site of Fort Larned, established in 1859.—Ed.
[106] Ash Creek, Pawnee County.—Ed.
[107] At the culmination of the bend is the mouth of Walnut Creek, which is a large stream flowing east from Lane, across Ness, Rush, and Barton counties, and reaching the Arkansas four miles below the town of Great Bend, seat of Barton County. A small tributary of Walnut Creek, called Little Walnut, debouches four miles from the Arkansas; possibly the party confused the two streams.—Ed.