[195] In the first and greatest (Charbonneau did not remember in what year it occurred) the water rose forty feet above its usual level. Only the tops of the poplars were to be seen, and the ice lay above a month on the land, till it was melted by the sun. The second inundation took place on the 6th of April, 1826; the water rose, at daybreak, so rapidly and so high, that Charbonneau was compelled to escape, with some of his property, to the middle Manitari village, two miles from the Missouri, and to take refuge on a stack of maize, where he passed three days without fire, in a cold north wind, and drifting snow. The water rose twenty-five feet above its usual level. The inhabitants of fifteen tents of the Sioux, below the Sêche (near the Grand River, below the Arikkara villages), were all drowned. In the wooded point of land, at the mouth of the Chayenne River, lived a man named Pascal Seré, who traded with the Sioux. The water rising rapidly, he took refuge, with his goods, on the roof of his house, which, however, was, ere long, lifted up by the river and carried a good way down the stream. At this place the ice had formed a dam; the house was floated into the wood on the bank, and there deposited uninjured. In the year 1784, when there were such extensive inundations in Europe, they also occurred in America, as Volney relates of the Susquehanna.—Maximilian.
[196] Mr. Laidlow, at Fort Pièrre, rode out on a warm day about three years ago, to hunt a buffalo. At nightfall it began to rain, and the party was not well furnished with blankets. Towards morning, frost set in, and all their clothes were frozen quite stiff, so that many of the company did not, for some time, recover from the effects of this cold night.—Maximilian.
[197] Volney, who gives an admirable description of the climate of the United States, says, that July is the only month in the year without frost at Philadelphia.—Maximilian.
Comment by Ed. See Flint's Letters in our volume ix, p. 237, note 121.
[198] This probably means 47° below freezing point; for if it were to be understood as 47° below c, of Fahrenheit, it would be 79° below freezing point—H. Evans Lloyd.
Comment by Ed. A curious misconception on the part of Lloyd, the English translator, who could not believe this account of the intense cold on the western prairies of the United States. Maximilian undoubtedly intended just what he says—a temperature record not unknown in recent winters.
[199] See our volume v, p. 267.—Ed.
[200] A more accurate comparison has shown that this antediluvian animal does not differ from the Mosasaurus, which has been found in many parts of North America; and Professor Goldfuss, at Bonn, will give us a description of it. I have already mentioned that I am, unfortunately, not able to furnish any particulars of the several specimens of this kind which I had obtained, because I have lost the whole collection by the burning of the Assiniboin steamer in the Missouri. Many of the specimens observed by me are described, with figures, in Dr. S. G. Morton's "Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Groups of the United States. Illustrated by nineteen plates, &c. Philadelphia, 1834."—Maximilian.
[201] See, however, on the use of this coal, our volume xxii, p. 364, note 336.—Ed.
[202] Frederick Pursh (1774-1820), a foreign botanist who came to the United States in 1799 and spent twelve years exploring its plant life. In 1811 he went to England where he published Flora Americæ Septentrionalis (London, 1814). He died at Montreal while arranging a catalogue of Canadian plants. See also Bradbury's Travels in our volume v, p. 26.—Ed.