[118] See Humboldt's New Spain, vol. i. p. 184.—JAMES. After passing the range of hills above mentioned, the surface subsides nearly to a plain, having, however, manifestly a greater inclination than below. The velocity of the current of the river is much increased, the bed narrower, and the banks more precipitous. We passed several extensive tracts nearly destitute of vegetation. The surface of these consisted entirely of coarse sand and gravel, with here and there an insulated mass of clay, highly impregnated with salt, and gnawed and licked into various singular shapes, exhibiting the forms of massive insulated columns, huge buttresses, prominent angles, and profound excavations, fortuitously mingled, and which are now gradually diminishing, under the action of the cause which produced them. The present surface upon which they repose, seems to be a stratum of a different earth, which does not afford the condiment so attractive to the animals; the consequence is, that the licking and chewing, principally, heretofore, affecting the surface on which the animal stood, is now directed against the upright portions of this singular grand excavation, and most remarkable of all known salt-licks. Some extensive portions of the immediate bottom land, along the river, were white with an effloresced salt, but this being impure and but imperfectly soluble, did not appear to have been licked. Towards evening we passed two springs of transparent, but impure and brackish water. They were the first we had met with on the Platte.[119] Among a considerable number of undescribed plants collected on the 27th, are three referable to the family of the rough-leaved plants (asperifoliæ), one of them belonging {170} to a genus not heretofore known in the United States. It has a salver-form corolla, with a large spreading angular, plaited border. Another plant very conspicuously ornamental to these barren deserts, is a lactescent annual, belonging to the family of the convolvulacæ, with a bright purple corolla, as large as that of the common stramonium. We also observed the white-stalked primrose, (œnothera albicaulis, N.) a very small white-flowered species of talinum, and some others. We observed, in repeated instances, several individuals of a singular genus of reptiles (chirotes, Cuv.) which in form resemble short serpents, but are more closely allied to the lizards, by being furnished with two feet. They were so active, that it was not without some difficulty that we succeeded in obtaining a specimen. Of this (as was our uniform custom, when any apparently new animal was presented) we immediately drew out a description. But as the specimen was unfortunately lost, and the description formed part of the zoological notes and observations, which were carried off by our deserters, we are reduced to the necessity of merely indicating the probability of the existence of the chirotes lumbricoides of naturalists, within the territory of the United States.