From his statement we learned, that after separating from us, on the morning of the 29th August, he had returned a mile or two to search for his canteen; but not finding it, in his hurry to rejoin the party, he had missed the trail, and presently found himself bewildered. Taking the bed of the river as his guide, he urged on his mule, without allowing it time to rest or to feed, till, on the third day, it refused to proceed, and was left. He then took his baggage, musket, &c. and pushed forward on foot, evidently with the hope of arriving at the Pawnee village, but by the end of the day found his strength so exhausted that he could go no farther, and was compelled to encamp. Having expended his ammunition in unsuccessful attempts to shoot turkies, he had been trying to make a substitute for fish-hooks by bending up some needles; but this project he had not brought to perfection, and assured us he had not tasted food since the breakfast of the 29th, a period of more than five days. {19} The small-leaved and the white elm,[79] the nettle-tree or hackberry, the cotton-wood, mulberry, black walnut, pecan, ash, sycamore, and indeed most of the trees common to the low grounds of the Mississippi, are intermixed here to form the dense forests of the river valley, while, in the more scattered woods of the highlands, the prevailing growth is oak, with some species of nyssa, the dyospiros, and a few other small trees. At evening a large flock of white pelicans passed us on their way up the river. On the morning of the 3d, not having been able to select a suitable place for a Sunday encampment, we moved on, searching for a supply of grass, that we might halt for the day. The hunters preceded the party, and meeting with a herd of bisons and good pasturage in the same place, they killed a bull of a most gigantic stature, and waited until the remainder of the party came up, and encamped near the carcass. We have often regretted that we had not taken the dimensions of this animal, as it appeared to surpass in size any we had before killed, and greatly to exceed the ordinary stature of the bison. Having arranged our camp, and done in the way of washing, dressing, &c. the little in our power to do, we made an excursion into the adjoining forest to collect plants, and to search for honey, which, from the great number of bees we had seen, we were conscious must be abundant. Since leaving the open country, we had remarked a very great change in the vegetation. The dense shade, and perhaps the somewhat confined air of the forest, are unfavourable to the growth of many of those grasses, and those robust perennials, which seem to delight in the arid soils and the scorching winds of the sandy deserts. The sensitive (cassia nictitans), the favourite food of the bees, some species of hedysarum, and a few {20} other legumina, are, however, common to both regions.