little general notice of our observations, which may perhaps interest you.
From Independence to Fort Leavenworth, a distance of sixty-five miles, the river passes between a long series of bluffs and hills, belonging to the tertiary system of rocks. From the city of Omaha to Benton, the bluffs and hills have an elevation of about 156 feet; they are based upon erratic layers of rocks of varying dimensions, containing little shells rounded by the water, up to rocks of several thousand pounds thickness [weight?].' The following layer is a coarse-grained tufa, often covered with plates or leaves of some laminated metal; this is followed by a layer of fine-grained tufa, mingled with mica. This tufa-like stone is quite soft, and contains slight layers of gypsum, which disappear in the neighborhood of Heart river. As we proceed, we observe everywhere layers of yellowish or grayish limestone, often topped with blue clay, which contain petrifactions (Lymnea) of various species. Other layers consist of argillaceous sands intermingled with a great quantity of oxide of iron, in the form of brownish or reddish balls of different sizes; layers of lignites, one to seven feet in thickness, extend for a distance of about a thousand miles. Farther on we find in abundance deposits entirely made up of petrified woods. This long series of bluffs and hills, as far as the Bad Lands, are often crowned with erratic blocks of stone of varying dimensions; heaps of petrified shells abound in several places, to the very hill-tops.
In regard to our little hunts. Our hunters, without going any great distance from the boat, killed a great number of antelope; this is the quickest and most graceful animal, of the plains. The stratagems employed by the hunter arouse its curiosity. He walks, runs, crawls on all fours, lies down, shakes from time to time his handkerchief on the end of his ramrod; the antelope, drawn by his natural curiosity, stops, approaches in short springs, looks, stares, and at last
6 French fpaisseur.