of the crucifixion, its leaves have not ceased to tremble! The only lofty trees found on the mountains are the pine and the cedar, which is either white or red. The latter is chiefly used for furniture, as it is the most resistible wood of the West. There are several species of the pine: the Norwegian, the resinous, the white and the elastic, so-called because the Indians use it to make bows.
So great is the violence of the winds in the vicinity of the Black Hills that the cottonwood, which is almost the only tree that grows there, displays the most fantastic shapes. I have seen some whose branches had been so violently twisted that they became incorporated with the trunk, and after this, grew in such strange forms and directions that at a distance it was impossible to distinguish what part of the tree was immediately connected with the roots.
BIRDS. I shall say but little of the birds. They are various in form, color and size; from the pelican and the swan to the wren and the humming-bird. Muratori, speaking of the last, compares him to the nightingale and is astonished that such shrill and loud sounds should proceed from so small a body. The celebrated author must have been mistaken, unless the humming-bird of South America be different from that of the Rocky Mountains. The latter does not sing, but makes a humming noise with his wings as he flies from flower to flower.
REPTILES. With respect to reptiles, they have been frequently described and I mention them only to give thanks to God by whose Providence we have been delivered from all such as are venomous, chiefly from the rattlesnake. Neither men nor beasts belonging to our caravan have suffered from them, though they were so numerous in places that our wagoners killed as many as twelve in one day with their whips.
INSECTS abound in these regions. The ant has often attracted the notice of naturalists. Some have seemed to doubt whether the wheat stored up by this little insect serves for winter provisions or for the construction of its