gured from this sign that some hostile band was near, and passed the whole night under arms, watching.
On the Loth we quitted the highlands and advanced about twenty miles, over a barren, rugged, space, excavated by rains. A kind of salamander, vulgarly called horned frog, lizards and rattlesnakes, were most abundant. I give you the information I gathered from the Indians concerning the antidotes they employ for curing the bite of the last-named
reptile. Blackroot (Pterocaulon)8 is regarded by them as a
e The editors have been unable to identify Father De Smet's " blackroot." In his first draft of this letter, the apparently scientific name given in the text does not appear; it was perhaps furnished him afterward by some friend better posted in botany than himself, but a somewhat extensive search has failed to reveal any better clew to "pterocaulon " than to " blackroot." Major E. A. Mearns, U. S. A., who is exceptionally well acquainted with the flora of the northwest, sug
gests that it may be Culver's Physic -leptandra virginica. Maximilian of Wied speaks of a blackroot or snakeroot, galardia bicolor. Father De Smet's account of the plant and its virtues seems to have aroused some interest in Europe, and his letter-books contain several requests to missionaries in the Indian country, to procure seeds or roots of it for transmission thither; but no mention has been noticed of any having been furnished. In a letter to the gentlemen of the Propagation of the Faith at Lyons, in January, 1852, the following
further information is given: " I will tell you what I know about the Racine-noire, to which you allude in your letter, and of which the savages make use with entire success. I have found this root through
out the desert, from the States to the Rocky Mountains. The plant has a very handsome flower, red and purple, which may be classed with the little Tournesols (Genus Cistus). It stands one to two feet above the soil; it has a long, slender, fibrous and blackish root. All that is,needful is to chew the root (either fresh or dried) with the teeth, and to apply the saliva to the part bitten by the reptile. Immediately the subtle poison loses its force and the inflammation stops and subsides. Eye witnesses have assured me that they have seen the Indian jugglers play with and caress rattlesnakes with impunity, which they attributed to the blackroot, which stupefies the reptile and deprives it of the power to bite; the juggler holds the root in his hand, or rubs his hands with its juice, before going to work on the snake."