ed each share into its value in
racoon skins. It was not until this division was completed, and the
number of skins ascertained, that they could, by any fixed standard of
comparison, determine the reward which each had received.

_25th_. It is stated in the newspapers that hacks of an axe were lately
found in the central and solid parts of a large tree near Buffalo, which
were supposed to have been made by La Salle's party. Other evidences of
the early footsteps of Europeans on this continent have been mentioned.
A trammel was found in the solid substance of a tree in Onondaga. A gun
barrel in a similar position in the Wabash Valley.[40] Growing wood soon
closes over articles left upon it, in the wilderness, where they are
long undisturbed.

[Footnote 40: Hon. R.W. Thompson.]

_27th. Monedo_ is strictly a term belonging to the Indian mythology and
necromancy, and is constantly used to indicate a spirit. It has not the
regular termination of the noun in _win_, and seems rather verbal in its
aspect, and so far as we can decipher its meaning, _mon_ is a syllable
having a bad meaning generally, as in _monaudud_, &c. _Edo_ may possibly
be a derivation from _ekedo_, he speaks.

_28th_. It is a year ago to-day since I visited the tomb of Washington,
at Mount Vernon. There were three representatives in Congress, in
company. We left the city of Washington in the morning, in a private
carriage, and drove down in good season. I looked about the tomb
narrowly for some memento to bring away, and found some mineralogical
fragments on the small mound over the tomb, which would bear the
application of their book names. On coming back through Alexandria, we
dined at a public hotel, where, among other productions of the season,
we had cucumbers. What a contrast in climate to my present position!
Here, as the eyes search the fields, heaps of snow are still seen in
shaded situations, and the ice still disfigures the bays and
indentations of the shore in some places, as if it were animated with a
determination to hold out against the power of the sun to the utmost.
Nature, however, indicates its great vernal throe. White fish were first
taken during the season, this day, which is rare.

_29th_. A friend at Detroit writes under this date: "I had expected that
before now, instructions would have reached here requiring you to repair
to the St. Peter's. But as the season advances, and they do not arrive,
I begin to fear that one of those m