de of the Indians--a rather hard subject--in which, quotations must
not be Coke upon Littleton, but the law of _tomahawk upon craniums_.

"The Sioux," he says, "must be slippery fellows indeed, if I do not
squeeze their language, and several other valuable things, out of them
next winter. I expect to leave for the Mississippi this week, in a
barge, with Mr. Rolette."

_6th_. Mr. D. H. Barnes, of the New York Lyceum of Natural History,
reports that the shells sent to him from the mouth of the Columbia, and
with which the Indians garnish their pouches, are a species of the
Dentalium, particularly described in Jewett's "Narrative of the Loss of
the Ship Boston at Nootka Sound." He transmits proof plates of the fresh
water shells collected by Professor Douglass and myself on the late
expedition to the sources of the Mississippi.

_11th_. The Adjutant-General of the Territory, General J. R. Williams,
transmits me a commission as captain of an independent company of
militia infantry, with a view, it is presumed, on the part of the
executive, that it will tend to strengthen the capacity of resistance to
an Indian combination on this frontier.

_20th_. Mr. Giles Sanford, of Erie, sends me a specimen of gypsum from
Sandusky Bay, and a specimen of the strontian-yielding limestone of
Put-in-Bay, Lake Erie.

_September 10th_. Judge Doty writes from Prairie du Chien, that he had a
pleasant passage, with his family, of fifteen days from Mackinaw; that
he is pleased with the place; and that the delegate election went almost
unanimously for Major Biddle. A specimen of native copper, weighing four
pounds, was found by Mr. Bolvin, at Pine River, a tributary from the
north of the Wisconsin, agreeing in its characters with those in my
cabinet from the basin of Lake Superior.

_15th_. Dr. John Bigsby, of Nottingham, England, writes from the
North-West House, that he arrived yesterday from the Boundary Survey,
and is desirous of exchanging some of his geological and conchological
specimens for species in my possession. The doctor has a very bustling,
clerk-like manner, which does not impress one with the quiet and repose
of a philosopher. He evidently thinks we Americans, at this remote
point, are mere barbarians, and have some shrewd design of making a
chowder, or a speculation out of our granites, and agates, and native
copper. Not a look or word, however, of mine was permitted to disturb
the gentleman in his stilted notions.

_16t