in hand. She did not hesitate
freely to walk out to prominent points, of which the island has many, to
complete her sketches. This freedom from restraint in her motions, was
an agreeable trait in a person of her literary tastes and abilities. She
took a very lively interest in the Indian race, and their manners and
customs, doubtless with views of benevolence for them as a peculiar race
of man, but also as a fine subject of artistic observation.
Notwithstanding her strong author-like traits and peculiarities, we
thought her a woman of hearty and warm affections and attachments; the
want of which, in her friends, we think she would exquisitely feel.
Mrs. Jameson several times came into the office and heard the Indians
speaking. She also stepped out on the piazza and saw the wild Indians
dancing; she evidently looked on with the eye of a Claude Lorraine or
Michael Angelo.
_27th_. The term _ego_, added to an active Indian verb, renders it
passive. I have given an example of this before in the case of a man's
name. Here is another: The verb _to carry_ is Be-moan in the Algonquin.
By the pronominal prefix _Nim_, we have the sense _I carry_. By adding
to the latter the suffix _ego_, the action is reflected and this sense
is rendered passive.
_29th_. A treaty is concluded this day at Fort Snelling, St. Peter's,
between Governor H. Dodge and the Chippewa Indians, by which they cede a
large and important tract to the United States.
_Aug. 1st_. A discovery of a tooth of the Mastodon has lately been made
in the bed of the Papaw River, in Berrian County, Michigan. It is about
six inches long and three broad. The enamel is nearly perfect, and that
part of the tooth which was covered by it nearly whole, while the
portion which must have been inserted in the socket is mostly broken
off. The diluvian soil of the Michigan Peninsula is thus added to the
wide area of the _mastodonic period_.
_2d_. Capt. Marryatt came up in the steamer of last night. A friend
writes: "He is one of Smollett's sea captains---much more of the
Trunnion than one would have expected to find in a literary man. Stick
Mackinack into him, with all its _rock-osities._ He is not much disposed
to the _admirari_ without the _nil_--affects little enthusiasm about
anything, and perhaps feels as little." He turned out here a perfect sea
urchin, ugly, rough, ill-mannered, and conceited beyond all bounds.
Solomon says, "answer not a fool according to his folly," so
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