e them some curious Jays are chattering, and as my friends
are looking upon the gay and restless birds, they are involuntarily led
to extend their gaze to the green slope beneath the more distant
crags, where they spy a mountain sheep, watching the movements of the
travellers as well as those of yon wolves stealing silently toward the
fleet-footed animal. Again the pilgrims are in motion; they wind their
pathless way round rocks and fissures; they have reached the greatest
height of the sterile platform; and as they gaze on the valleys whose
waters hasten to join the Pacific Ocean, and bid adieu, perhaps for the
last time, to the dear friends they have left in the distant east, how
intense must be their feelings, as thoughts of the past and the
future blend themselves in their anxious minds! But now I see them,
brother-like, with lighter steps, descending toward the head waters
of the famed Oregon. They have reached the great stream, and seating
themselves in a canoe, shoot adown the current, gazing on the beautiful
shrubs and flowers that ornament the banks, and the majestic trees that
cover the sides of the valley, all new to them, and presenting a wide
field of discovery. The melodies of unknown songsters enliven their
spirits, and glimpses of gaudily plumed birds excite their desire to
search those beautiful thickets; but time is urgent, and onward they
must speed. A deer crosses the stream, they pursue and capture it;
and it being now evening, they land and soon form a camp, carefully
concealed from the prying eyes of the lurking savage. The night is past,
the dawn smiles upon the refreshed travellers, who launch their frail
bark; and, as they slowly float on the stream, both listen attentively
to the notes of the Red-and-White-winged Troopial, and wonder how
similar they are to those of the "Red-winged Starling;" they think of
the affinities of species, and especially of those of the lively birds
composing this beautiful group.

* * * * *

=_Daniel Drake,[65] 1785-1852._=

From a "Picture of Cincinnati, &c."

=_261._= OBJECTS OF THE WESTERN MOUND-BUILDERS.

No objects in the State of Ohio seem to have more forcibly arrested the
attention of travellers, nor employed a greater number of pens, than
its antiquities. It is to be regretted, however, that so hastily and
superficially have they been examined by strangers, and so generally
neglected by ourselves, that the materials for