eahwait the cause of her detention, he answered with
great appearance of unconcern, that she had just stopped to lie in, but
would soon overtake us. In fact we were astonished to see her in about
an hour's time come on with her new born infant and pass us on her way
to the camp, apparently in perfect health.

This wonderful facility with which the Indian women bring forth their
children, seems rather some benevolent gift of nature, in exempting them
from pains which their savage state would render doubly grievous, than
any result of habit. If as has been imagined, a pure dry air or a cold
and elevated country are obstacles to easy delivery, every difficulty
incident to that operation might be expected in this part of the
continent; nor can another reason, the habit of carrying heavy burthens
during pregnancy, be at all applicable to the Shoshonee women, who
rarely carry any burdens, since their nation possesses an abundance of
horses. We have indeed been several times informed by those conversant
with Indian manners, and who asserted their knowledge of the fact, that
Indian women pregnant by white men experience more difficulty in
child-birth than when the father is an Indian. If this account be true,
it may contribute to strengthen the belief, that the easy delivery of
the Indian women is wholly constitutional.

The tops of the high irregular mountains to the westward are still
entirely covered with snow; and the coolness which the air acquires in
passing them, is a very agreeable relief from the heat, which has dried
up the herbage on the sides of the hills. While we stopped, the women
were busily employed in collecting the root of a plant with which they
feed their children, who like their mothers are nearly half starved and
in a wretched condition. It is a species of fennel which grows in the
moist grounds; the radix is of the knob kind, of a long ovate form,
terminating in a single radicle, the whole being three or four inches
long, and the thickest part about the size of a man's little finger:
when fresh, it is white, firm, and crisp; and when dried and pounded
makes a fine white meal. Its flavour is not unlike that of aniseed,
though less pungent. From one to four of these knobbed roots are
attached to a single stem which rises to the height of three or four
feet, and is jointed, smooth, cylindric, and has several small
peduncles, one at each joint above the sheathing leaf. Its colour is a
deep green, as is also