was unconscious of the capers that I had been cutting. I answered him in German " that I had found the promenade fearfully pleasant." But I took good care afterwards not to follow Mister Florist except on flat country.
In the country of the Omahas I crossed a prairie three miles in width, full of onions of the size of a marble and very excellent for eating. In another we found a great deal of asparagus of the size of your thumb, which supplied the passengers for four days. Everywhere there was abundance of strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries and plums, nuts of various kinds, cherries and grapes: the fruit of the red and black thorn also appeared to be quite plentiful.
The marks which particularly characterize the immense Missouri are: its muddy water, thin [leger] and wholesome, and its swift and winding current, lined with islands of various sizes formed by the sediment brought down by the stream, and the aspect of which changes continually. Its course is between two banks which now traverse a level plain of either forest or prairie, containing perhaps thousands of acres and rising ten, twenty or thirty feet above the water, and now rise majestically from its edge to a height of 300 to 400 feet, with promontories which, when the mists of evening descend upon the landscape, make the impression of lofty mountains seen at a distance. These hills lie along both banks of the river at a distance of six to fifteen miles. The windings of the river present lovely views every moment, but the regular succession of bluffs and bottoms give such a sameness to the country that unless one were very familiar with the region he could never tell in which one of a dozen precisely similar spots he found himself. The Author of nature seems to have chosen to divert himself by repeating over and over the first forms that he applied to this charming and fertile land.
All the country as you ascend the river seems evidently to be of volcanic formation. In several places moreover