uniformity in all its leading features. Clay soil, rolling prairies and the shores of the rivers well wooded. You meet forests of oak and nut trees of all varieties, with maple and cottonwood and a variety of trees found in the east. The hillsides in several places abound in fine springs of water surrounded by beautiful groves, arranged with as much order and taste as if planted by the hand of man. While a luxuriant turf, enameled with fragrant flowers, replaces the briars and underwood, the prairies on all sides, surrounded by forests which protect the water-courses, present to the sight an ocean of verdure adorned with flowers, agitated by the wind and perfuming the air with a thousand odors.
The valley of the Kansas is broad, of a deep, brown vegetable soil: the same remark may be made of the valleys of the remaining rivers of this territory, all of which are suitable for agriculture. The streams of water are clear; they run over pebbly beds, between high banks, and teem with fine fish.
Major Fitzpatrick preferred taking the southern route, in order to give our friends, the Indian deputies, an opportunity of witnessing the progress that the tribes are capable of making in agriculture and the mechanic arts. He wished to convince them that labor and its results gradually conduct to happiness and ease, and that by adopting habits of industry man is freed from the necessity of wandering from place to place to obtain subsistence.
We reached St. Mary's, among the Potawatomies, on the IIth of October. Bishop Miege and the other Fathers of the Mission received us with great cordiality and kindness.
To give the Indian deputies a relish for labor by the tasting of the various products of farming, a quantity of vegetables and fruits were set before them. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, squashes, parsnips, melons, with apples and peaches, graced the board, and our forest friends did them most ample honor. One of the chiefs, Eagle Head, said to me, 44