Among The Flowering Vines Is One Deserving Of Particular Notice.
Each Flower Is Composed Of Six Leaves Or Petals, About Three
Inches In Length, Of A Beautiful Crimson, The Inside Spotted With
White.
Its leaves, of a fine green, are oval, and disposed by
threes.
This plant climbs upon the trees without attaching itself
to them; when it has reached the topmost branches, it descends
perpendicularly, and as it continues to grow, extends from tree
to tree, until its various stalks interlace the grove like the
rigging of a ship. The stems or trunks of this vine are tougher
and more flexible than willow, and are from fifty to one hundred
fathoms in length. From the fibres, the Indians manufacture
baskets of such close texture as to hold water.
The principal quadrupeds that had been seen by the colonists in
their various expeditions were the stag, fallow deer, hart, black
and grizzly bear, antelope, ahsahta or bighorn, beaver, sea and
river otter, muskrat, fox, wolf, and panther, the latter
extremely rare. The only domestic animals among the natives were
horses and dogs.
The country abounded with aquatic and land birds, such as swans,
wild geese, brant, ducks of almost every description, pelicans,
herons, gulls, snipes, curlews, eagles, vultures, crows, ravens,
magpies, woodpeckers, pigeons, partridges, pheasants, grouse, and
a great variety of singing birds.
There were few reptiles; the only dangerous kinds were the
rattlesnake, and one striped with black, yellow, and white, about
four feet long. Among the lizard kind was one about nine or ten
inches in length, exclusive of the tall, and three inches in
circumference.
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