24th.  The standard of value with the Indians is various.  At this place, a beaver skin is the standard of computation in accounts.  When an Indian has made a purchase, he inquires, not how many dollars, but how many beaver skins he owes.  Farther south, where racoon skins are plenty, they become the standard.  Some years ago, desertion became so frequent at Chicago and other posts, that the commanding officer offered the customary reward to the Indians of the post, if they would secure the deserters.  Five persons went in pursuit, and brought in the men, for which they received a certificate for the amount.  They then divided the sum into five equal shares, and subdivided each share into its value in racoon skins.  It was not until this division was completed, and the number of skins ascertained, that they could, by any fixed standard of comparison, determine the reward which each had received.

25th.  It is stated in the newspapers that hacks of an axe were lately found in the central and solid parts of a large tree near Buffalo, which were supposed to have been made by La Salle’s party.  Other evidences of the early footsteps of Europeans on this continent have been mentioned.  A trammel was found in the solid substance of a tree in Onondaga.  A gun barrel in a similar position in the Wabash Valley.[40] Growing wood soon closes over articles left upon it, in the wilderness, where they are long undisturbed.

[Footnote 40:  Hon. R.W.  Thompson.]

27th.  Monedo is strictly a term belonging to the Indian mythology and necromancy, and is constantly used to indicate a spirit.  It has not the regular termination of the noun in win, and seems rather verbal in its aspect, and so far as we can decipher its meaning, mon is a syllable having a bad meaning generally, as in monaudud, &c. Edo may possibly be a derivation from ekedo, he speaks.

28th.  It is a year ago to-day since I visited the tomb of Washington, at Mount Vernon.  There were three representatives in Congress, in company.  We left the city of Washington in the morning, in a private carriage, and drove down in good season.  I looked about the tomb narrowly for some memento to bring away, and found some mineralogical fragments on the small mound over the tomb, which would bear the application of their book names.  On coming back through Alexandria, we dined at a public hotel, where, among other productions of the season, we had cucumbers.  What a contrast in climate to my present position!  Here, as the eyes search the fields, heaps of snow are still seen in shaded situations, and the ice still disfigures the bays and indentations of the shore in some places, as if it were animated with a determination to hold out against the power of the sun to the utmost.  Nature, however, indicates its great vernal throe.  White fish were first taken during the season, this day, which is rare.