I made in that field.  He renewed the interest, which, as a New Yorker, he felt in my history and fortunes, after my return from the head of the Mississippi in 1820.  He opened his library and house to me freely; and I have to notice his continued interest since my coming here.  In the letter which has just reached me, he encloses a favorable notice of my recent Narrative of the Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, from Sir Humphrey Davy.  If there were nothing else, in such a notice from such a source but the stimulus it gives to exertion, that alone is worth to a man in my position “pearls and diamonds.”

Colonel Brady, who is active in daily perambulating the woods, to make himself acquainted with the environs, seeking, at the same time, the best places of finding wood and timber, for the purposes of his command, brought me a twig of the Sorbus Americana, a new species of tree to him, in the American forest, of which he asked me the name.  This tree is found in occasional groups extensively in the region of the upper Lake latitudes, where it is called the mountain ash.  In the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi in 1820, it was observed on the southern shores of Lake Superior, which are on the average a little north of latitude 36 deg. 30’.  This tree does not in these straits attain much size; a trunk of six to eight inches diameter is large.  Its leaves, flowers, and fruit all tend to make it a very attractive species for shade and ornament.  It must have a rich soil, but, this requisite granted, it delights in wet moist lands, and will thrive with its roots in springy grounds.

15th.  One of the curious superstitions of the Chippewas, respecting the location of spiritual existences, revealed itself to-day.  There is quite an eminence nearly a mile back of the new cantonment, which is called La Butte de Terre by the French, and Wudjuwong,[18] or Place of the Mountain, by the natives.  This eminence is covered with a fine growth of forest trees, and lies in the track of an ancient Indian hunting path.  About half way between the brow of the hill and the cantonment, there formerly stood a large tree of this species, partly hollow, from the recesses of which, Indian tradition says, there issued, on a calm day, a sound like the voice of a spirit or monedo.  It resembled the sounds of their own drum.  It was therefore considered as the residence of some powerful spirit, and deemed sacred.  To mark their regard for the place, they began to deposit at its foot bows and twigs of the same species of tree, as they passed it, from year to year, to and from their hunting-grounds.  These offerings began long before the French came to the country, and were continued up to this time.  Some years ago, the tree had become so much decayed that it blew down during a storm, but young shoots came up from its roots, and the natives continued to make these offerings of twigs, long after the original trunk had wholly decayed.  A few days ago, Colonel Brady