deer tribe; but fossil animals of the kind, found in the earth in several places in Europe, far exceed it in size. The form is far from graceful, and the gait in running is remarkably awkward, owing, apparently, to the great weight of the horns. The head is carried in a horizontal position, the neck is stretched out straight forward, and the pace or trot throws the body from side to side with a rolling motion. When brought to bay, it sometimes makes dangerous blows with its heavy and projecting horns.

in immediate use, the long cord is sometimes allowed to drag behind on the ground, so that if the horseman is accidentally dismounted, he may seize it and recover his steed and his seat.

Mr. Catlin gives the following description of other methods sometimes practised :

In the dead of winter, which is very long and severely cold in this country, where horses can not be brought into the chase with any avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his snow-shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes, sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and, completely stopping their

The flesh of the elk is esteemed for food, but is less common in the west than buffalo meat. Hunting the Buffalo.-There are sev-progress, insures them certain and easy eral modes and several different weapons by which the buffalo is slain by the Indians of different tribes, and at different seasons. The gun is not, however, preferred, so generally, as might be expected, nor so extensively adopted as it might be. Several of the nations in the western plains are excellent bowmen, and are furnished with bows and arrows, which serve them admirably against these swift and powerful animals. It is a well-established fact, that an arrow sent by a strong and dexterous hand, and striking at a favorable instant between the ribs, occasionally passes through the body of the buffalo, and falls to the ground beyond him. When, therefore, we recollect the shortness and lightness of the bow (the best of which are only three or four feet in length), and rapidity with which arrows can be thrown (sometimes an Indian in sport will keep ten arrows in the air at a time), we may perceive that the use of this simple weapon is not retained with

out reason.

The Camanches, on the borders of Texas, often prefer their lances, in the chase as in war; riding up by the buffalo's side, and with a sudden, sidelong thrust, penetrating his heart. Passing on, another and another is thus mortally wounded, and several are seen dying at once, from blows inflicted in rapid succession, by one weapon.

The lasso is used by some tribes in certain circumstances; and, when not

victims to the bow or lance of their pursuers. The snow in these regions often lies, during the winter, to the depth of three or four feet, being blown away from the tops and sides of the hills in many places, which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze upon, while it is drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great depth, and rendered almost entirely impassable to all these huge animals, which, when closely pursued by their enemies, endeavor to plunge through it, but are soon wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an easy prey to the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his show-shoes and drives his lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to be sold to the fur-traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by the wolves. This is the season in which the greatest number of these animals is destroyed for their robes-they are easily killed at this time, and their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, give greater value to the robe.

The Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the fall, when it is fat and juicy, to last them all winter; so that they have little other object for this unlimited slaughter, amid the drifts of snow, than that of procuring their robes for traffic with the traders. shoes are made in a great many forms, of two and three feet in length, and one foot or more in width, of a hoop or hoops bent around for the frame, with a netting of web woven across with strings

The snow

Iowa is bounded north by the Minnesota territory, east by the Mississippi river, which separates it from Wisconsin and Illinois, south by Missouri, and west by Missouri river, which separates it from Nebraska. It lies between 40° 20′ and 43° north latitude, and 90° 20′ and 96° 50' west longitude, with a length of about two hundred and fifty-six miles, a medium breadth of one hundred and ninety-eight, and an area of about fifty thousand nine hundred square miles.

The state is well watered by numerous navigable rivers and streamlets flowing into the Mississippi and Missouri rivers which bound the state. The principal of these are the Red Cedar and Iowa, and the Des Moines, which empty into the Mississippi. The rivers falling into the Missouri are comparatively unimportant. Up to the year 1836, Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as Michigan, were embraced in the territory of Michigan.

Iowa was Indian territory as lately as in 1832, except a claim at Du Buque's mines. About five hundred persons, chiefly miners, had entered and labored on the Dubuque tract two or three years previously. The first emigrants who made farms in this now growing state, entered the territory in February, 1833, in the settlement a few miles back of Burlington. The first Christian church gathered was a baptist one, in 1834.

The growth of Iowa has been more rapid than that of any other western state. Its population now equals 200,000. It will soon be one of the great states of the west. No country on the globe is better situated for farming purposes.