The day is clear and pleasant, though the wind is high from the northwest. We now packed up in different boxes a variety of articles for the President, which we shall send in the barge. The items consisted of a stuffed male and female antelope with their skeletons, a weasel, three squirrels from the Rocky Mountains, the skeleton of the prairie wolf, those of the white and gray hare, a male and female burrowing dog of the prairie, with a skeleton of the female, two burrowing squirrels, a white weasel and the skin of a lynx. We also included the horns of the mountain ram or bighorn, a pair of large elk horns, the horns and tail of the black-tailed deer, and a variety of skins such as those of the red fox, white hare, marten, and a yellow bear obtained from the Sioux. A number of articles of Indian dress were also packed among which was a buffalo robe, representing a battle fought about eight years ago between the Sioux and Arikaras against the Mandans and Minnetarees, on which the combatants are represented on horseback.

Much discussion has come lately to ascertain the period when the art of painting was first discovered. How hopeless all researches of this kind are is evident from the foregoing fact. It is indebted for its origin to one of the strongest passions of the human heart a wish to preserve the features of a departed friend, or the memory of some glorious exploit.