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of Duvale Keighler Co of Baltimore on his way to the trading towns on the Missouri river & he proved an agreeable & gentlemanly companion -- I soon made the other acquaintances from whom I derive information & pleasure & I travelling this is as essential to one's profit as the observation of the country. This boat presented more the picture which I had imagined of a Western steamboat than I had seen, the great number of passengers & the mixture of characters to be seen all peculiar to this region & nation. There is nothing which has attracted my attention so much as the fine physical development of these men of the West, the majority six feet in height & often over, but generally well proportion, robust, stalwart & hardy. It is probable that nowhere could so fine a body of energetic active men be found prepared to face any danger & accomplish any work of enterprise. -- Altho' giving the palm? to the male sex in the West for physical development, I must still claim for the fair sex ? graceful daughters of Maryland & Virginia the superiority in feminine attractions to their Western sisters. One of the causes of disease & most trying unclear to health in this region are the rapid changes of temperature, a day ago I was sweltering in the heat of the south & now it is cold enough for all the winter clothes I can muster. The "father of waters"