Many geese were feeding in the prairies, and a number of magpies, which build their nests much like those of the blackbird, in trees, and composed of small sticks, leaves, and grass, open at the top; the egg is of a bluish-brown color, freckled with reddish-brown spots.
We also killed a large hooting-owl resembling that of the United States except that it was more booted and clad with feathers.

On the hills are many aromatic herbs, resembling in taste, smell, and appearance the sage, hyssop, wormwood, southernwood, juniper, and dwarf cedar; a plant also about two or three feet high, similar to the camphor in smell and taste; and another plant of the same size, with a long, narrow, smooth, soft leaf, of an agreeable smell and flavor, which is a favorite food of the antelope, whose necks are often perfumed by rubbing against it." What the journalist intended to say here was that at least one of the aromatic herbs resembled sage, hyssop, wormwood, and southernwood, and that there were junipers and dwarf cedars.

The pungent-smelling herb was the wild sage, now celebrated in stories of adventure as the sage-brush.
It grows abundantly in the alkali country, and is browsed upon by a species of grouse known as the sage-hen.

Junipers and dwarf cedars also grow on the hills of the alkali and sage-brush country.

The sage belongs to the Artemisia family of plants.
Four days later, the journal had this interesting entry: "The country to-day presented the usual variety of highlands interspersed with rich plains.