Chapter X

Continue my voyage up the Arkansa--Geological remarks--Pass
several lesser rivulets, and the outlet of the Canadian
and the Illinois--Salt springs--Obstructions in the
navigation--Indications of coal--Pass Grand river, and enter the
Verdigris.

July 6th.] Having obtained accommodation in the boat of Mr. Bougie, agent for Mr. Drope, I left the garrison in order to proceed to the trading establishment, at the confluence of the Verdigris, by the course of the river about 130 miles distant.[186] The day being very warm we did not proceed more than 10 miles, having delayed our departure until near noon. Eight miles from the garrison we had another conspicuous view of the Cavaniol.

Among three or four other new plants afforded me by examining the sand-beaches, was a _Portulaca_, apparently the same with _P. pilosa_ of the West Indies; its taste was almost as disagreeably bitter as the succulent _Stapelias_ of Africa. On these sand-flats we also saw abundance of deer, brought to the river in search of water, as well as to escape the goading of insects; and it is customary for them to remain for hours licking the saline efflorescences which are deposited upon the alluvial clay. We encamped four miles below Skin bayou, and our party amused themselves by searching for turtle’s eggs, which the females deposit in the sand at the depth of about eight or ten inches, and then abandon their hatching to the genial {166} heat of the sun. They are spherical, covered with a flexible skin, and considered wholesome food.

7th.] The river land on both sides appears to be of a good quality, and generally elevated above inundation. The depression of the forest also begins to be obvious. About half a league below Skin bayou occur low cliffs of dark-coloured grauwacke slate, resembling sand-stone, which continue for about a mile along the right hand bank. The rock is entirely similar to that of the garrison (or Belle Point, as the situation is called), equally horizontal, and probably underlaid by coal. The under stratum was singularly undulated in short and broken waves, while the upper was almost perfectly horizontal. Not far from the place of our encampment, on the left, we passed the Swallow (or Hirundel), rocks, a projecting cliff, about 150 feet high, adorned with bushes of cedar, in the centre of which there appears to be an entrance into a cavern, and several other fretted excavations scattered over with clusters of martin nests. The rock consists of two beds; the upper a lighter coloured ferruginous and laminated sand-stone, excavated with appearances similar to nitre caves; the lowest bed, with a more considerable dip (about 10° to the south-east), consists of thinner greenish grey lamina, containing a little mica, and exhibiting the usual zoophytic carbonaceous impressions, indicative of coal. The river bars now abound in gravel, which is principally petrosiliceous. After passing Cajou creek, on the left, about two miles, we encamped near a bar, to avoid the visits of the musquetoes, our progress to-day being about 24 miles.

8th.] Four miles further we again obtained a view of Point de Sucre and the Cavaniol. On Sambo island, about 12 miles from our departure this morning, we stopped to dine; and here on a bar of gravel I found a new species of the Mexican genus _Stevia_, and never saw it afterwards in any other locality. To {167} the taste it was quite as bitter as many of the _Eupatoria_. This plant, and the _Portulaca_ already mentioned, appear to have been recently, and almost accidentally, disseminated from the interior. The cane still continues abundant, and the alluvial lands are extensive and fertile, with a basis of sand-stone, which two miles below appears in the same dark and ferruginous rocky mass as near Skin bayou. On some of our party going out a hunting, we concluded to spend the remainder of the day on the island.

9th.] This morning we crossed the river to the mouth of Sambo creek, and went out into the neighbouring prairie to hunt for bison; but after walking about nine miles, going and returning, were not fortunate enough to find any game. The grass was now so loaded with honey dew as to give our mocasins and pantaloons the appearance of being soaked in oil, seeming totally inexplicable as the produce of aphides, and rather attributable to some vitiation in the proper juices of the plant, taking place apparently at the ultimate period of vegetative vigour, and being more or less copious in proportion to the prevailing degree of heat. The cane brake which we here crossed by a hunting path, was about half a league wide, and flanked by low hills, whose declivities gently subside into the adjoining prairie, of about 20 miles in circuit, and five in width. Here the Cavaniol and Sugar-loaf mountains appeared, at least the latter, not more than 15 or 18 miles distant, towards the south-east. We proceeded about five miles above the creek, and spent the night on the margin of a sand bar, according to our usual custom, to avoid the musquetoes.

10th.] I went out this morning on the second bar we arrived at, which continued uninterruptedly for about five miles; we found a few Chicasaw plumbs, with natural orchards of which every beach abounds, but this year, in consequence of the late frosts, they were generally destitute of fruit. The current of the {168} Arkansa was here unusually rapid; on the right hand side the water was clear, but on the left, red and muddy. The clear water issued from the Illinois river, to which we were now contiguous. Among the scattered boulders and gravel of the bar, there were fragments of limestone and petrosilex, containing organic remains, also pebbles of chalcedony; we likewise saw specimens of coal, accompanied by the usual carbonaceous, tessellated vegetable, or zoophytic remains. One of the masses of chalcedony contained chrystalline illinitions of coal.--About breakfast time, we passed the mouth of the rivulet or brook, called by the French Salaiseau,[187] from some hunters having here killed a quantity of bison, and salted the beef for traffic. Major Bradford, who explored this stream, informed me, that the uplands as well as the prairies along this creek, were uncommonly fertile, and well watered by springs, and that the upper side of the creek presents a calcareous soil. Here, for the first time, near the Arkansa, we meet with the hazel (_Corylus americana_), and the American raspberry (_Rubus occidentalis_). In consequence of the rapidity of the current, we only proceeded about 12 miles.

11th.] After ascending about six miles, we passed the outlet of the Canadian,[188] 60 miles below the confluence of Grand river, or the Six Bull, a navigable river of considerable magnitude. Its main south branch sources with Red river, while another considerable body keeps a western course through the saline plains, where it becomes partially absorbed in the sands of the desert, but afterwards continues towards Santa Fe or the Del Norte. The Canadian, like Red river, always continues red and muddy, and is often impotably saline; 100 miles from its mouth, its banks are said to abound with selenite, disseminated through beds of red clay. Above the confluence of this stream, the Arkansa, where deep, appears clear, green, {169} and limpid. The alluvial lands now begin to be somewhat narrower, though neither hills nor cliffs approach the bank. This morning, however, we again observed a horizontal ledge of the grauwacke slate. About four miles above the Canadian, we passed the river Illinois,[189] on the right, a considerable stream of clear water, as are all the other rivers flowing into the Arkansa from the north. A few miles from its mouth, its banks present salt springs similar to those of Grand river, and scarcely less productive; indeed, most of the streams on this side the Arkansa are said to afford springs of salt water which might be wrought with profit. On the south side, the salines commencing about the Canadian, occur in the red clay formation, forming as it were a belt which extends to the third Red fork, or saline rivulet of the Arkansa. The salines on the north, appear rather in connection with the coal formation, at least, they do not belong to the same series as those on the south side of the river.

This afternoon, two of the hunters went out and brought in the most part of the meat of a fat bison, whose track they had followed from the bar.

About four miles above the Illinois, we came to a cascade of two or three feet perpendicular fall. In endeavouring to pass it, our boat grounded upon the rocks, and we spent several hours in the fruitless attempt to pass them, but had at last to fall back, and attempt it again in the morning, which we then (on the 13th) effected by the assistance of the wind without much difficulty, by passing further into the shute. At this season, in which the water is far from being at its lowest ebb, no boats drawing more than from 12 to 18 inches water, could pass this rapid without lightening, and it appears to form one of the first obstacles of consequence in the navigation of the Arkansa.[190]

The variety of trees which commonly form the North American forest, here begin very sensibly to {170} diminish. We now scarcely see any other than the smooth-barked cottonwood, the elm, box-elder (_Acer Negundo_), curled maple (_Acer dasycarpon_), and ash, all of them reduced in stature. From hence the forest begins to disappear before the pervading plain. To-day we were favoured with a fine south-east breeze, and sailed along with rapidity. Early in the afternoon we passed Bougie’s island, near to which, and in two other places, the hills, of about 300 feet elevation, approach the river; the rocks being still a slaty sandstone. Elk and deer now appeared common on the sand beaches, being obliged to come to the river for water, as the springs in the prairies are at this season nearly all dried up. We continued to pass several rapids, with the water curling over beds of gravel. According to the common estimate, we proceeded to-day 45 miles, and in the evening were only two leagues from our destination.

14th.] This morning we passed a low ledge of rocks on our left, apparently the usual dark-coloured slaty sandstone, and which has received the name of the Charbonniere,[191] from the appearances of coal which it exhibits. On this side, the prairie approaches the immediate bank of the river, and presents a very unusual open prospect. We again passed three or four difficult rapids, within the short distance which remained to complete our present voyage, but presently after saw the outlet of Grand river,[192] (or the Six Bulls as it is called by the French hunters), and now entered the Verdigris,[193] where M. Bougie and Mr. Prior had their trading houses. The water of both these rivers was quite pellucid; while that of the Arkansa was now whitish and muddy, from the partial influx and augmentation of some neighbouring streams.

FOOTNOTES:

[186] Disregarding the river’s windings, the Verdigris is only sixty
miles above Fort Smith.--ED.

[187] Salaison (meaning “salt meat”), is the correct French orthography. On modern maps the name is spelled Sallison, and Sallisaw.--ED.

[188] The Canadian is the chief tributary of the Arkansas, and was long confused with the Red. In 1820 Major S. H. Long (see our volumes xiv-xvii), mistaking it for the Red, followed the Canadian from its source until near its confluence with the Arkansas. The name is a corruption of Rio Cañada, given to the stream because its upper waters flow through cañons.--ED.

[189] This is the second tributary of the Arkansas bearing the name Illinois. The first debouches opposite Dardanelle (see _ante_, p. 177). The second rises in northwestern Arkansas, but most of its course is in Indian Territory.--ED.

[190] This cascade is known as Webber’s Falls. Near this spot Samuel Houston kept a store ten years later than the date of our narrative.--ED.

[191] Charbonniere means coal-bearing, and was frequently applied by the French to natural objects in carboniferous regions. See _ante_, note 156.--ED.

[192] The Grand, or Neosho, River, enters the Arkansas from the north at the point where the Cherokee-Creek boundary crosses the Arkansas. Near its mouth Fort Gibson was later built.--ED.

[193] The Verdigris River debouches about a quarter of a mile above
the mouth of the Neosho.--ED.

{171} CHAPTER XI

Character of the surrounding country of the Verdigris
river--Remarks on the Osage Indians

14th.] This morning, accompanied by Mr. Prior, I walked over a portion of the alluvial land of the Verdigris, the fertility of which was sufficiently obvious in the disagreeable and smothering luxuriance of the tall weeds, with which it was overrun. This neck of land, situated betwixt Grand river and the Verdigris, is about two miles wide, free from inundation, and covered with larger trees than any other I had seen since leaving Fort Smith. Among them were lofty scarlet oaks, ash, and hackberry, and whole acres of nettles (_Urtica divaricata_), with whose property of affording hemp, the French hunters and settlers have been long acquainted. Contiguous to the lower side of Grand river, there was a thick cane-brake, more than two miles in width, backed by the prairie, without the intervention of hills. As is common in large alluvions, so in this of the Verdigris, a second terrace or more elevated bottom succeeds the first, beyond which, occur thinly timbered hills. We then enter upon the great western prairies, or grassy plains, separated from each other by small rivulets, exhibiting belts of trees along their margin. About eight miles from the Arkansa, commences the great Osage prairie, more than 60 miles in length, and, in fact, succeeded by a continuation of woodless plains to the banks of the Missouri. Mr. Prior informed me, that in the first hills below, not far from the Arkansa, on the east side, and about six miles distant, there is calcareous rock. On entering the prairie, I was greatly disappointed to find no change in the vegetation, and indeed, rather a diminution of species. The _Amorpha canescens_, which I had not heretofore {172} seen, since leaving St. Louis and the Missouri, and a new species of _Helianthus_, however, instantly struck me as novel.

Leaving the path to the Osage village, we visited the rapids of the Verdigris, which are situated five miles above its embouchure. This obstruction is occasioned by a ledge of rocks, which traverse the river, now bare, except about three or four yards, over which the water foamed in a small cascade. The stream was quite pellucid, and along the ledge we saw great numbers of buffaloe-fish, as well as gars (_Esox osseus_), accompanied by several other smaller kinds. While viewing the surrounding objects, my attention was attracted to a beautiful green-striped lizard, resembling, except in the colour and larger size, the _Lacerta vittata_.

If the confluence of the Verdigris, Arkansa, and Grand rivers, shall ever become of importance as a settlement, which the great and irresistible tide of western emigration promises, a town will probably be founded here, at the junction of these streams; and this obstruction in the navigation of the Verdigris, as well as the rapids of Grand river, will afford good and convenient situations for mills, a matter of no small importance in the list of civilized comforts. From the Verdigris to St. Louis, there is an Osage trace, which reduces the distance of those two places to about 300 miles, and that also over a country scarcely obstructed by mountains. The low hills contiguous to the falls of this river, and on which there exist several aboriginal mounds, were chosen by the Cherokees and Osages to hold their council, and to form a treaty of reciprocal amity as neighbours. This first friendly interview with the Cherokees, was soon after broke through by jealousy, and accompanied on both sides with the most barbarous revenge. Scarcely any nation of Indians have encountered more enemies than the Osages; still they flatter themselves, by {173} saying, that they are seated in the middle of the world, and, although surrounded by so many enemies, they have ever maintained their usual population, and their country. From conversations with the traders, it appeared, that they would not be unwilling to dispose of more of their lands, provided that the government of the United States would enter into a stipulation, not to settle it with the aborigines, whom they have now much greater reason to fear than the whites. The limit of their last cession proceeds in a north-east direction from the falls of the Verdigris, and enters the line which was run from Fire prairie, on the Missouri, to Frog bayou, about 60 miles from the Arkansa; but, as it would appear, through a culpable oversight, the saline of Grand river was omitted, on the supply of which the whole territory so much depended for salt.

Limestone appears to exist along the banks of the Verdigris, not many miles above the falls, as large rolled fragments charged with shells were scattered along the shores. The slaty sandstone, also, which forms the falls, dipping about 10° to the north-west, exhibits, in some of its beds, organic impressions, resembling a very serpentine caryophyllite, and traversed with calcareous sparry illinitions.

15th.] The first village of the Osages lies about 60 miles from the mouth of the Verdigris, and is said to contain 7 or 800 men and their families. About 60 miles further, on the Osage river, is situated the village of the chief called White Hair.[194] The whole of the Osages are now, by governor Clarke, enumerated at about 8000 souls. At this time nearly the whole town, men and women, were engaged in their summer hunt, collecting bison tallow and meat. The principal chief is called by the French Clarmont,[195] although his proper name is the Iron bird, a species of Eagle. The right of governing is commonly hereditary, but not always directed by primogeniture. {174} Tálai, the son of the last chief, being considered too young at the decease of his father, the rule was conferred on Clarmont, son of the chief of White Hair’s village, on the Osage river, and his behaviour as regent for many years, secured to him the undivided controul of the village. Like most of the rulers among the aborigines, he neither affects nor supports any shadow of pomp or distinction beyond that of his office as supreme commander, and leader of the council. His influence is, however, so great as to be prudentially courted by all who would obtain any object with the village. He appeared to be shrewd and sagacious, and no way deficient in Indian bravery and cunning.

The Osages at this time entertained a considerable jealousy of the whites, in consequence of the emigration of the Cherokees to their frontiers; they considered it as a step of policy in the government to overawe them, and intended to act in concert with the establishment of the garrison. This consideration, as well as the power and wealth of the whites, which have been witnessed by their chiefs on their deputation to Washington, has, within these two years back, had a salutary tendency to restrain their pretensions. Still the white hunters and trappers are frequently insulted and chastised by them. And, on the other hand, we have surely no just reason to expect from the Indians an unstipulated licence to rob their country of that game, which is necessary to their convenience and subsistence.

From the Osage interpreter, of whom I made the inquiry, I learned, that, in common with many other Indians, as might be supposed from their wandering habits and exposure to the elements, they are not unacquainted with some peculiar characters and configurations of the stars. Habitual observation had taught them that the pole star remains stationary, and that all the others appear to revolve around it; they were acquainted {175} with the Pleiades, for which they had a peculiar name, and remarked the three stars of Orion’s belt. The planet Venus they recognised as the Lucifier or harbinger of day; and, as well as the Europeans, they called the Galaxy the heavenly path or celestial road. The filling and waning of the moon regulated their minor periods of time, and the number of moons, accompanied by the concomitant phenomena of the seasons, pointed out the natural duration of the year.

The superstitions of the Osages differ but little from those which have so often been described, as practised by the other natives. The importance of smoking, as a religious ceremony, is such as to be often accompanied by invocations for every aid or necessary of life. Before going out to war they raise the pipe towards heaven or the sun,[196] and implore the assistance of the Great Spirit to favour them in their reprisals, in the stealing of horses, and the destruction of their enemies, &c. &c. They are acquainted with the value of wampum, know the destructive effects of guns and gunpowder, and the fascinating, but deleterious qualities of spiritous liquors. Their minds have not been deluded into a belief in sorcery, which, from its supposed fatality, is by many of the eastern Indians punished with death. At their festivals, as among most of the other natives, the warriors recount their actions of bravery, and number them by throwing down a stick upon the ground for every exploit, or striking at a post fixed for the purpose. On such occasions, they sometimes challenge each other with a mutual emulation, to recount a like number of warlike deeds. Yet this ostentation is rarely suffered to degenerate into insult or envious combat; vulgarity is unknown amongst {176} the aborigines of America; and the crest-fallen warrior, superseded by a competitor, only seeks an equal share of honour in the claims of patriotism, in the wars of his nation.

After scalping, the greatest feat of the Indian warrior is the stealing of horses from the enemy, which they effect with notorious dexterity. The bad effects, which may be easily anticipated to arise from this thirst for martial fame, is a perpetual and obstinate continuance of war upon the slightest pretext; to which may also be added, their inability often, or unwillingness to distinguish betwixt public and personal wrong. Instead of punishing offenders against the peace, and thus endeavouring to keep up a good understanding with their neighbours, the friends of the incendiary, who has hurried his nation into war, hearken perhaps with indulgence to his misrepresentations, and thus too often effectually prohibit the application of salutary punishment. In fact, the want of legal restraint, and of an efficient government, in spite of all our admiration of patriarchal rule, have proved the ever baneful means of aboriginal depopulation. It is this anarchy which has so often prevented their common union against the encroachment of foreigners, and deprived them, in a great degree, of the advantages and comforts of public security and civilization. The most tyrannical oligarchy, as we have seen in the example of the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and the Natchez, would have been less injurious in its effects on their society, than this paternal form of government, which, unfortunately, however natural and virtuous in its principle, proves, by its lenity, insufficient to check a vicious populace.

FOOTNOTES:

[194] White Hair was also known by the French equivalent, Cheveux Blancs, or as Pahuska. He had gained power through the support of Pierre Chouteau, a prominent St. Louis trader who had encouraged factional divisions among the Osage, several years previous to the time of our narrative, in order to break the monopoly of their trade, which had been purchased by Manuel Lisa, a rival St. Louis operator.--ED.

[195] Clarmont (Clermont) had been tribal leader for some time. Lieutenant James Biddle Wilkinson, who visited the Verdigris village in 1807, while exploring the Arkansas River under orders from General Zebulon M. Pike, reported that “Clermont, or the Builder of Towns,” was the most influential man of the nation, and that his hereditary right to rule the Grand Osage had been usurped during his infancy by White Hair. If this be true, Clermont was but regaining his rights when he supplanted Tálai. Clermont was said to possess four wives and thirty-seven children.--ED.

[196] The Naudowessies, and, as we are told by La Hontan, the Hurons, smoked to the sun and the four cardinal points of the compass, which, according to Sir William Jones, is the characteristic ritual of the Tartars.--NUTTALL.

{177} CHAPTER XII

An excursion up Grand River to visit the Osage salt
works--Geological observations--Return across the prairie; its
general appearance and phenomena.

17th.] To-day I proceeded with two young men in a canoe up Grand river, with an intention of visiting the salt works. We found the water of this stream very clear, and the channel little inferior in breadth to some parts of the Arkansa; also full of rapids, and now so shallow as to admit of no vessel drawing more than 12 inches of water. The islands are very numerous and small, and the bars and bends, except by the predominance of gravel, resemble the Arkansa on a reduced scale. The gravel is entirely composed of lime-stone and chert. In the distance of about seven miles we found the first ridge terminating on the borders of the river to be calcareous. Below this, and about two or three miles from the mouth of the river, the usual dark-coloured slaty sandstone prevails. In the course of the day we killed several large buffaloe fish, which are very abundant in all the shallow and gravelly ripples, apparently a _Cyprinus_, and very palatable when fried in oil. The boney gar (_Esox osseus_), and the large grey catfish, are also sufficiently common. We proceeded about 30 miles.

18th.] The morning was fine, and we embarked at sunrise. About eight o’clock we passed a bend called the Eagle’s nest, a mile above which, and its island, a fasçade of calcareous rock appears, inlaid with beds of whitish hornstone. While examining these cliffs, I recognised as new, a large shrub, and to my great surprise found it to be a simple-leaved _Rhus_, scarcely distinct from the _R. Cotinus_ of the south of Europe and of our gardens. Hills and cliffs, but {178} partly hid in woods, were now of frequent occurrence along the river bank. The neighbouring thickets abounded with game, amongst which two bears made their appearance. The gravel bars were almost covered with _Amsonia salicifolia_, with which grew also the _Sesbania macrocarpa_ of Florida.

This evening I arrived at Mr. Slover’s, two miles below the saline. The farm which this hunter occupied was finely elevated and productive, and apparently well suited to the production of small grain. Up to this place, which is said to be 50 miles from the Arkansa, the cane continues to be abundant. In this elevated alluvion I still observed the Coffee-bean tree (_Gymnocladus canadensis_), the overcup white oak (_Quercus macrocarpa_), the pecan (_Carya olivæformis_), the common hickory, ash, elm; and below, in places near the margin of the river, the poplar-leaved birch (_Betula populifolia_).

Mr. S. informed me, that on the opposite side of the river, and two miles from hence, another strong salt spring breaks out through the incumbent gravel; and that there are other productive springs 25 miles above.

19th.] This morning, I walked with Mr. Slover to see the salt works, now indeed lying idle, and nearly deserted in consequence of the murder of Mr. Campbell, by Erhart, his late partner, and two accomplices in their employ. Melancholy as were the reflections naturally arising from this horrid circumstance, I could not but congratulate myself on having escaped, perhaps a similar fate. At the Cadron, I had made application to Childer’s, one of these remorseless villains, as a woodsman and hunter, to accompany me for hire, only about a month before he had shot and barbarously scalped Mr. Campbell, for the purpose of obtaining his little property, and in spite of the friendship which he had uniformly received from the deceased.

{179} But to return to the subject. We proceeded two miles, along the hilly and woody skirts of the river, and through the adjoining prairie to the saline, which appeared to be a gravelly, alluvial basin, of about an acre in extent, and destitute of all vegetation. A small fresh water brook, now scarcely running, passed through this area, and the salt water, quite pellucid, issued copiously to the surface in various directions. In one place it boiled up out of a focus of near six inches diameter, emitting fetid bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen, which deposited a slight scum of sulphur. All the springs are more or less hepatic, which circumstance is attributable to a bed of bituminous and sulphuretted slate-clay, visible on the margin of the stream, and, probably, underlaid by coal, through which the water rises to the surface. In the adjoining heights, a coarse-grained sandstone occurs, answering the purpose of mill-stones; the stream then contracts at the entrance of a ledge of slaty rocks, and, about a half mile from its immediate outlet, the water is perfectly fresh. The only well dug upon the premises for the salt water, was about five feet deep, and quarried through a bed of dark-coloured limestone, containing shells and nodules of black hornstone, similar to the chert of Derbyshire. This salt appears to be concomitant with a coaly or bituminous formation. No marine plants appear in this vicinity, as at Onondago, where we meet with the Salicornia of the sea marshes. When the works were in operation, 120 bushels of salt were manufactured in a week, and the water is said to be so strong, that after the second boiling, it became necessary to remove the lye. No mother water, or any thing almost but what is volatile, appears mixed with this salt, which is of the purest whiteness on the first boiling, and only takes about 80 gallons of water to produce a bushel. Hitherto these springs have been unaccompanied by any fossil remains of quadrupeds.

{180} This forenoon I was disagreeably surprised by a slight attack of the intermittent fever, which was also beginning to make its appearance in the family of Mr. Slover. In the spring, they were likewise affected by the influenza, which prevailed in the Osage village, and induced several pulmonary consumptions. No medicines being at hand, as imprudently I had not calculated upon sickness, I took in the evening about a pint of a strong and very bitter decoction, of the _Eupatorium cuneifolium_, the _E. perfoliatum_ or Bone-set, not being to be found in the neighbourhood. This dose, though very nauseous, did not prove sufficient to operate as an emetic, but acted as a diaphoretic and gentle laxative, and prevented the proximate return of the disease.

20th.] This morning I left Mr. Slover’s, and proceeded, by compass, across the Great Osage plain, towards the mouth of the Verdigris. My course was south by west, the distance being about 30 miles. Twenty miles of this route was without any path, and through grass three feet deep, often entangled with brambles, and particularly with the tenacious “saw-brier” (_Schrankia horridula_). The honey upon the grass, as at Sambo prairie, was so universally abundant, that my mockasins and pantaloons were soaked as with oil. Several insulated eminences, appearing almost artificial, served to diversify the cheerless uniformity of the extensive plain, still wrapt in primeval solitude. Not even a tree appeared, except along the brooks of Grand river and the Verdigris, which rivers, for 25 or 30 leagues, are not more than 12 to 15 miles apart. About a mile from the base of one of those prominent hills, insulated like an aboriginal mound, and towards which I was directed to proceed, passed the path to the Indian village, and the outlet of the Verdigris. It was evening when I arrived at this hill, which had been a prominent object in view, ever since my outset this morning. From {181} its summit, the wide and verdant plain appeared visible for 40 miles. Proceeding about four miles from this eminence, much fatigued, I lay down to sleep in the prairie, under the clear canopy of heaven;--but alone, and without the necessary comforts of either fire, food, or water. The crickets, grashoppers, catidids, and stocking-weavers, as they are familiarly called, kept up such a loud and shrill crepitation, as to prove extremely irksome, and almost stunning to the ears. Every tender leaved plant, whether bitter or sweet, by thousands of acres, were now entirely devoured by the locust grashoppers, which arose before me almost in clouds. I slept, however, in comfort, and was scarcely at all molested by musquetoes. The next day, after spending considerable time in botanizing, I arrived at the trading houses.