Chapter VI: Part III: Of James's Account of S. H. Long's (4)

When filled, these sacks cannot be set upon the ground without suffering the loss of their contents. To remedy this, the Kaskaias carry with them, as an {296} indispensable article of furniture, a sort of tripod, consisting of three light poles, tied together at one end, and sharpened at the other, by which they are driven into the ground, and the water-sack is suspended between them. One of these was placed near the entrance of almost every lodge in this encampment.

We had scarcely finished our scanty repast, when the wife of the Red Mouse showing her trencher, to signify that we were her debtors, began to beset us for presents; as we were, however, little pleased with her hospitality, we treated her demands much as she had done ours. A number of small articles were pilfered from us, and the Indians seemed determined to show us little respect, until they perceived we were putting our guns in order for immediate use; at this they expressed some apprehension, and behaved afterwards with less rudeness.

There were thirty-two lodges, and probably about two hundred and fifty souls, including men, women, and children. Among them we could number only twenty-two armed men; and these kept constantly about us. They were armed exclusively with bows and arrows, and, as we believed, had some fear of us, though we were less than half their number. It was probably owing to our perceiving, or at least appearing to perceive this, that we escaped from them uninjured. They had many horses, probably more than five hundred, and some of them very good.

Towards evening the chief withdrew from our lodge, when we observed his squaw prepare some food for him, pounding the jerked meat to a powder with a stone pestle, using a piece of skin instead of a mortar. When reduced to very fine fragments, it is mixed with bison tallow; a little water is added, and the whole boiled together. After he had finished his meal, a council was held between all the men of the band. They met behind the chief's lodge, and we were not greatly pleased to perceive, that they {297} seemed anxious to conceal their meeting from us. At night we determined to collect all our horses, and, placing them as near as we could around our lodge, to watch them during the night; but, upon examination, a few of them only could be found, the remainder, as we believed, having been seized by the Indians. The crowd which had been assembled about us during the day, dispersed as the evening advanced, and at dark all became still in and about the encampment. At this time the chief, whose lodge was near ours, standing at the entrance of his dwelling, harangued with great vehemence, in a voice sufficiently loud and clear to be heard by all his people, who had now retired to their several lodges. As we had no interpreter of their language, we could understand nothing of the import of his speech. Every thing remained quiet during the night, and as soon as the day dawned on the following morning, a loud harangue, similar to that in the evening, was pronounced by the chief, and immediately afterwards the whole camp was in motion. The lodges were taken down, the packs placed upon the horses, and the whole body were in a short time ready to move off. As several of our horses, our kettles, and other articles of the greatest importance to us were missing, we were unwilling to part from our hosts in the hasty and unceremonious manner they seemed to intend. We accordingly summoned the old Indian interpreter, and made our complaint and remonstrance to the chief. He told us our horses had strayed from camp, and that several of his people were then out searching for them, and made other excuses, evidently designed to gain time until his band could move off. Perceiving we had no time to lose, Major Long ordered horses and other articles, corresponding to those we had lost, to be immediately seized. This prompt and well-timed measure produced the desired effect. Their whole camp had been some time in motion; the women {298} and children, with all their baggage, except what we had detained, had moved to a considerable distance; and we found ourselves, at this unpleasant state of the dispute, surrounded by their whole armed force. We observed they had a greater number of arrows in their hands than on the preceding day, and were not without our fears, that they intended to carry the dispute respecting our horses and kettles to greater lengths than we could wish. We were, however, agreeably disappointed, to learn that all our lost property had been found. It was accordingly restored to us, and we parted from the Kaskaias as friends.

The time we spent with this band of savages was so short as to afford little opportunity of becoming acquainted with their manners. Their dress is nearly similar to that of the Pawnees, but consists more exclusively of leather. The women, instead of the robe, wear a loose sort of a frock without sleeves. It has an opening for the neck, just large enough to admit the head, and descends from the shoulders, hanging like a bag about the body, and reaching below the knees. When eagerly engaged in their employments, this inconvenient article of dress is thrown aside, and there remains the squabbish person of the female savage, disfigured only by a small apron of leather worn round the waist. The young females appear to be in some measure exempted from the laborious services performed by the married women, and consequently possess a degree of lightness and elasticity in their persons, which they soon lose after they begin to bear children, and subject themselves to the severe drudgeries of a married life. Their breasts become so flaccid and pendulous, that we have seen them give suck to their children, the mother and the child at the same time standing erect upon the ground. This fact is sufficient to prove that they do not, at least in some instances, wean their children at a very early age.

{299} Like all savages, they suffer themselves to be covered with filth and vermin, notwithstanding which some of the young ones are far from disgusting in their appearance. They have well turned features, aquiline noses, large and regular teeth, and eyes, which though usually rather small, are clear and brilliant. Some of the men of this band have larger and finer teeth than we remember to have seen heretofore among savages. In the general structure of their features, and the complexion of their skins, they resemble the Missouri tribes, being of a clearer and brighter red than many of the eastern Indians. In stature and in symmetry, and elegance of form, they are inferior to the Otoes, Pawnees, and to most of the Missouri Indians who reside in permanent villages. They seemed to have had little intercourse with the whites, as some among them appeared to take great pleasure in exhibiting to their friends the skin of our arms, which they requested us to show for that purpose. It was probably by means of a mistake on the part of one of the interpreters, that we received the intimation that they had never heard before of such a people as that to which we belonged. We saw among them few articles of foreign production; these they had probably received from Spanish traders. In the whole encampment we saw but one kettle, which belonged to the chief, and their great eagerness to steal our tin cups and other similar articles, sufficiently evinced that such things are scarce, and of great value among them. They have some beads, most of which are bestowed in ornamenting the dress of the children; also some pewter and brass rings, worn principally by the women. They are acquainted with the use of tobacco, and smoked with us according to the universal custom of the Indians, but expressed by signs that they found the smoke of unmixed tobacco too strong for them. One of their young men, who was in his ordinary dress when we met the party, visited us soon after we had encamped, {300} dressed in leggings and breech cloth, with a striped worsted vest and a silver-headed bamboo, which he sported among us with the air of a great traveller.

A child was shown us who spoke Spanish, and who was said to be a prisoner from the Spanish settlements; he was not, however, distinguished from the Kaskaias by any difference of colour or of features. He spoke frequently of the Christians, which convinced us that he had at least been among the half civilized Indians of New Mexico, who have some acquaintance with the Spanish language, and have been taught enough of the Christian religion to make use of the sign of the cross.

This band of Kaskaias occupy the country about the sources of the Platte, Arkansa, and Rio Del Norte, and extend their hunting excursions to Red river and the sources of the Brases. The great numbers of images of the alligator, which they wear either as ornaments or as amulets for the cure or prevention of disease and misfortune, afford sufficient proof of their extending their rambles to districts inhabited by that reptile. These images are of carved wood covered with leather, and profusely ornamented with beads. They are suspended about the neck, and we saw several worn in this manner by the children as well as by adults. It was observed likewise, that the rude frames to the looking-glasses, carried by several of the men, were carved so as to approximate towards the same form.

It is perhaps owing to their frequent exposure to the stormy and variable atmosphere of the country about the Rocky Mountains, that these Indians are subjected to numerous attacks of rheumatic and scrofulous diseases. We saw one old woman with a distorted spine, who had probably suffered, when young, from rickets. A young man, of a fine athletic frame, had his neck covered with scrofulous ulcers. While he was with us he was constantly endeavouring to conceal with his robe this afflicting spectacle. He {301} remained but a short time among us, and did not make his second appearance.

An old man came frequently with a diseased leg, informing us by signs, that it had repeatedly formed large abscesses, which had discharged much matter, and afterwards healed. His frequent applications seemed to be made with the hope that we would do something for his relief. The men of this band wear the hair long, and suffer it to hang negligently about the shoulders. Some of them have a braid behind, which is garnished with bits of red cloth, small pieces of tin, &c. and descends nearly to the ground, being sometimes eked out with the hair of a horse's tail. Among the old men were several who had suffered a number of scattering hairs on the face to become of considerable length, a violation of good manners, and a neglect of personal neatness, not often met with among the Indians, and excusable only in the old. In their conduct towards us, they were guilty of more rudeness and incivility than we had been accustomed to meet with among the savages of the Missouri. Soon after we had encamped with them, one of our party who had brought along a roasted rib of a bison which had remained of our breakfast, had produced this bone, and was engaged in eating from it; an Indian who observed this came up, and without ceremony taking the rib out of his hand, carefully scraped off and ate all the meat, and returned the bone.

Though we saw much to admire among this people, we cannot but think they are among some of the most degraded and miserable of the uncivilized Indians on this side of the Rocky Mountains. Their wandering and precarious manner of life, as well as the inhospitable character of the country they inhabit, precludes the possibility of advancement from the profoundest barbarism. As is common among other of the western tribes, they were persevering in offering us their women, but this appeared to be {302} done from mere beastliness and the hope of reward, rather than from any motive of hospitality or a desire to show us respect. We saw among them no article of food except the flesh of the bison; their horses, their arms, lodges, and dogs, are their only wealth.

In their marches they are all on horseback; the men are expert horsemen, and evince great dexterity in throwing the rope, taking in this way many of the wild horses which inhabit some parts of their country. They hunt the bison on horseback with the bow and arrow, being little acquainted with fire arms. One of them who had received a valuable pistol from a member of our party, soon afterwards returned, and wished to barter it for a knife. They begged for tobacco, but did not inquire for whiskey; it is probable they have not yet acquired a relish for intoxicating liquors. In their persons they are all uncommonly filthy, and many of the women spent a great part of their time in catching and eating the lice from the heads of their children.

At eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th of August we took our leave of the Kaskaias, having recovered from them all the articles they had stolen, except a few ropes, halters, and other small affairs, which not being indispensably necessary to us, we chose to relinquish, rather than submit to a longer delay among a people we had so much reason to dislike.

They had shown a disposition so far from friendly towards us, that we were surprised to have escaped without having found it necessary to use our rifles among them; and as we thought it by no means improbable some of their young men might follow us to steal our horses, we moved on rather briskly, intending to travel as far in the course of the day as we conveniently could.

The river valley spread considerably a little below the point where we had encamped. In many places we found the surface a smooth and naked bed of {303} sand; in others, covered by an incrustation of salt, like a thin ice, and manifestly derived from the evaporation of water which had flowed down from the red sandstone hills bounding the valley. These hills were here of moderate elevation, the side towards the river being usually abrupt and naked. The sandstone is fine, of a deep red colour, indistinctly stratified and traversed in various directions by veins filled principally with sulphate of lime.

We had seen among the Indians on the preceding day quantities of salt in large but detached crystalline fragments, greatly resembling the common coarse salt of commerce. It had evidently been collected from some place like the one above mentioned, where it had been deposited from solution in water. When we inquired the particular locality of the Indians, they pointed to the south, and said it was found near the sources of a river heading in that direction.

At the place of our evening encampment, we saw the red-necked avoset (recurvirostra americana), the minute tern (sterna minuta), and several other strand birds which we could not approach near enough to distinguish the species. There is also a very evident similarity between the plants found here and many of those growing in saline soils along the sea coast. We saw here several species of atriplex, chenopodium, salsola, kochia, and anabasis, all delighting in a saline soil, and affording on analysis a greater proportion of soda than most inland plants.

The day had been unusually warm. During all our mid-day halt, protracted, on account of the sultriness of the weather, to an unusual length, the mercury had remained at 100°, the thermometer being suspended in the closest shade we could find. It is to be remarked, however, that in almost every one of the numerous instances when the mercurial column had indicated so high a temperature as in {304} the one just mentioned, a fair exposure could not be had.

We often found it necessary to halt upon the open plain, where the intensity of light and heat were much increased by the reflection of the sun's rays from the sand. The temperature indicated by the thermometer, suspended in the imperfect shade of our tent, or of a small tree, was however somewhat lower than that to which our bodies were exposed; and it will be believed our sufferings from this source were great, both on our marches and while encamped in the middle of the day. Our tent being too small to afford its imperfect shade to the whole party, we sometimes suspended blankets, using, instead of poles, our rifles and gunstocks, but the protection these could afford against the scorching glare of a vertical sun, was found extremely inadequate.

At sunset we crossed what appears to be at some seasons of the year the bed of a large river at least two hundred yards wide, but at this time not a drop of water was found in it. It has a wide valley, and in every respect but the occasional want of water, is a large stream. A little beyond this we encamped for the night, having travelled twenty-eight miles.

August 13th. The course of the river had now become considerably serpentine, so that our route along its valley was of necessity somewhat circuitous. Wishing to avoid the unnecessary travelling thus occasioned, we turned off from the river and ascended the hills, hoping to meet with an Indian trace leading across the country by the most direct route. Our search was however unavailing, only affording us an opportunity of examining a portion of the country remote from the river. This we found much broken with irregular hills, abrupt ravines, and deep valleys. At ten o'clock we met with a small stream of water running towards the river we had left, and crossing it, perceived the trace of a large party of mounted Indians which had ascended {305} the creek within a few hours previous. We supposed they must have been the band of Cumancias spoken of by the Bad-hearts; and, notwithstanding some fears we have had reason to entertain, that they would have treated us no better than the Kaskaias had done, we considered ourselves unfortunate in not having met them. Much confusion and uncertainty attends the limited information hitherto before the public concerning the wandering bands of savages who occupy the country between the frontiers of New Mexico and the United States. Some who have spoken of these Indians, seem to have included several of the erratic hordes already enumerated under the name of Hietans or Cumancias. From their wandering mode of life, it unavoidably happens that the same band is met by hunters and travellers in different parts of the country at different times, consequently they receive different appellations, and the estimate of their numbers becomes much exaggerated. Of this band we have no other information to communicate, than that they appeared, from the tracks of their horses and lodge-poles, to have been rather more numerous than the party of Bad-hearts we had lately met. A recent grave was discovered by one of our hunters at no great distance from the river, in which it was supposed one of this band had been buried. At one end of the grave was erected a pole about ten feet in length, crossed near the top by another two feet long. To the foot of this rude cross was tied a pair of mockasins, newly soled and carefully prepared for the use of the departed in that long journey on the _road of the dead_ to which the good wishes of some friend had accompanied him.

Where we halted at noon were some trees, and several of these were covered with grape vines, loaded with ripe and delicious fruit. The Osage plum was also common, and now beginning to ripen. The temperature of the air inside of our tent, partially shaded by some small trees, was sufficiently {306} high to keep the mercury at 105° Fah. from twelve o'clock to three P. M. A suffocating stillness prevailed in the air, and we could find no relief from the painful glare of light and the intense heat which seemed about to reduce the scanty vegetation to ashes.

In the afternoon a thick grove of timber was descried at a distance below, and on the opposite side of the river. This cheering sight was like the discovery of land to the mariner, reminding us of the comparative comfort and plenty which we had learned to consider inseparable from a forest country, and exciting in us the hope that we should soon exchange our desolate and scorching sands for a more hospitable and more favoured region. As this little grove of trees, appearing to us like the commencement of an immense forest, gave us reason to expect we should soon meet with some small game at least; Mr. Peale, with one man, went forward to hunt. Soon after arriving at the wood, they discovered a flock of turkeys, and the rifleman dismounting to shoot, left his mule for a moment at liberty. The animal, taking a sudden advantage of the opportunity, turned about, and made the best of his way out of the wood, pursued by Mr. Peale. This chase continued about five miles, and ended in putting the mule on the recent trace of the party, which there was no reason to fear he could be induced to quit, until he had rejoined his companions. Mr. P., who was exhausted with the pursuit, followed on but slowly, and neglecting to follow carefully the path of the party, he passed us, after we had turned aside to encamp, still travelling on in the direction of our course. At dark, believing we were still before him, and knowing we must encamp near the river, he betook himself to the sand-bars, which were now naked, occupying the greater part of what was sometimes the bed of the stream. Along these he travelled, occasionally discharging a pistol, and looking {307} about in constant expectation of seeing the blaze of our evening fire, until the moon began to sink behind the hills, when finding the light insufficient to enable him to continue his search, he tied his horse to a tree, and laid down to await the return of daylight.

At camp, guns were discharged, as large a fire kindled as we could find the means of making, and other measures taken to give notice of our situation; and late in the evening, the man whose mule had been the occasion of the accident, joined us, but was unable to give any account of Mr. Peale or the mule, which had, however, arrived before him.

At seven o'clock on the morning following, Aug. 14th, Mr. P. returned to us, having convinced himself, by a careful examination of the river valley, that we were still above. He accordingly retraced his course, until he discovered the smoke of our encampment. He had been much harassed in the night by mosquitos; and bisons having recently occupied the shade of the tree under which he slept, the place afforded as little refreshment for the horse as for himself. Delaying a little to allow him time to make amends for his long absence, we left our camp at a later hour than usual; and moving along a wide and somewhat grassy plain, halted to dine near an old Indian breast-work by the side of a grove of cotton-wood trees, intermixed with a few small-leaved elms. This breast-work is built like that described on the Platte, a few days' march above the Pawnees. We have met with the remains of similar works in almost every grove of trees, about the base of the mountains; near some of them, we have noticed holes dug a few feet into the ground, probably as caches or depositories of provisions; the earth which was raised having been removed to a distance, or thrown into the river, that it might not lead to the discovery of the concealed articles. We have met with large excavations of this kind, having an entrance comparatively small, and so placed as to be {308} easily concealed; made by white hunters to hold their furs, and whatever else they might wish to deposit in safe keeping.

The occurrence of the elm, the phytolacca, the cephalanthus, and other plants not to be met with in a desert of sand, give us the pleasing assurance of a change we have long been expecting to see in the aspect of the country. The blue jay, the purple martin, a deer, and some turkeys, were also seen near this encampment.

The bed of the river is here eight hundred yards wide, but the quantity of water visible is much less than in some places above. The magnetic variation ascertained at this camp was 12° 30′ east.

{309} CHAPTER VI {XIII}

Sand Plains--Mississippi Hawk--Small-leaved Elm--Wild Horses--Hail-storm--Climate--Bisons--Grapes--Red Sand Formation--Gypsum.

August 15th. Extensive tracts of loose sand, so destitute of plants, and so fine as to be driven with the wind, occur in every part of the saline sandstone formation we had as yet seen. They are perhaps invariably the detritus of the sand-rock, deposited in valleys and depressions, where the rapidity of the abrading currents has been checked by permanent obstacles. This loose sand differs in colour from the sandstone, which is almost invariably red; the difference may, however, have been produced simply by the operation of water suspending and removing the light colouring matter, no longer retained by the aggregation of the sandstone. These fields of sand have most frequently an undulating surface, occasioned probably not less by the operation of winds than by the currents of water; a few plum bushes, almost the only woody plants found on them, wherever they take root, form points, about which the sand accumulates, and in this manner permanent elevations are produced. The yucca angustifolia and the shrubby cactus are here rarely seen; the argemone and the night-flowering bartonia have not entirely disappeared, but are not of frequent occurrence.

Our horses had broken loose, and a part of them strayed from camp. This occasioned some unusual delay, and the morning was somewhat advanced when we commenced our ride. The day was bright and cool, comparatively so at least, the mercury in {310} the extreme heat rising to only 95° in the shade of our tent, whereas on several of the preceding days, it had stood at or above 100° in a fairer exposure. A light breeze sprung up from the south-west, and continued during the remainder of the day. Our course led us twice across the bed of the river, which we found one thousand and four hundred paces in width; and without water, except in a few small pools, where it was stagnant. This wide and shallow bed is included between low banks, sometimes sloped gradually, and sometimes, though rarely, perpendicular, and rising scarcely more than four feet from the common level of the bottom of the channel. Drift wood is occasionally seen without these banks, affording evidence that they are at times not only full, but overflowed. If they are ever but partially filled, it is easy to see that what, for a great part of the year, is a naked sand beach, then becomes a broad and majestic river. It must flow with a rapid current, and in floods; its waters cannot be otherwise than of an intense red colour. The immediate valley of the river had now become little less than two miles in width; and had, in some places, a fertile soil. This happens wherever there occur spots having little elevation above the bed of the river, and which have not recently been covered with sand.

Several species of locust were extremely frequent here, filling the air by day with their shrill and deafening cries, and feeding with their bodies great numbers of that beautiful species of hawk, the falco Mississipiensis of Wilson.[59] It afforded us a constant amusement to watch the motions of this greedy devourer in the pursuit of his favourite prey, the locust. The insect being large, and not uncommonly active, is easily taken; the hawk then pauses on the wing, suspending himself in the air, while, with his talons and beak, he tears in pieces and devours his prey.

We were also fortunate in capturing a tortoise, {311} resembling the T. geographica of Le Sueur.[60] The upper part of its shell was large enough to contain near a quart of water, and was taken to supply the place of one of our tin cups recently lost, while the animal itself was committed to the mess kettle. Wolves, jackals, and vultures, occurred in unusual numbers, and the carcasses of several bisons recently killed had been seen. We could also distinguish the recent marks of a hunting party of Indians, the tracks of horses and of men being still fresh in the sand. At four P. M., several bisons were discovered at a distance, and as we were in the greatest want of provisions, we halted, and sent the hunters in pursuit; and being soon apprized of their success, the requisite preparations were made for jerking the meat. Near our camp was a scattering grove of small-leaved elms. This tree (the U. alata, N.) is not known in the Eastern states; but it is common in many parts of Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansa. When found in forests intermixed with other trees, it is usually of a smaller size than the ulmus americana, and is distinguished from it by the smallness of the leaves and the whiteness of the trunk. On the borders of the open country, where large trees often occur entirely isolated, the ulmus alata has proportionally a more dense and flattened top than any other tree we have seen. When standing entirely alone, it rarely attains an elevation of more than thirty or thirty-five feet; but its top lying close to the ground, is spread over an area of sixty or seventy feet in diameter, and is externally so close and smooth as to resemble, when seen from a distance, a small grassy hillock.

Near our camp was a circular breast-work, constructed like those already mentioned, and large enough to contain eighty or an hundred men. We were not particularly pleased at meeting these works so frequently as we had done of late, as they indicate the country where they are found, to be one {312} particularly exposed to the depredations of Indian war-parties.

August 16. The greater part of the flesh of the bison killed on the preceding evening had been dried and smoked in the course of the night, so that we had now no fear of suffering immediately from hunger, having as much jerked meat as was sufficient to last several days.

The sky continued clear, but the wind was high, and the drifting of the sand occasioned much annoyance. The heat of the atmosphere became more intolerable, on account of the showers of burning sand, driven against us with such force as to penetrate every part of our dress, and proving so afflictive to our eyes, that it was with the utmost difficulty we could see to guide our horses. The sand is carried from the bed of the river, which is here a naked beach of more than half a mile wide, and piled in immense drifts along the bank. Some of these heaps we have seen covering all but a small portion of the upper branches of what appeared like large trees. Notwithstanding we were now three hundred miles distant from the sources of the river, we found very little water; and that being stagnant, and so much frequented by bisons and other animals, was so loathsome both to sight and smell, that nothing but the most uncontrollable thirst could have induced us to taste it.

At a short distance below the place of our encampment, we passed the confluence of a considerable creek entering from the south-west. Though like all the streams of this thirsty region, its waters were entirely hid in the sand; yet it is evidently the bed of a large tributary, and from its direction, we conclude it can be no other than the one on which the Kaskaias informed us they had encamped the night before we met them. Its name, if it have any, among the Indians or Spaniards, we have not yet learned.[61]

We had, for some days, observed a few wild horses, {313} and they, as well as the bisons, were now becoming numerous. In the habits of the wild horse, we find little unlike what is seen in the domestic animal, though he becomes the most timorous and watchful of the inhabitants of the wilderness. They show a similar attachment to each other's society, though the males are occasionally found at a distance from the herds. It would appear, from the paths we have seen, that they sometimes perform long journeys, and it may be worthy of remark, that along these paths are frequently found very large piles of horse-dung, of different ages, affording sufficient evidence that this animal, in a wild state, has, in common with some others, an inclination to drop his excrement where another has done so before him. This propensity is sometimes faintly discovered in the domestic horse.

As we were about to halt for dinner, a bison who had lingered near our path was killed; but the flesh was found in too ill a condition to be eaten, as is the case with all the bulls at this season.

Soon after we had mounted our horses in the afternoon, a violent thunder-storm came on from the north-west; hail fell in such quantities, as to cover the surface of the ground, and some of the hail-stones which we examined, were near an inch in diameter. Falling with a strong wind, these heavy masses struck upon our bodies with great violence; our horses, as they had done on a similar occasion before, refused to move, except before the wind. Some of the mules turned off from our course, and had run more than half a mile before they could be overtaken. For ourselves, we found some protection, by wrapping our blankets loosely around our bodies, and waited for the cessation of the storm, not without calling to mind some instances on record of hail-stones which have destroyed the lives of men and animals.

It is not improbable, that a climate of a portion of country within the range of the immediate influence {314} of the Rocky Mountains, may be more subject to hail-storms in summer, than any other parts of North America in the same latitude. The radiation of heat from so extensive a surface of naked sand, lying along the base of this vast range of snowy mountains, must produce great local inequalities of temperature. The diminished pressure of the atmosphere, and the consequent rapidity of evaporation, in these elevated regions, may also be supposed to have an important influence on the weather. We have not spent sufficient time in the country, near the eastern range of the Rocky Mountains, to enable us to speak with confidence of the character of its climate. It is, however, sufficiently manifest, that in summer it must be extremely variable, as we have found it; the thermometer often indicating an increase of near fifty degrees of temperature between sunrise and the middle of the day. These rapid alternations of heat and cold must be supposed to mark a climate little favourable to health, though we may safely assert that this portion of the country is exempt from the operation of those causes which produce so deleterious an atmosphere in the lower and more fertile portions of the Mississippi basin. If the wide plains of the Platte, the Upper Arkansa, and the Red river of Louisiana should ever become the seat of a permanent civilized population, the diseases most incident to such a population will probably be fevers, attended with pulmonary and pleuritic inflammations, rheumatism, scrofula, and consumption.[62] It is true, that few, if any, instances of pulmonary consumption occur among the Indians of this region; the same remark is probably as true of the original native population of New York and New England.

Though much rain fell during this storm, it was so rapidly absorbed by the soil, that but little running water was to be seen. The bed of the river was found smooth and unobstructed, and afforded us for several days the most convenient path for travelling. As we {315} descended, we found it expand in some places to a width of near two miles. Bisons became astonishingly numerous; and in the middle of the day countless thousands of them were seen coming in from every quarter to the stagnant pools which filled the most depressed places in the channel of the river. The water of these was of course too filthy to be used in cooking our meat, and though sometimes compelled to drink it, we found little alleviation to our thirst. At our encampments, we were able to supply ourselves with water of a better quality by digging in the sand, where we scarce ever failed to meet with a supply at a few feet from the surface.

On the 17th,[63] we halted in the middle of the day to hunt, as, although we had killed several bisons on our marches of the preceding days, none of them had been found in good condition. The flesh of the bulls, in the months of August and September, is poor and ill flavoured; but these are much more easily killed than the cows, being less vigilant, and sometimes suffering themselves to be overtaken by the hunter, without attempting to escape. As the herds of cows were now seen in great numbers, we halted, while the hunters went out and killed several. Our camp was placed on the south-west side of the river, under a low bluff, which separates the half-wooded valley from the open and elevated plains. The small elms along this valley were bending under the weight of innumerable grape vines, now loaded with ripe fruit, the purple clusters crowded in such profusion as almost to give a colouring to the landscape. On the opposite side of the river was a range of low sand hills, fringed with vines, rising not more than a foot or eighteen inches from the surface. On examination, we found these hillocks had been produced exclusively by the agency of the grape vines, arresting the sand as it was borne along by the wind, until such quantities had been accumulated as to bury every part of the plant, except the end of the branches. Many of these were so loaded with {316} fruit, as to present nothing to the eye but a series of clusters, so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other native or exotic which we have met with in the United States. The burying of the greater part of the trunk, with its larger branches, produces the effect of pruning, inasmuch as it prevents the unfolding of leaves and flowers on the parts below the surface, while the protruded ends of the branches enjoy an increased degree of light and heat from the reflection of the sand. It is owing, undoubtedly, to these causes, that the grapes in question are so far superior to the fruit of same vine in ordinary circumstances. The treatment here employed by nature, to bring to perfection the fruit of the vine may be imitated; but without the same peculiarities of soil and exposure, and with difficulty be carried to the same magnificent extent. Here are hundreds of acres, covered with a movable surface of sand, and abounding in vines, which, left to the agency of the sun and the winds, are, by their operation, placed in more favourable circumstances than it is in the power of man, to so great an extent, to afford. We indulged ourselves to excess, if excess could be committed in the use of such delicious and salutary fruit, and invited by the cleanness of the sand, and a refreshing shade, we threw ourselves down, and slept away, with unusual zest, a few of the hours of a summer afternoon.

Our hunters had been as successful as could be wished, and at evening we assembled around a full feast of "marrow-bones;" a treat whose value must for ever remain unknown to those who have not tried the adventurous life of the hunter. We were often surprised to witness in ourselves a proof of the facility with which a part at least of the habits of the savage could be adopted. Having been in several instances compelled to practise a tedious abstinence, the return of plenty found us well disposed to make amends for these temporary privations; and we lingered, {317} almost involuntarily, at every meal, as if determined not only to supply the deficiency of the past, but to secure such ample supplies as would enable us to defy the future.

The grapes and plums, so abundant in this portion of the country, are eaten by turkies and black bears, and the plums by wolves or jackals, as we conclude, from observing plumstones in the excrement of one of those animals. It is difficult to conceive whence such numbers of predatory animals and birds, as exist in every part of the country where the bisons are present, can derive sufficient supplies for the sustenance of life; and it is indeed sufficiently evident, their existence is but a protraction of the sufferings of famine.

The great flowering hibiscus is here a conspicuous and highly ornamental plant among the scattering trees in the low grounds. The occurrence of the black walnut, for the first time since we left the Missouri, indicates a soil somewhat adapted to the purposes of agriculture. Portions of the river valley, which are not covered with loose sands, have a red soil, resulting from the disintegration of the prevailing rocks (red sandstone and gypsum) intermixed with clay, and are covered with a dense growth of fine and nutritious grasses. Extensive tracts of the great woodless plain, at a distance from the river, appear to be based upon a more compact variety of sandstone, which is usually of a dark gray colour, and less pervious to water than the red. For this reason some copious springs are found upon it, and a soil by no means destitute of fertility, yielding sustenance to inconceivable numbers of herbivorous animals, and through them to innumerable birds and beasts of prey. It must be supposed, however, that the herds of bisons daily seen about the river, range over a much greater extent of country than was comprised within our limited views. The want of water in many places may compel them to resort {318} frequently to the river in dry weather; though at other times they may be dispersed in the high plains.

August 18th. In speaking of a country whose geography is so little known as that of the region S. W. of the Arkansa, we feel very sensibly the want of ascertained and fixed points of reference. Were we to designate the locality of a mineral, or any other interesting object, as found twenty or thirty days' journey from the Rocky Mountains, we should do nearly all in our power; yet this sort of information would probably be thought vague and useless. The smaller rivers of this region have as yet received no names from white hunters; if they have names among the Indians, these are unknown to us. There are no mountains, hills, or other remarkable objects to serve as points of departure, nearer than the Rocky Mountains and the Arkansa. The river itself, which we supposed to be the Red river of Natchitoches, is a permanent landmark; but it is a line and not a point; and aids us only in one direction, in our attempts to designate locality. The map accompanying this work was projected in conformity to the results of numerous astronomical observations for latitude and longitude; but many of these observations were made at places which are not, and at present cannot be known by any names we might attempt to fix upon them.[64] More extensive and minute examination than we have been able to bestow might establish something like a sectional division, founded on the distribution of certain remarkable plants. The great cylindric cactus, the ligneous rooted cucumis, the small-leaved elm, might be used in such an attempt; but it is easy to see that the advantages resulting from it, would be for the most part imaginary.

Discussions of this sort have been much insisted on of late, and may be important as aiding in the geography of climates and soils, but can afford little assistance to topography.

{319} The geognostic features of the region under consideration, afford some foundation for a natural division, but this division must be so extremely general as to afford little satisfaction. We could only distinguish the red sandstone, the argillaceous sandstone, and the trap districts, and though each of these have distinctive characters not easy to be mistaken, they are so irregular in form and position, as to be in no degree adapted to aid in the description and identifying of particular places. On the contrary, it is to be regretted there are no established points to which we might refer, in communicating what we have observed of the position of these formations, and indicating the particular localities of some of the valuable minerals they contain.

The red sandstone, apparently the most extensive of the rocky formations of this region, has, wherever it occurs, indications of the presence of muriate of soda, and almost as commonly discloses veins and beds of sulphate of lime. The substance last mentioned had been growing more and more abundant since we left the region of the trap rocks at the sources of the river. It was now so frequent as to be conspicuous in all the exposed portions of the sand-rock, and was often seen from a distance of several miles. It occurs under various forms, sometimes we meet with the most beautiful selenite, disposed in broad reticulating veins, traversing the sandstone; the granular and fibrous varieties, whose snowy whiteness contrasts strongly with the deep red and brown of the sandstone, are sometimes seen in thin horizontal lamina, or scattered about the surface, sometimes included in larger masses of the common amorphous plaister-stone. This last is usually of a colour approaching to white, but the exposed surfaces are more or less tinged with the colouring matter of the sand-rock, and all the varieties are so soft as to disintegrate rapidly when exposed to the air. Recent surfaces show no ferruginous tinge; {320} or rather, we would say, this colour does not appear to have been contemporaneous to the formation of the sulphate of lime, but derived from the cement of the sandstone, and to have penetrated no farther than it has been carried by the impetration of water.

We left our encampment at 5 o'clock, the morning fair; thermometer at 62°. Our courses regulated entirely by the direction of the river, were north fifty-five east, eleven miles; then north, ten east, seven miles; in all eighteen miles before dinner.[65] The average direction of our courses for some days had been rather to the north, than south of east. This did not coincide entirely with our previous ideas of the direction of Red river, and much less of the Faux Ouachitta, or False Washita,[66] which being the largest of the upper branches of the Red river from the north, we believed, might be the stream we were descending. From observations taken at several points along the river we had ascertained, that we must travel three or four days' journey to the south, in order to arrive at the parallel of the confluence of the Kiamesha with the Red river,[67] and we were constantly expecting a change in the direction of our courses. The confident assurance of the Kaskaias, that we were on the Red river, and but a few days march above the village of the Pawnee Piquas, tended to quiet the suspicions we began to feel on this subject. We had now travelled, since meeting the Indians, a greater distance than we could suppose they had intended to indicate by the admeasurement of ten "lodge days," but we were conscious our communications with them had been made through inadequate interpreters, and it was not without reason, we began to fear we might have received erroneous impressions. In the afternoon, however, the river inclined more {321} to the direction we wished to travel, and we had several courses to the south of east. At sunset we pitched our tent on the north side of the river, and dug a well in the sand, which afforded a sufficient supply of wholesome, though brackish, water. Throughout the night the roaring of immense herds of bisons, and the solemn notes of the hooting owl were heard, intermixed with the desolate cries of the jackal and the screech-owl. The mulberry, and the guilandina, growing near our camp, with many of the plants and birds we had been accustomed to see in the frontier settlements of the United States, reminded us of the comforts of home and the cheering scenes of civilized society, giving us at the same time the assurance that we were about to arrive at the point where we should take leave of the desert.

Saturday, August 19th. The mercury at sunrise stood at 71°. The morning was calm, and the sky tinged with that intense and beautiful blue which marks many of our summer skies, and is seen with greater pleasure by those who know that home or a good tavern is near, than by such as have no prospect of shelter save what a tent or a blanket can afford. We were now looking with much impatience for something to indicate an approach towards the village of the Pawnee Piqua, but instead of this the traces of Indians seemed to become less and less frequent. Notwithstanding the astonishing numbers of bison, deer, antelopes, and other animals, the country is less strewed with bones than almost any we have seen; affording an evidence that it is not a favourite hunting ground of any tribe of Indians. The animals also appear wholly unaccustomed to the sight of men. The bisons and wolves move slowly off to the right and left, leaving a lane for the party to pass, but those on the windward side often linger for a long time, almost within the reach of our rifles, regarding us with little appearance of alarm. We had now nothing to suffer either from the apprehension {322} or reality of hunger, and could have been content that the distance between ourselves and the settlements should have been much greater than we supposed it to be.

In the afternoon, finding the course of the river again bending towards the north, and becoming more and more circuitous, we turned off on the right hand side, and choosing an east course, travelled across the hills, not doubting but we should soon arrive again at the river. We found the country at a distance from the bed of the river, somewhat elevated and broken, but upon climbing some of the highest hills, we again saw the landscape of the unbounded and unvaried grassy plain spread out before us. All the inequalities of the surface have evidently been produced by the excavating operation of currents of water, and they are consequently most considerable near the channels of the large streams. This remark is applicable to the vallies of all the large rivers in the central portions of the great horizontal formation west of the Alleghanies. We find accordingly, that on the Ohio, the Missouri, the Platte, the Konzas, and many of the rivers tributary to the Mississippi, the surface becomes broken in proportion as we proceed from the interior towards the bed of the river, and all the hills bear convincing evidence that they have received their existence and their form from the action of the currents of water which have removed the soil and other matters formerly occupying the vallies and elevating the whole surface of the country nearly to a common level. Regarding in this view the extensive vallies of the Mississippi and its tributaries, we naturally inquire how great a length of time must have been spent in the production of such an effect, the cause operating as it now does. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that where tributaries of the rivers in question are bounded on both sides, as they often are, by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone or limestone {323} in horizontal strata, the seams and markings on one side correspond with those on the other, indicating the stratifications to have been originally continuous.