The place where we encamped was supposed to have been near where Pike's block-house formerly stood, but we sought in vain for the traces of anything resembling the work of a white man.[13]
[231] CHAPTER II [IX]
A Detachment from the Exploring Party Ascend the Arkansa to the Mountains—Bell's Springs—Descent of the Arkansa—Grizzly Bear.
On the morning of the 17th Captain Bell, with Dr. James and two men, took their departure, proposing to ascend the Arkansa to the mountains. They were furnished with provisions for two days, according to the scanty allowance to which we were all reduced. The river valley was found so narrow, and so obstructed by the timber and the windings of the stream, as greatly to impede the travelling; we therefore resolved to leave it, and pursue our journey in the open plain at a distance from the river. The course of the Arkansa, for the first twenty miles from the mountains, is but little south of east. It enters the plain at the extremity of an extensive amphitheatre, formed by the continued chain of the mountains on the west and north-west, and by the projecting spur which contains the high peak on the east. This semicircular area is about thirty miles in length from north to south, and probably twenty wide at its southern extremity. The mountains which bound it on the west are high, but at this time had little snow on them. The surface of the area is an almost unvaried plain, and is based upon the stratum of argillaceous sandstone. Near the base of the mountain the same sandstone is observed, resting in an inclined position against the primitive rocks. It forms a range like that already mentioned, when speaking of the mountains at the Platte, separated from the primitive by a narrow secluded valley. On entering this valley we found [232] the recent trace of a large party of Indians, travelling with skin lodges, who appeared to have passed within a very short time. This trace we followed, until we found it entered the mountains in the valley of a small stream which descends to the Arkansa from the north-east. This we left on the east, and traversing a rough and broken tract of sandstone hills, arrived, after a toilsome day's journey of about thirty miles, at the spot where the Arkansa leaves the mountains.
Here we found several springs, whose water is impregnated with muriate of soda and other salts. They rise near each other, in a small marshy tract of ground, occupying the narrow valley of the river, at the point where it traverses the inclined sandstone ridge. Very little water flows from them, and the evaporation of this has left a crystalline incrustation, whitening the surface of the surrounding marsh. The springs are small excavations, which may perhaps have been dug by the Indians or by white hunters. They appear to remain constantly full; they all contain muriate of soda, and the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is perceptible at considerable distance from them. They differ in taste a little from each other, hence the account given of them by the hunters, that one is sour, another sweet, a third bitter, and so on. One contains so much fixed air as to give it some pungency, but the water of all of them is unpalatable. The sweetish metallic taste observed in the water of one or two, appears to depend on an impregnation of sulphate of iron.
The sulphates of magnesia and soda will probably be found to exist in these springs; if their water should hereafter be analysed, they may also be found to possess some active medicinal properties. They are seven in number, and have received the name of Bell's Springs, in compliment to their discoverer. Though the country around them abounds with bisons, deer, &c. they do not appear to be frequented, [233] as most saline springs are, by these or other herbivorous animals.[14]
It was near sunset when Captain Bell and his party arrived at the springs, and being much exhausted by their laborious march, they immediately laid themselves down to rest under the open canopy, deferring their examinations for the following morning.
The sandstone near the springs is hard, though rather coarse, and of a dark gray or brownish yellow colour. In ascending the Arkansa on the ensuing morning, we found the rock to become more inclined, and of a redder colour, as we approached the primitive, until, at about half a mile from the springs, it is succeeded by the almost perpendicular gneiss rock, which appears here at the base of the first range of the mountains. We have noticed that this particular spot is designated, in the language of hunters, as "the place where the Arkansa comes out of the mountains;" and it must be acknowledged, the expression is not entirely inapplicable. The river pours with great impetuosity and violence through a deep and narrow fissure in the gneiss rock, which rises so abruptly on both sides to such a height, as to oppose an impassable barrier to all further progress. According to the delineation of Pike's route, upon the map which accompanies his work, he must have entered the mountains at this place; but no corroboration can be derived from his journal. It appears almost incredible that he should have passed by this route, and have neglected to mention the extreme difficulty which must have attended the undertaking. The detached party returned to the encampment of the main body on the 18th.
The immediate valley of the Arkansa, near the mountains, is bounded by high cliffs of inclined sandstone. At a short distance below these disappear, and a sloping margin of alluvial earth extends on each side to the distance of several miles. Somewhat farther down horizontal sandstone appears, confining [234] the valley to a very narrow space, and bounding it within perpendicular precipices on each side. Seven miles from the mountains, on the left hand side of the Arkansa, is a remarkable mass of sandstone rocks, resembling a large pile of architectural ruins.