James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 3

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

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.