FOOTNOTE:
[10] Vide Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas. London, 1821.
CHAPTER XII.
DESCEND WHITE RIVER IN A CANOE—ITS PURE WATER, CHARACTER, AND SCENERY—PLACES OF STOPPING—BEAR CREEK—SUGAR-LOAF PRAIRIE—BIG CREEK—A RIVER PEDLAR—POT SHOALS—MOUTH OF LITTLE NORTH FORK—DESCEND FORMIDABLE RAPIDS, CALLED THE BULL SHOALS—STRANDED ON ROCKS—A PATRIARCH PIONEER—MINERALOGY—ANTIQUE POTTERY AND BONES—SOME TRACE OF DE SOTO—A TRIP BY LAND—REACH THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT NORTH FORK.
I determined to descend the river from the hunters' cabins at Beaver creek, being the highest location to which a pioneer hunting population had pushed, and with this view purchased a large and new canoe, of about twenty feet in length, from the enterprising hunters. Putting into this such articles from our former packs as were deemed necessary, and some provisions, I took the bow, with a long and smooth pole to guide it in rapids and shoals, and gave the stern to my companion, with a steering-paddle. It was now the 9th of January. Bidding adieu to our rough, but kind and friendly guides, we pushed into the stream, and found ourselves floating, with little exertion, at the rate of from three to four miles per hour. The very change from traversing weary plains and prairies, and ascending steep cliffs, was exhilarating and delightful.
White river is one of the most beautiful and enchanting streams, and by far the most transparent, which discharge their waters into the Mississippi. To a width and depth which entitle it to be classed as a river of the third magnitude in Western America, it unites a current which possesses the purity of crystal, with a smooth and gentle flow, and the most imposing, diversified, and delightful scenery. Objects can be clearly seen in it, through the water, at the greatest depths. Every pebble, rock, fish, or shell, even the minutest body which occupies the bottom of the stream, is seen with the most perfect distinctness; and the canoe, when looking under it, seemed, from the remarkable transparency of the water, to be suspended in air. The Indians, observing this peculiarity, called it Unica, which is the transitive form of white. The French of Louisiana merely translated this term to la riviere au Blanc. It is, in fact, composed of tributaries which gush up in large crystal springs out of the Ozark range of mountains, and it does not receive a discoloured tributary in all its upper course. These gigantic springs, which are themselves a curiosity, originate in the calcareous or sandstone strata of that remarkable chain, and are overlaid by a heavy oceanic deposit of limestone, quartz, hornstone, and chert pebbles, which serve as a filtering-bed to the upspringing waters. Sometimes these pebbles are found to be jasper, of a beautiful quality.
The scenery of its shores is also peculiar. Most frequently the limestone, which has been subjected to the destructive power of the elements, is worn into pinnacles of curious spiral shapes. Where the river washes the base of these formations, a high and precipitous wall of rock casts its shadow over the water. On the shores opposite to such precipices, there is invariably a rich diluvial plain, covered by a vigorous forest of trees, clothed in all the graceful luxuriance of a summer foliage.
If the shores be examined to any distance inland, the calcareous rock is found to exhibit frequent caverns, where the percolation of the waters has produced stalactites of beautiful forms, or the concretions are spread upon the floors of these caves in curious masses.