Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/110

 grown; also Celtis integrifolia; the swamp oak (Quercus aquatica), nearly sempervirent, the red oak (Q. rubra), the scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), Spanish oak (Q. falcata), Populus angulisans, the cotton wood, of greater magnitude than any other tree in this country, with the wood yellowish, like that of the Tulip tree, answering the purpose of fence rails, and being tolerably durable. The smaller white poplar (P. monilifera), never so large as the preceding, commonly growing in groves like the willows, and presenting a bark which is white and even. Different kinds of honey locust, as the common species Gleditscia triacanthos, the one-seeded G. monosperma, and the short podded G. brachyloba. There is no sugar-maple, as I understand, nearer than the upper parts of the St. Francis and White river.

{71} The alluvial soil is here sandy and light; by no means luxuriant, except on the very margin of the river. We no where see such enormous trees as those which so frequently occur along the banks of the Ohio; this, however, may in part be occasioned by the instability of the soil, from whence they are occasionally swept at no very distant intervals. The tulip tree (Lyriodendron tulipifera), which attains the acme of its perfection and magnitude in Kentucky, is not met with on the banks of the Arkansa.

In consequence of the many saline streams which fall into this river, its waters are frequently found to be almost impotable.

22d.] The path, which I this morning pursued to the Post, now town of Arkansas, passed through remarkably contrasted situations and soil. After leaving the small circumscribed and elevated portion of settled lands already noticed, and over which were scattered a number