Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/147

 *ing course of the river, we again meet with a house. We proceeded about eight miles from Bartholome's, and about sun-set came in sight of another pine bluff of about 100 feet elevation, and a mile in length. On the right hand bank the land appeared fertile and elevated. Near our encampment there was a small lake communicating with the river by a bayou. The horizontal beds of clay in this cliff or precipice are precisely similar to those of the Chicasaw Bluffs.

15th.] The land appeared still, for the most part, on either bank, elevated above inundation. Some cypress[117] clumps, however, were observable on the Quapaw side. On the opposite we saw a cluster of Hollies (Ilex opaca), which were the first we had seen any way conspicuous along the bank of the river. The forests every where abound with wild turkeys, which at this season are beginning to be too poor for food. We came about 16 miles above the last pine bluff, and were there detained the remainder of the evening by the commencement of a strong south-west wind, which in the night veered round to the north-west. The land on the Indian side, contiguous to the river, abounded with thickets of Chicasaw plum-trees, which appear to have overgrown the sites of Indian huts and fields, but, except in a few elevated places, the first alluvial platform or terrace is subject to inundation. The second bank, where the large cane commences, is, however, free from water. The {101} right side of the river appeared universally high, and rich cane land with occasional thickets and openings.

Throughout this country there certainly exists extensive bodies of fertile land, and favoured by a comparatively healthy climate. The cultivation of cotton, rice, maize,