Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/177

 the base of a lofty ridge of broken hills, not less than 6 or 700 feet high, presenting an alternation of terraces and cliffs, and continuing in a north-west direction nearly the same height for about eight miles. This range is known by the same name as that of the contiguous rivulet, the Little John,[140] some Frenchman probably who first discovered it. At the south-east end I found the ascent very steep, and which, like most considerable chains, was at this extremity the highest and most precipitous. From the summit a vast wilderness presented itself covered with trees, and chequered with ranges of mountains, which appeared to augment and converge towards the north-west. To the east a considerable plain stretches out, almost uninterrupted by elevations. From the south-west I could enumerate four distinct chains of mountains, of which the furthest, about 40 miles distant, presented in several places lofty blue peaks, much higher than any of the intermediate and less broken ridges. I thought that this ridge tended somewhat towards the Mamelle, whose summit at this distance {121} was quite distinct, though, at the lowest estimate, 40 miles distant. To the north-east the hills traverse the river, and are in this quarter also of great elevation, affording sources to some of the streams of White river, and to others which empty into the Arkansa. Over the vast plain immediately below me, appeared here and there belts of cypress, conspicuous by their brown tops and horizontal branches; they seem to occupy lagoons and swamps, at some remote period formed by the river. As it regards their structure, the lower level of the hills was slaty, the