Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/213

 and Red river.[177] The object of the major was to execute the orders of government, by removing all the resident whites out of the territory of the Osages; the Kiamesha river being now chosen as the line of demarkation.[178]

On this route we again proceeded through Cedar prairie, and, after traversing two tiresome ridges of sandstone hills, scattered with oaks and pines, we encamped in the evening near to the base of the Sugar-loaf mountain, having travelled about 25 miles in {147} a south-west direction. After passing the two ridges and crossing two brooks, one of them called James' Fork, we kept westwardly towards the banks of the Pottoe, and found the whole country a prairie, full of luxuriant grass about knee high, in which we surprised herds of fleeting deer, feeding as by stealth.

The Cavaniol, now clear of mist, appeared sufficiently near to afford some more adequate idea of its form and character. A prominent point which appears on its summit, is, I am told by the Cherokees who accompanied us, a mound of loose stones, thrown up either as a funeral pile or a beacon by the aborigines. The natives and hunters assert that subterraneous rumblings have been heard in this mountain. The Sugar-loaf, covered to its summit with trees and shrubs, is composed of sandstone, and appears now accompanied by three other less elevated conic eminences, all mutually connected at the base by