Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/218

 *south-west direction, along the rocky valley of the Kiamesha, which this evening we crossed. The wooded hills prevailed on either hand without any prospect of termination, and strongly resemble the mountains of the Blue ridge, at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia.

20th.] This morning we proceeded four or five miles before breakfast through a pathless thicket, equal in difficulty to any in the Alleghany mountains. The {151} hills now approached the river in cliffs and inaccessible acclivities, and we concluded to leave the impassable windings of the river by the first gap of the mountain. Having now left the almost impenetrable barriers of the river, we proceeded along a blind bison trace, but at length descended into a rocky ravine, scarcely passable for goats, but which at length we cleared, after being some hours dispersed from each other, and came again into hilly open woods, near the head of Field's cove and creek, deriving its name from an outlaw who here sought refuge from justice. This cove was a kind of hilly prairie land interspersed with small plains, presenting rocky terraces where most elevated, and covered with herbage. Lofty wooded hills, scarcely inferior to those of the river, hemmed in this cove on either hand. I am informed that the sources of all the rivers in this part of the Arkansa territory, however closely locked betwixt mountains, present extensive prairies or plains, where they divaricate to their sources.

Our course was a little west of south, and the distance we travelled probably 20 miles. We calculated upon arriving at Red river on the succeeding evening, being somewhere about 30 miles distant. The woods were now disgustingly infested with ticks, though free from musquetoes.

21st.] We continued about five miles over dreary and