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 short distance which remained to complete our present voyage, but presently after saw the outlet of Grand river,[192] (or the Six Bulls as it is called by the French hunters), and now entered the Verdigris,[193] where M. Bougie and Mr. Prior had their trading houses. The water of both these rivers was quite pellucid; while that of the Arkansa was now whitish and muddy, from the partial influx and augmentation of some neighbouring streams.

{171} CHAPTER XI

Character of the surrounding country of the Verdigris river—Remarks on the Osage Indians

14th.] This morning, accompanied by Mr. Prior, I walked over a portion of the alluvial land of the Verdigris, the fertility of which was sufficiently obvious in the disagreeable and smothering luxuriance of the tall weeds, with which it was overrun. This neck of land, situated betwixt Grand river and the Verdigris, is about two miles wide, free from inundation, and covered with larger trees than any other I had seen since leaving Port Smith. Among them were lofty scarlet oaks, ash, and hackberry, and whole acres of nettles (Urtica divaricata), with whose property of affording hemp, the French hunters and settlers have been long acquainted. Contiguous to the lower side of Grand river, there was a thick cane-brake, more than two miles in width, backed by the prairie, without the intervention of hills. As is common in large alluvions, so in this of the Verdigris, a second terrace or more