Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/279

 got into a mirey gully, and could not be extricated. In this dilemma, no resource for proceeding remained for my companion, but to construct a canoe, and so descend by water. From the general diminution and deterioration of the forest, it was not even an easy matter to find a tree of sufficient size for this purpose. The largest timber was the cotton-wood (Populus angulata). After an unexpected and irksome privation, I was now again gratified by the taste of fresh water, which we found in a small stagnant rivulet contiguous to our encampment.

On the 8th, my companion launched his canoe, which so exactly answered his purpose that it would have sunk with any additional loading. Although I had now so far recovered as to possess a little appetite, we were, for several days, destitute of any kind of food, except the tails of the beaver, the flesh of this animal being now too lean and musky to be eaten. The game appeared to be driven out of the country by the approach of the Indians. I still continued my route along the beaches of the river, which proved almost insupportably hot, and I severely felt the want of fresh water, though it now, from necessity, became possible for me to swallow this tepid brine, which always proved cathartic. As we proceeded, the river appeared continually bordered by sandstone hills, like the Arkansa. Amongst several other new plants, I found a very curious Gaura, an undescribed species of Donia, of Eriogonum, of Achyranthes, Arundo, {208} and Gentian. On the sandy beaches grew several plants, such as the Uralepsis aristulata (Festuca procumbens, Muhlenberg), an Uniola scarcely distinct from U. spicata and Sesuvium sessile, which I had never heretofore met with, except on the sands of the sea coast.

9th.] About noon we arrived at the entrance of the