Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/7

Rh May 27.–Made eight miles in the morning, to Switzler's creek, a fine running water. In the afternoon we passed three small creeks, and encamped on the fourth, Fish creek, (10 miles.)

May 28.–Passed in the morning two small creeks, and halted at noon on the third, Pleasant Valley creek, (15 miles.) The camp deserves its name: there is good grass, and plenty of water and timber, the three great requisites of a prairie camp. On the opposite bluffs exist two kinds of limestone: one is compact, white, like the carboniferous limestone near St. Louis, with some indistinct fossils; the other an argillaceous, soft, earthy limestone without fossils, resembling in appearance rocks of the cretaceous formation, but probably the same first limestone in a state of decomposition. On account of rain we marched in the afternoon but three miles, and encamped in the prairie, as we had taken wood and water along.

May 29.–Went five miles to Bluff creek, also a beautiful camp, with clear water, plenty of timber, and bluffs of limestone; but the finest camp, so soso [sic] far, we met with in the evening. After having passed Big John creek, we reached the well known Council Grove, (six miles,) and encamped on the right bank of the small stream running by it. The valley in which Council Grove lies, affords peculiar advantages. It is better wooded than any other on this road. A strip from half a mile to one mile in width of timber skirts the water-course; the trees are full grown and of good size, and consist mostly of oak, hickory, walnut, elm, ash, etc. The vegetation is quite luxuriant, and the soil very fertile. For agriculture, as well as raising stock, the place would be excellent. The bluffs on both sides of Council Grove consist of a grayish argillaceous limestone, without fossils. Several graves of Indians, as well as of white men, are here erected in the usual prairie manner, with rocks heaped upon the ground.

Council Grove forms, as it were, a dividing point in the character of the country east and west of it. The country east of it is formed of prairie, with slight ascents and descents–constant undulations, as I might call them; sometimes shorter and more rapid; sometimes larger and fuller, resembling the waves of the ocean, which no doubt once covered those plains, and partly moulded their present form. Of those slight undulations, the barometrical measurements will give evident proof. Big Blue camp was 1,020 feet elevated above the sea; Council Grove is 1,190; and the highest intermediate point is 1,420 feet, on the divide between the waters of the Osage and the Neosho or Grand river. This eastern portion is well watered, and along the water courses sufficiently timbered to sustain settlements. The soil is generally very fertile, and, to judge from the higher elevation, more exempt from fevers, the plague of the bottom-land. Let us take a prospective view now of the country west of Council Grove. A short distance west, the country rises suddenly to the elevation of 1,500 feet, and ascends gradually towards the Arkansas to 2,000 and more feet above the sea. The intermediate country yet exhibits sometimes the short, wavelike form of the eastern portion, but oftener it resembles already the plateaux or high plains between the Arkansas and Cimarron, those representatives of the calm, immense high seas, where the horizon extends further, the soil becomes dryer and more sandy, the vegetation scantier, timber and water more rare. The country between Council Grove and the Arkansas forms the transition to the sandy plains on the other side of the Arkansas; the soil is generally less fertile than in the eastern portion, but all along its water-courses (as Cottonwood creek, Little Arkansas, Walnut creek, Ash creek,