Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/8

[ 26 ] Pawnee Fork, and along the Arkansas,) settlements might succeed, though they would have to depend more upon stock-raising than agriculture.

May 30.–We went in the forenoon 15 miles from Council Grove, to Diamond Spring, gradually ascending. We killed on the road some large snipes, probably the long-billed curlew, (Numenius longirostris–Wilson,) and saw the first antelopes. In the evening we travelled seven miles further, and encamped in the prairie, without water: soil generally good, and grass fine.

May 31.–Passing the "Lower springs," we travelled 14 miles to WillowgreenWillow creek [sic], over a high plain, where no prominent object relieved the eye from the distant horizon of the prairie. In the afternoon we encountered a severe thunder storm, and it rained all night.

June 1.–In rather a drenched condition, we started this morning for Cottonwood creek, (six miles,) a fine camp, with cotton trees, (Populus Canadensis,) the first on this road, and willows along the creek, which forms, by a semicircular bend, a natural corral. The Malva papaver, with its violet flower, was here very common. In the evening we travelled six miles further, and encamped near a water pool. On the road to our night camp I found some bog-ore in the prairie, and a great deal of yellow, brown, and bluish sandstone, combined with the hydrated oxyde of iron; which sandstone, as I have often to mention it, I will for brevity's sake call ferruginous sandstone. For the first time, we that night put guards out, as we were then approaching the country of hostile Indians.

June 2.–Travelled the whole day again over a high plain, the favorite resort of the antelope; halted at noon near Little Turkey creek, (12 miles,) and camped beyond Big Turkey creek, in the prairie, without water, (10 miles.)

June 3.–Reached at noon the Little Arkansas, (12 miles.) On the march we perceived for the first time, to our left, at a distance of about 10 miles, the low sandy bluffs of the Arkansas river, partly wooded with cotton trees. The Little Arkansas, its tributary, was now a small, very fordable creek; but when swelled by rains it becomes a wild torrent, overflowing its steep banks, and the whole valley. The soil is sandy; grass rather indifferent. For the first time on our road I found to-day the representative of a dry sandy region–a prickly pear, or cactus–that constant companion of mine in my travels through Mexico. It was the Opuntia vulgaris, with its bright yellow flower. Charming as are all the brilliant flowers of the cactus family, more charming yet, to use no harsher expression, are their thorns, hooks, and prickles. A man collecting them ought either to provide himself with nerves of iron, to become insensible against pain; or, better still, with iron gloves, to handle them unpunished. On the bluffs near the Little Arkansas I found a spotted, yellow, calcareous sandstone, without fossils, and loose pieces of ferruginous sandstone. In the evening we travelled six miles, and encamped in the prairie, without water. On the road me met with a train of 22 wagons from Bent's Fort; they reported to us that the Camanches and Pawnees were very hostile, and had killed one of their men on Pawnee Fork.

June 4.–The morning was very chilly; we passed several "Little Cow creeks," near one of which the Mexican trader Chavez was robbed and killed in 1843, and halted at noon at Big Cow creek, (14 miles:) soil was sandy, grass small and dry. In the evening we started again, and arrived