1923] PALMER, THE RED RIVER FOREST AT FULTON, ARKANSAS 13 



of islands formed about great rotting stumps and linked together by a 

 cris-cross of moss-grown logs, upon all of which small shrubs, tufts of 

 grass and a variety of other plants are growing, while the surface of the 

 stagnant water is covered with a thick scum of green algae, Riccias, Lemnas 

 and sometimes Azolla caroliniana. This miasmic tranquillity is occas- 

 ionally disturbed by a turtle gliding off a log or a moccasin or cottonmouth 

 uncoiling and sliding lazily into the slime. Some of these bayous abound 

 in fish, and alligators were formerly and I believe are still occasionally 

 found in them. Some giant alligator-gars have been taken in Red River 

 at Fulton. Besides some aquatic birds and frogs little other animal life 

 is now to be seen about the swamps. 



Before leaving the low woods it should be explained that the whole area 

 we have been describing is subject to inundation whenever the river is at 

 flood stage, and usually for weeks or even months during the spring and 

 early summer water stands from one to six or more decimeters over the 

 higher flat portions often leaving its uniform mark upon the tree trunks 

 after it has receded. Later in the season most of the land becomes quite 

 dry while the water is restricted to the lakes and bayous. 



On the opposite side of the river, in Hempstead County, an escarpment 

 rises with a maximum height of about six or eight meters above the first 

 terrace approaching to within about half a kilometer of the stream just 

 north of Fulton. This escarpment, obviously representing an old bank of 

 the river, is capped with clay and gravel of the Pliocene period (Lafayette). 

 The pebbles and boulders of silicious rock are thoroughly rounded and 

 water worn, and were evidently originally derived from the Paleozoic 

 deposits of the Ouichita Mountains to the northward. Beneath the 

 Tertiary clay and gravel are beds of soft marly fossiliferous sandstones 

 alternating with clays, which outcrop along the margins of the elevation 

 and in deep ravines somewhat farther north, as w T ill be mentioned later. 

 The uplands, of which the escarpment at Fulton forms the southern 

 boundary, extend westward to the valley of Little River and northward 

 toward the Little Missouri. The surface is generally flat and where the 

 clay and gravel deposit is present the soil is of low fertility and the drainage 

 poor. After the heavy spring and autumn rains water stands for some time 

 in every slight depression, and after it has disappeared the ground becomes 

 hard and baked. Here is developed the typical "flat woods," composed 

 of a mixed growth of Pine and deciduous trees. Two species of Pine are 

 present, Pinus taeda L. and P. echinata Mill. The former is much more 

 abundant than the latter, in places forming a large percentage of the forest 

 and even developing pure stands over small areas. Amongst broad- 

 leaved trees Hickories and Oaks are most abundant, both in individuals 

 and number of species. Characteristic deciduous species here are Carya 

 alba K. Koch, C. Buckleyi var. arkansana Sarg., C. oralis var. obcordata 

 Sarg., C. myristicaeformis Nutt., Quercus alba L., Q. stellata Wang., Q. 

 phellos L., Q. rubra L., Q. Shumardii Buckl., Ulmus alata Michx., Liqui- 



