SODA SPRING. 319 



campment, in the interim, on tlieir way to the States. Having devoted a 

 numoer of years to the business of trapping, few possess a more intimato 

 knowledge of this country tiian tliey. The former of tlifese gentlemen waa 

 on his return from Oregon with dispatchea for the U. S. Government, and 

 had acted as pilot for a party of emigrants to tliat territory during the pre- 

 rious summer. After conducting liis charge to their place of destination, 

 he and his companion had travelled thus far alone,* — a distance of more 

 than one thousand miles. 



Sept. 19th. Leaving Daugherty's creek we resumed our course, and 

 reached the Arkansas the next day, about noon. Here we encamped in a 

 •mail grove of cottonwood upon the right bank, a few miles above th» 

 mouth of Fontaine qui Bouit. 



In gaining this point we travelled some forty-five miles, mostly over a 

 "eandy prairie, slightly undulating to the leftward, but, to the right, descri 

 *bing tlie waves of a tempest-tossed ocean. 



Its general character is sterility ; the grass gowing thinly and being of a 

 coarse kind, witli the exception of that of the creek bottoms, which af&rda 

 several varieties of a lusty size, mingled with occasional spreads of prele — 

 a choice article for the subsistence of horses and mules. 



In passing along, I observed a new species of the cacti family, that grew 

 in a shurb-like form to a height of five or six feet. Its stalk was round 

 and fully an inch in diameter. 



This made the fourth variety of cactus noticed during tlie past few days. 

 Of these, two resemble tlie common " prickly pear " in their appearance. 

 Another species, however, was egg-shaped, bearing a fruit much like the 

 cranberry in color and form. At the proper season, it also produces a beau- 

 tiful red flower, that emits a most at^reeable perfume, in some measure 

 atoning for its dreaded intrusion upon the path of the wayfarer. 



Fontaiv£ qui Bouit, or the Boiling Fountain, is the name bestowed upon 

 a considerable stream that heads under Pike's Peak, in lat. 38° 52' 10" 

 north, long. 105° 22' 46" west from Green\vich, and pursues a southerly 

 course till it unites witli tlie Arkansas. 



This name is derived from two singular springs, situated within a few 

 yards of each other at the crofk's head, both of which emit water in the 

 lorm of vapor, accompanied with a hissing noise — the one strongly impreg- 

 nated with sulphur and the other with sodi.f 



'Before reaching the States, however, he was robbed of everything in Ids posse»- 

 •ioTi by a war-party of Pawnees, whom he had imprudently siitlered to obta'ji tha 

 advantage. He would, doubtless, have hceii killed had it not been for the determined 

 courage of Van Dusen. The latter, seizing liis rifle, levelled it at the foremost and 

 thus deterred a further advance; then, by an adroit movement, breaking fi-ora 

 them, set pursuit at defiance through his fleetness of foot. 



The Pawnees, now well aware that further outrages would be made luiown and 

 become a subject of investigation by the U. S. Government, forbore tlieir clesigns, 

 and returned to Fitzpatrlok his gun and one mule, with which he accomplished tba 

 rcmain<ier of his joun icy alone. Van Dusen, having succeeded in reaching JBeut'i 

 Fort on the Arkansas, reported his companion as kille(i by tliem. 



tCapt. Fremont, who visited Fontaine qui Bonit in the sununer of '43, hM iurnklb 

 td the following analysis of an incnistalion with which the water of tlus spring iMfi 



