" OILTKOVE bottom" PAWPAAV TREES. 157 



the bank of White river, a distance of thirty-two miles, 

 where 1 passed the night. 



I was ferried across at daybreak, and had forty 

 miles to go to reach the Little Red river. The south 

 bank of the White is one of the most fertile in 

 America, on Avliich account it rejoices in the name of 

 "Oiltrove bottom." Some say that the soil is bett^ 

 than that of the American bottom opposite St. Louis ; 

 and this is my opinion, having seen from sixty to 

 seventy bushels of maize to the acre, and pumpkins 

 larger than a man can lift. Trees grow to an enormous 

 size, some of the trunks of the sassafras trees measuring 

 from five to six feet in diameter; pawpaw trees are 

 also very numerous. This last is a small tree bearing 

 a fruit about four or five inches long, and two to two 

 and a half inches thick, having a soft sweetish pulp, 

 with numbers of oily kernels. Generally speaking, 

 the Americans do not value it much, though some are 

 very fond of it. It was not at all to my taste ; its 

 bark is very tough, and is useful for a variety of 

 purposes, amongst others for ropes. The valley of the 

 White river is full of these trees, and of the thick 

 American canes, or reeds, which form impenetrable 

 thickets, and are the favorite haunts of bears. Just 

 now this fruit was quite out of favor, and even the 

 pigs would no longer eat it, when a distiller of the 

 name of Magnus tried its quahties, and extracted such 

 a superior spirit from it, that he declared he would 

 not sell a drop of it, but keep it all for his own 

 drinking. 



Not to lose time, I had set off in the morning 

 without breakfast, and by the time I had walked six 

 14 



