[26] 8 
Pawnee Fork, and along the Arkansas,) settlements might succeed, though 
the’ a have to depend more upon stock-raising than agriculture 
‘May 3 —We went in the forenoon 15 miles from Council Grove, to 
Diam ea A Ri radually ascending. We killed en the road some large 
anipes, enlist ae long-billed curlew, (Numenius longirostris—W ilson,) 
and saw the first antelopes. In the evening we travelled seven miles further, 
-enca oe in the prairie, without water: soil generally good, and grass 
Bi 4 
sing the ‘‘ Lower springs,’’ we travelled 14 miles to W4al- 
high plain, where no prominent object relieved the eye 
— of the prairie. In the afternoon we encountered a 
ater a drenched condition, we started this morning for 
e F ieik miles,) a fine camp, with cotton trees, (Populus Can- 
sil st on this road, and willows along the creek, which forms, 
j cular bend, a natural corral. The Malva papaver, with its 
~~ violet Mower; was here very common. In the evening we travelled six 
_ files farther, 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 gata combined with the hydrated oxyde of iron; which 
sandstone, as I have often to mention it, I will for brevity’s sake call 
ginous siadictone; For the first time, we that night put guards out, 
as we were then approaching the country of hostile Indians. 
June ravelled the whole day again over a high plain, the favorite 
resort of the antelope; halted at noon near Litile Turkey creek, (12.miles,) 
and camped beyond Big Turkey creek, in the prairie, without water, (10 
miles. 
June 3.—Reached at noon the Liiile Arkansas, (12 miles.) On the 
march we e perceived for the first time, to our left, at a distance of about 10 
miles, the low sandy blufis of the Arkansas river, partly wooded with cot- 
ton trees. The Little Arkansas, its tributary, was now a small, very ford- 
able creek; but when swelled by rains it becomes a wild torrent, overflow- 
ing its steep ban nks, and the whole valley. The soil is sandy; grass rather in- 
different. For the first time on our road I found to-day the representative of 
a dry sandy region—a prickly pear, or cacivs—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, eaarcens citrate without 
— and. loose pieces of ferruginous sandstone. In the evening we trav-, 
six miles, and encamped in the prairie, kai water. On the an 
me met with @ train of 22 wagons from Bent’s Fort; they reported to 
that the Camanches and Pawnees were very hostile, and had killed ie 
of their men on Pawnee Fork. 
June A. —The morning was very chilly; we passed several ‘<< Little Cow 
creeks,” near one of which the Mexican trader Chavez was robbed and 
killed in 1543, and halted at noon at Big Cow ercek, (14 miles:) soil was 
sontty, grass” small and dry . In the evening we started agai n, and arrive 
