66 



LOWER RIO BR WO. 



occur devoid of vegetation, and encrusted with a white saline deposlte. Most generally, how- 

 ever, the vegetation is a luxuriant coarse grass which grows nearly waist-high, with an occa- 

 sional chimp of live oak hordering the wet places. I think it likely this whole belt of country 

 has been formed in the following manner : the trade-winds from the southeast arc felt here 

 with considerable force, and, blowing inward for nine-tenths of the time, fill the lagoons with 

 salt water. Suddenly the wind will shift in a contrary direction, and blow with violence for 

 two or three days, called there a norther, forcing the salt water out to sea, and leaving the dry 

 places to be covered by fresh water, thus forming alternate layers of salt and fresh water 

 deposites. 



This coast, as well as the whole coast of Texas, is sometimes swept by terrific tornadoes^ which 

 produce marked changes in its topographical and hydrographic features. In the latter part of 

 the month of September, 1854, on my passage in the steamship Louisiana from New Orleans 

 to Indianola, we encountered a violent hurricane, A few days afterwards we entered the mouth 

 of Matagorda bay, and found the channel had been improved by the storm. It was deepened 

 two feet, and instead of finding only nine, we found eleven feet of water on the bar, and the 



channel straightened. 



day. This hurricane, 



which swept the town of Matagorda level with the ground, and destroyed every wdiarf in the 

 bay of Matagorda, except that upon which our instruments were placed, forced the w^ater out of 

 the bay at such a rapid rate, that it could only escape by deepening and widening the channel. 



seem to have marl 



limits 



with clump 

 for timber. 



The trees are usually crooked and-wind-shaken^ and unfit 



mi 



sand occurs to give consistency to tlie limestone soil, we find tLi'^ growth in great abunrlance. 



This admixture of soil produces the richest cotton and corn-growing soil in the world; but 

 west of the Nueces, and between that river and the Rio Bravo, the want of rain makes agricul- 

 ture a very uncertain bu.siness, and as we approacli the last named river, this aridity becomes 

 more maiked, and the vegetation assumes a spinose stunted character — indeed, so marked is the 

 . change, that when we get within a few miles of the river the vegetation is a complete chapparal. 



West 



made 



h 



numbers of horses and cattle that ranged it, belonging to the settlers on the Eio Bravo under 

 the Spanish rule prior to 1825, are incredible. To this day the remnants of this immense stock 

 are running wild on the prairies between the two rivers. Hunting the wild horses and cattle is 

 the regular business of the inhabitants of Loredo and other towns along the river, and the 

 practice adds much to the difficulty of maintaining a proper police on the frontier to guard 

 against the depredations of Indians and the organization of fillibustering parties. In times of 

 agitation and civil war on the Mexican side, parties ai>j>c:mble on the American Hide ostensibly 



; part on one side or the other in the affairs of our neiirhbors. I 



tak 



)i many 



been caught, I never saw one good one. They are usually heavy in the forehand, cat-hammed, 



and knock-kneed. 



seem 



tji 



much 



