490 OTHER SALINES. 
ans, visited no doubt the same, not far from 
the same period ; and he describes it in a simi- 
lar manner—only representing the depth of 
the salt as greater. Everywhere that he dug 
through the stratum of earth about the margin, 
at the depth of a few inches he came to a 
rock of solid salt, which induced him to believe 
that the whole country thereabouts was based 
upon a stratum of ‘rock salt.’ This was of a 
reddish cast, partaking of the color of the sut- 
face of the surrounding country. Mr. Sibley 
remarks that “the distance to a navigable 
branch of Arkansas is about eighty miles’— 
referring perhaps to the Red Fork; though the 
saline is no doubt at a still less distance from 
the main stream. 
With such inexhaustible mines of salt with- 
in two or three days’ journey of the Arkansas 
river, and again within the same distance ol 
the Missouri, which would cost no further la- 
bor than the digging it up and the transport- 
ing of it to boats for freighting it down those 
streams, it seems strange that they should lie 
idle, while we are receiving much of our sup- 
plies of this indispensable commodity from 
abroad. 
Besides the salines already mentioned, there 
is one high on the Canadian river, some tw® 
hundred miles east of Santa Fé. Also, it 
is said, there are some to be found on the wa- 
ters of Red River; and numerous others are 
no doubt scattered throughout the same re- 
gions, which have never been discovered. 
Many of the low valleys of all the western 
