x : | NAKED STREAMS. 201 
ed upagra hundred miles, it inclines north- 
west beyond the North Fork, and ultimately 
ceases, no doubt, in the great sandy plains in 
that direction. 
The region of the Cross Timbers is gene- 
rally.well-watered ; and is interspersed with 
romantic and fertile tracts. The bottoms of 
the tributaries of Red River, even for some 
distance west of the Cross Timbers (perhaps 
almost to the U. 8. boundary), are mostly 
very fertile, and timbered with narrow stripes 
of elm, hackberry, walnut, hickory, mulberry, 
bur-oak and other rich growths. 
But further north, and west of the Cross 
Timbers, even the streams are nearly naked. 
The Cimarron river for more than a hun- 
dred miles is absolutely without timber; and 
the Arkansas, for so large a stream, is remarka- 
bly scant. The southern border, being pro- 
tected from the prairie fires by a chain of 
sand-hills, which extends for two hundred 
miles along it, is not so bare as the northern 
bank; though even here it is only skirted 
with occasional sparsely set groves of cottons 
wood in the nooks and bends. It is upon the 
abundance of islands which intersperse its — 
channel, that the greatest quantity of timber _ 
(though purely cottonwood) is to be found ;— 
yet withal, there are stretches of miles with- 
out a tree in view. The banks of the Ca- 
nadian are equally naked; and, having fewer 
islands, the river appears still more barren. 
In fact, there is scarce anything else but cot- 
tonwood, and that very sparsely scattered 
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