46 Sringier on the Regidn of the Mississippi, ^c, 



miles, without any sign of iron ore or other minerals in that 

 rjegion. The varnish can proceed only from a sudden cool- 

 ing, after changing the atmosphere. Whether dampness ia 

 ours, or whatever cause might have occasioned the explosion, 

 that event will explain the scattering of the pieces. 



A few miles to the east of these blocks of native iron, a 

 belt of trees is seen extending itself towards the SS. E. 

 The hunters know this by the name of the cross timber; 

 they mean that it crosses the prairie; for there is no other 

 wood in sight. This wood grows in a low ridge of lime 

 stone, which extends to the north-west shore of the lake 

 Sabine, bordering on the river Natchez; but here it is only 

 one mile in breadth, whereas, ten miles above, the timber 

 spreads from fifteen to twenty miles in breadth. It gives 

 rise to the waters of the Trinity, whose west fork runs en- 

 tirely through it. These hills afford a great number of en- 

 chanting seats, whose description would occupy a great deal 

 of time, without affording me any hopes of success; for 

 they are beyond description. The trees, which are natu- 

 rally low, but spread very wide, become smaller and small- 

 er towards the north-east, till they grow quite scrubby. The 

 country is siliceous, and a soil of gravel and loam produces 

 a great variety of distinct qualities of grapes, in patches of 

 twenty miles surface ; one acre of surface will here afford 

 more grapes than three acres will in the best cultivated 

 vineyards. These grapes are certainly suitable for wine, 

 if one may judge by their fragrance and flavour, and their 

 good appearance. Some are white and transparent, so that 

 we can count the seeds through them ; some are blue and 

 very sweet, but hard, in a thick skin of a yellow or straw 

 colour ; and are very large, nearly or quite as much so as an 

 English cherry. The former are a little smaller. The black 

 are not sweet, but very fragrant, and the pulp is as thin as if 

 they were cultivated grapes, something like those of Sovig- 

 non. In fact, the view of thes^e extraordinary grape patch- 

 es would astonish even the person who should have perus- 

 ed this description before. To the north-east are immense 

 prairies which the eye cannot measure. 



