; 



Ex. Doc. No. 41 



11 



For the information of detachments moving on that route, a table 

 of distances has been prepared; which, with the map, (though on 



) 



rather too small a scale for 



ments to be made 'without other guides, 



- Between Fort Leavenworth and Pawnee fork, the country is a 



high, rolling prairie, traversed by many streams, the largest of 



\yhich is the Kansas, or '' Kawj" and all but this river may be 



forded, e^ccept during freshets. 



The beds of the streams are generally deeply indented in the 

 soil, and their banks almost vertical, developing, where the streams 

 make their incisions in the earth, strata of fossiliferous limestone, 

 of various shades of brown, filled with the remains of crinoidea. 



On a branch of the Wah-Karrussi, where the Oregon trail strikes 

 it, a seam of bituminous coal crops out. This is worked^ by the 

 Indians, one of whom we 



met drivino:*an ox-cart loaded with 



coal, to Vv^estport. For the most part, the solUis a sandy loam, 

 covered with rich vegetable deposite ; the whole .based upon 

 a stratum of clay and limestone. 



Trees are to be seen only alono; the margins of the streams, and 



^HL 



the general appearance 



fields, enclosed with colossal hedges 



of the country is that of vast, rolling 



The 2;rowth alon^ these 



, ^_ o o 



streams, as they approach the eastern part of the section under 

 consideration, consists of ash, burr oak, black walnut, chesnut oak, 

 black oak, long-leaved willow, sycamore, buck-eye, American elm, 

 pig-nut hickory, hack-berry, and stimach; towards the west, as you 

 approach the 99th meridian of longitude, the growth along the 

 streams becomes almost exclusively cotton-vrood. Council Grove 

 creek forms an exception to this, as most of the trees enumerated 

 above flourish in its vicinity, and render it, for that reason, a well- 

 known halting-place for caravans, for the repairs of wagons, and 

 the acquisition of spare axles. 



On tne uplands the grass is luxuriant, and occasionally is found 

 the wild tea, (amorpha canescens,) and pilot weed, (silphium lacin- 

 atum;) the low grounds abound in prickly iv-ish, narrow leafed as- 

 clepias, white .flowerino: indigo, flowering rush, spotted tulip, bed- 

 spider wort, pink spider wort, pomme 

 blanche, (psoralea escultnta,) scarlet malva, pilot weed, hazel, 

 button bush, wild strawberry, cat-tail, and arrow rush. 



As you draw near the meridian of Pawnee Fork, 99'^ west of 

 Greenwich, the country changes, almost imperceptibly, uniil.it 

 merges into the arid, barren w^astes described under that section. 

 The transition is marked by the occurrence of cacti and other spinose 

 plants, the first of which we saw in longitude 98^^. 



Near the same meridian the buffalo grass* was seen in small 

 quantities, and, about noon, our party w^as cheered for the first 

 time by the sight of a sm.all .^*^ band" of buffalo, two of which 

 we killed, at the expense of a couple of fine horses, which never 

 recovered from the chase. Horses occasionally feci on grain be- 

 come very weak feeding on grass alone, and should never in that 

 condition be subjected to quick w^ork. A violation of this precept 



straw, wild burgamot. 



• For a description oY this famous grasSj see Appendix No. 2. 



