168 NOTES TAKEN. 
whenever water appeared, each strove to be first to reach it, 
and equally so with our animals, their thirst seemed 
insatiable. 
- In crossing a ravine I found a curious bush, the leaf and 
stalk like the willow, with branches of balls on the limbs, 
similar to the sycamore, some green, some white, and others 
deep maroon, the different stages of the maturity ‘of the 
plant. Conner said it was the button willow, a medical plant 
used by the Indians in cases of dysentery. 
The plain was undulating and crossed at intervals by lime- 
stone ridges, timber mesquite ; the soil good and covered with 
a rich coat of buffalo grass. 
We saw many deer and wolves, and about ten, A. M., came - 
upon a chain of lakes, seven in number, the largest about 
three hundred yards long and twenty wide, the water clear 
and sweet, and filled with catfish and soft turtles. 
Here we nooned, dining off some delicious catfish, cooked 
in the Major’s best style, whose kindness, in this respect, 
throughout our dreary j journey, can never fade from our 
memories, 
We found the insects excessively annoying, which sur- 
prised us very much, as the banks of the lake were’ steep 
and rocky, and no marshy ground or mud in the vicinity, 
We were particularly annoyed by large black gnats, about the 
size of acommon house-fly, and most inveterate blood suckers. 
I may remark here, that on the head waters of the Brazos 
and Witchita, insect life entirely disappears, or at least is so 
