SHOOTING FISH. 171 
into a succession of bluffs, and a beautiful view spread before 
us. The Brazos in the distance, numerous short rocky bluffs, 
opening with vistas of mesquite flats, and our far off camp, 
which we were all so anxious to reach, lying in a clump of 
elms, at a distance of twenty miles, discernible from our 
elevated position. 
We descended and wound through the openings in the 
bluffs for some miles, the soil very rich, grass and timber in 
abundance, until we came to a fine spring, shaded by a grove 
of button willow, near which was a Kickapoo camp of seventy 
lodges, making, with five to a lodge, three hundred and fifty 
souls. 
They had just moved camp, and from the well-picked 
bones and lack of stench or scraps about, must have been 
on very short allowance. 
A mile farther we struck a creek, winding its broad, clear 
stream over a flat rocky bottom, and abounding in fish and 
soft turtles, a most inviting place so much so, that the 
Captain, immediately decided to move over here as soon 
after reaching our camp as possible. — ; 
ici sees it to be equal to the gum arabic, aed having been 
sealed with 
The sa of employing the Indians, in collecting this gum, was seriously 
—— wd a on the frontier when we oleae and no doubt the 
Pp d with every probabilit, 
immense quantity of mesquite trees in that region, pine fail to afford an 
inexhaustible supply, besides, whereas now the gum only exudes, from acci- 
the bark, a system of bleeding, similar to that pursued with 
the sugar maple, must produce corresponding results. 
