PASS THE 100° OF WEST LONGITUDE. 19 



from the mountains, and our present encampment is directly at the base 

 of one of the peaks, near a spring of good water. This mountain is com- 

 posed of huge masses of loose granite rock, thrown together in such con- 

 fusion that it is seldom any portion can be seen in its original position. 

 There are veins of quartz, greenstone, and porphyry running through 

 the granite, similar to those that characterize the gold-bearing formation 

 of California, New Mexico, and elsewhere. This fact, in connexion with 

 our having found some small particles of gold in the detritus along the 

 bed of Otter creek, may yet lead to the discovery of important auriferous 

 deposites-in these mountains. Among the border settlers of Texas and 

 Arkansas an opinion has for a long time prevailed that gold was abun- 

 dant here, and several expeditions have been organized among them for 

 the purpose of making examinations, but the Indians have opposed their 

 operations, and in every instance, I believe, compelled them to abandon 

 the enterprise and return home, so that as yet no thorough examination 

 of the mountains has ever been made.* 



We find blackberries, raspberries, .gooseberries, and currents growing 

 upon the mountains, and this is the only locality west of the Cross Tim- 

 bers where I have seen them. Grapes and plums are also abundant here, 

 as elsewhere, upon Upper Red river. The grapes are rather smaller than 

 our fox-grapes, are sweet and juicy when ripe, and I have no doubt 

 would make good wine : they grow upon small bushes about the size of 

 currant-bushes, standing erect like them, and are generally found upon 

 the most sandy soil, along near the borders of the streams. The plums 

 also grow upon small bushes from two to six feet high, are very large 

 and sweet, and in color vary from a light pink to a deep crimson ; they 

 are the Chicasaw plum, (Prunus chicasa.) 



May 30. — Captain McClellan returned this morning, having traced the 

 meridian of the 1 00th degree of west longitude to where it strikes Red river. 

 This point he ascertained to be about six miles below the junction of the 

 two principal branches, and three-fourths of a mile below a small creek 

 which puts in from the north upon the left bank, near where the river 

 bends from almost due west to north. At this point a cotton-wood tree, 

 standing fifty feet from the water, upon the summit of a sand hill, is 

 blazed upon four sides, facing north, south, east, and west, and upon 



* Specimens of quartz and black sand were collected in the mountains ; and 

 from the presence of hydrated peroxide of iron and iron pyrites in the quartz, 

 and from its similarity to the gold-bearing quartz of California, we were indueed 

 to hope that it might contain gold, but a rigid analysis by Professor Shephard did 

 not detect any trace of the precious metal. 



