SALT FORK. 21 



June 1. — During our march, to day we passed along the borders of a 

 swift running rivulet of clear water, which issues from springs in the 

 mountains, and is filled with a multitude of fish. We also passed near 

 the base of a very prominent and symmetrical mountain, which can be 

 seen for twenty miles upon our route, and is a most excellent landmark. 

 Several of the gentlemen ascended this peak with the barometer, and 

 its altitude, as thereby indicated, is seven hundred and eighty feet above 

 the base. 



Captain McClellan has called this "Mount Webster," in honor of our 

 great statesman ; and upon a rock directly at the summit he has chiselled 

 the names of some of the gentlemen of the party. The valleys lying 

 between many of these mountains have a soil which is arable in the 

 highest degree. They are covered with grasses, which our animals eat 

 greedily. There are' also many springs of cold, .limpid water bursting 

 out from the granite rocks of the mountains, and flowing down through 

 the valleys, thereby affording us, at all times, a most delicious beverage, 

 where we were led to believe, from the representations of the Witchitas, 

 we would find only bitter and unpalatable water. This is an unexpected 

 luxury to us, and we now begin to cherish the hope that all the discour- 

 aging accounts of those Indians may prove equally erroneous. 



Taking an old Comanche trail this morning, I followed it to a narrow 

 defile in the mountains, which led me up through a very tortuous and 

 rocky gorge, where the well-worn path indicated that it had been trav- 

 elled for many years. It presented a most wild and romantic appearance 

 as we passed along at the base of cliffs, which rose perpendicularly for 

 several hundred feet directly over Our heads upon either side. We saw 

 the tracks of several elk that had passed the defile the day previous. 



After crossing the mountains, we descended upon the south side, where 

 we found the river flowing directly at the base ; and after ascending it 

 about two miles, arrived at a point where it again divided into two 

 nearly equal branches. The water in the south branch (which I have 

 called " Salt Fork ") is bitter and unpalatable, and when taken into the 

 stomach produces nausea ; whereas that in the other branch, although 

 not entirely free from salts, can be used in cases of great extremity. 

 The compound resulting from the mixture of the water in the two 

 branches below the confluence is very disagreeable to the taste. The 

 north branch, which I propose to ascend, is, near the junction, one hun- 

 dred and five feet wide, and three feet deep, with a very rapid current, 

 and the water of much lighter color than that in the Salt Fork. Three 

 miles below the fork, between the river and the base of the mount- 

 ains, there is a grove of post-oak timber, which Captain McClellan, 



