SWEET-WATER CREEK. 29 



No fossils were seen in this silt, but our time would not admit of 

 making a very thorough examination of the locality. Specimens of the 

 shells were, however, procured, to accompany our collection, and were 

 found to be similar to those described by Lyell as occurring in Europe. 



The creek is twenty feet wide, and eight inches deep ; runs rapidly 

 between low banks, with only a few cotton-wood and elm trees upqn 

 them. There are also some few small knots or clumps of trees upon the 

 elevated prairie lands in the vicinity. The observations for latitude at 

 this point give the result, 35° 24' 50". ' 



June 9. — At half-past 2 o'clock this morning we were en route 

 again over a very elevated prairie for six miles, when we arrived in the 

 valley of a fine stream of pure water, twelve feet wide, and one foot deep, 

 with a rapid current. This stream is fringed by large cotton-wood 

 trees along the banks, and the grass in the valley is most excellent, 

 consisting of the' mezquite and wild rye, which our animals are very 

 fond of. From the fact of the water being so good in this stream, we 

 called it Sweet-water creek. The valley is bordered upon each side by 

 bluffs from ten to forty feet high ; the soil a reddish loam, and quite 

 productive, being somewhat similar in appearance to that in the bottoms 

 of Red river below the confluence of the Witchita, where the most 

 abundant crops are produced. 



As we ascend the river, we have conclusive evidence of the falsity of 

 the representations of our visitors, the Witchitas. It will be remembered 

 they told us that the entire country was a perfectly desolate waste, 

 where neither man nor beast could get subsistence, and that there was 

 no danger from Indians, as none ever resorted to this section of Red 

 river. Their statements have proved false 'in every particular, as we 

 have thus far found the country well watered, the soil in many places 

 good, everywhere yielding an abundance of the most nutritious grasses, . 

 with a great sufficiency of wood for all the purposes of the traveller. 



There are several old camps near us, which appear to have been occu- 

 pied some two or three weeks since by the Comanches ; the grass where 

 their animals have grazed is not yet grown up. 



Red river, which is about six miles distant from our present position, 

 is eighty yards wide, with but a very small portion covered with water, 

 running over the quicksand bed. The banks upon each side are from 

 four to ten feet high, and not subject to inundation. The valley is 

 here about half a mile wide, shut in by sandy bluffs thirty feet high, 

 which form the border to a range of sand-hills extending back about 

 five miles upon each side of the river. The soil in the valley is sandy 

 and sterile, producing little but scattering weeds and stunted brush. 



