38 BOTTLE BURIED. 



June 16. — Striking our tents at three o'clock this morning, we fol- 

 lowed up the south bank of the river, which runs in a westerly course 

 for eight miles, when it suddenly turns to the southwest, and here the 

 elevated bluffs which we have had in view for several days past approach 

 the river upon each side, until there is but a narrow gorge or canon for 

 the passage of the stream. These bluffs are composed of calcareous sand- 

 stone and clay, rising precipitously from the banks of the stream to the 

 height of three hundred feet, when they suddenly terminate in the 

 almost perfectly level plain of the " Llano estacado." Here the river 

 branches out into numerous ramifications, all -running into the deep 

 gorges of the plain. Taking the largest, we continued up it, riding 

 directly in the bed of the stream for about five miles, when we reached 

 the source of this branch of the river ; and by ascending upon the table- 

 lands above, we could see the heads of the other branches which we had 

 passed a few miles below. 



The latitude at this place as determined by several observations of 

 Polaris, is 35° 35' 3", and the longitude 101° 55'. These results 

 make our position only about twenty -five miles from the Canadian river; 

 and as I am anxious to determine how our observations conform to those 

 we made in ascending that stream in 1849, 1 propose taking ten men, 

 and leaving the main body of the command to guard our oxen and 

 stores, to make a trip in a due north course to the Canadian. This will 

 serve to show the connexion between that stream and a certain known 

 point upon the head of the north branch of Red river ; and is, in my 

 opinion, a geographical item which it is important to establish and con- 

 firm by actual observation, particularly as the- Canadian has by several 

 travellers been mistaken for Red river. 



At our encampment of this evening is the last running-water we 

 have found in ascending this branch of Red river. We are near the 

 junction of the last branch of any magnitude that enters the river from 

 the north, and about three miles from the point where it debouches 

 from the plains, in a grove of large cotton-wood trees upon the south 

 bank of the river. Under the roots of one of the largest of these trees, 

 which stands near the river, and below all others in the grove, I have 

 buried a bottle, containing the following memorandum: "On the 16th 

 day of June, 1852, an exploring expedition, composed of Captain R. B. 

 Marcy, Captain G. B. McClellan, Lieutenant J. Updegraff, and Doctor 

 G. C. Shumard, with fifty-five men of company D, fifth infantry, en- 

 camped here, having this day traced the north branch of Red river to 

 its sources. Accompanying the expedition were Captain J. H. Strain, 

 of Fort Washita, and Mr. J. R. Suydam, of New York city." This 



