6 THE BIG WITCHITA. 



particularly than I had ever done before, and found it a much more 

 desirable section of country than I had imagined. 



The soil in the valley is very productive ; the timber, consisting of 

 overcup, -white-oak, elm, hackberry, and wild china, is large and abund- 

 ant, and the adjoining prairie is covered with a heavy growth of the 

 very best grass. The stream at fifteen miles above its confluence with 

 Red river is twenty feet wide and ten inches deep, with a rapid current, 

 the water clear and sweet. 



From the point where I first struck it, good farms could be made 

 along the whole course of the creek to its mouth. The country adjoin- 

 ing is high, rolling prairie, interspersed here and there with groves of 

 post-oak, and presents to the eye a most pleasing appearance. 



From the Little Witchita we ascended Red river along the south 

 bank, over very elevated swells of undulating prairie, for twenty-five 

 miles, when, on Ae 9th, we reached the high bluffs of a large tributary 

 called the "Big Witchita river." This stream flows over a clay bed 

 from the southwest and enters Red river about eight miles below Cache 

 creek. It is a deep, sluggish stream, one hundred and thirty feet wide, 

 the water at a high stage very turbid, being heavily charged with red 

 sedimentary matter; the banks abrupt and high, and composed of in- 

 durated red clay and dark sandstone. The river is very tortuous in 

 its cours , winding from one side to the other of a valley a mile in 

 width, covered with a luxuriant sward of nutritious mezquite grass, 

 which affords the very best pasturage for animals. 



The latitude of this place is 34° 25' 51". 



There are but few trees on the borders of the Big Witchita : occasion- 

 ally a small grove of cotton-wood and hackberry is seen ; but with this 

 exception, there is no timber or fuel near. 



The valley of the river for ten miles above the mouth (the portion I 

 examined) is shut in by bluffs about one hundred feet high, and these 

 are cut up by numerous ravines, in many of which we found springs of 

 pure cold water. The water in the main stream, however, is brackish 

 and unpalatable. 



It is my impression that the Big Witchita is of sufficient magnitude 

 to be navigable with small steamers of light draught at almost any 

 stage of water. 



In consequence of the high water in Red river, we were detained at 

 the mouth of the Witchita until the morning of the 12th, during which 

 time our provisions being almost consumed, and not knowing positively 

 when our wagon train would join us, I took two Indians with pack- 

 horses, swam the river, and started out in quest of it. After going about 



