54 FRESH WATER. 



appeared somewhat the largest, and here found the bluffs receding 

 several hundred yards from the banks upon each side, leaving a very- 

 beautiful and quiet little nook, wholly unlike the stern grandeur of the 

 rugged defile through which we had been passing. This glen was 

 covered with a rich carpet of verdure, and embowered with the foliage 

 of the graceful china and aspen, and its rural and witching loveliness 

 gladdened our hearts and refreshed our eyes, long fatigued with gazing 

 upon frowning crags and deep, shady ravines. 



After travelling twenty-five miles, we encamped upon the main river, 

 which had now become reduced to one hundred feet in width, and 

 flowed rapidly over a sandy bed. 



Although we were suffering most acutely from the effects of the 

 nauseating and repulsive water in the river, yet we were still under the 

 painful necessity of using it. Several of the men had been taken with 

 violent cramps in the stomach and vomiting, yet they did not murmur; 

 on the contrary, they were cheerful, and indulged in frequent jokes at 

 the expense of those who were sick. The principal topic of conversa- 

 tion with them seemed to be a discussion of the relative merits of the 

 different kinds of fancy iced drinks which could be procured in the 

 cities, and the prices that could be obtained for some of them if they 

 were within reach of our party. Indeed, it seems to me that we were 

 not entirely exempt from the agitation of a similar subject ; and from 

 the drift of the argument, I have no doubt that a moderate quantity of 

 Croton water, cooled with Boston ice, would have met with as ready a 

 sale in our little mess as in almost any market that could have been 

 found. If I mistake not, one of the gentlemen offered as high as two 

 thousand dollars for a single bucket of the pure element ; but this was 

 one of those few instances in which money was not sufficiently potent 

 to obtain the object desired. 



We laid ourselves down upon our blankets and endeavored to oblite- 

 rate the sensation of thirst in the embraces of Morpheus; but so far as 

 I was concerned, my slumbers were continually disturbed by dreams, in 

 which I fancied myself swallowing huge draughts of ice-water. 



July 1. — We saddled up at a very early hour this morning, and 

 proceeded on up the river for several miles, when we found a large 

 affluent putting in from the north ; and after travelling a few miles 

 further, we passed many more small tributaries, which caused the main 

 stream to contract into the narrow channel of only twenty feet ; and its 

 bed, which from its confluence with the Mississippi to this place (with 

 the exception of a ridge of rocks which crosses it near Jonesborough, in 

 Texas) had been sand, suddenly changed to rock, with the water, which 



