PROMINENT FEATURES OF RED RIVER. S3 



CHAPTER IX. 



Prominent features of red river — floods — chain of lakes — cross-tim- 

 bers ARABLE lands — establishment of a military post upon red river 



RECOMMENDED ROUTE OF COMANCHES AND KIOWAYS IN PASSING TO MEXICO 



WAGON-ROUTE FROM FORT BELKNAP TO SANTA FE NAVIGATION OF RED RIVER 



ERRONEOUS OPINIONS IN REGARD TO RED RIVER — -EXTENSIVE GYPSUM RANGE EL 



LLANO ESTACADO. 



In a comprehensive review of the physical characteristics of the 

 particular section of Red river which is comprised within the limits of 

 the district assigned to the attention of the expedition, it will not 

 perhaps be considered irrelevant to make a few general observations 

 upon the more prominent features of the country bordering upon this 

 stream, from its confluence with the Mississippi to its sources. It will 

 be observed, by reference to a map of the country embracing the basin 

 of this river, that in ascending from the mouth, its general direction 

 as high as Fulton, Arkansas, is nearly north and south ; that here it 

 suddenly changes its course and maintains a direction almost due east 

 and west to its sources. One of the first peculiarities which strikes the 

 mind on a survey of the topography of this extensive district of country, 

 is the general uniformity of its surface: with the exception of the 

 Witchita range no extensive chains of lofty mountains diversify the per- 

 spective, and but few elevated hills rise up to relieve the monotony of 

 the prospect. Another distinguishing feature of this river is, that the 

 country on its upper waters differs in every respect from that in the 

 vicinity of its mouth. The valley is found to comprise two great geo- 

 graphical sections, each having physical characteristics entirely distinct 

 from the other. The main branch of the river from the point where 

 it debouches out of the Staked Plain, flows through an arid prairie 

 country almost entirely destitute of trees, over a broad bed of light 

 and shifting sands, for a distance, measured upon its sinuosities, of some 

 five hundred miles. * This country for the most part is subject to peri- 

 odical seasons of drought, which preclude the possibility of cultivation 

 except by means of artificial irrigation. It then enters a country covered 

 with forest- trees of gigantic dimensions, growing upon an alluvial soil 

 of the most pre-eminent fertility, which sustains a very diversified sylva, 

 and affords to the planter the most bountiful returns of all the products 



