224: Geographical Notices. 
left, beginning with the southernmost, as follows: Red, Arkan 
sas, White, St. Francis, Missouri, Upper Mississippi, Ohio al 
Yaz00 
1. Red river Basin.’—Few regions so limited in area, say the 
uthors, are so diversified in character as this basin. hile it 
ialudes only 97,000 square miles, large tracts of rich allu- 
vion, a range of primitive mountains, numerous lakes, a rolling 
prairie, ¢ and: a salt-desert tract are found within its borders. be 2° 
Marcy, U.S. A., first explored the sources of Red river in 1852. 
The general course of the stream is thus delineated in his report. 
The Red river rises in the eastern rim of the vast desert 
plain known as é Llano LHstacado at an elevation of about 
<a - — the sea. After flowing through a narrow 
miles in length, the river passes to the south 
of ‘the. Witchita Mts., the highest peak of which, Mt. Scott, is 
1135 feet above its bisec: Beyond this, to the east, the river 
traverses ‘‘the cross timbers,” an extensive belt of woodlands, 
which extend, between twenty and thirty miles in width, from the 
Arkansas river to the Brazos, some 400 miles. Still far ‘ther east, 
the celebrated Red river ralt, an accumulation of drift logs, 
about thirteen miles long, obstructs the course of the stream. 
Below this, the river traverses a er and populous region, the 
character of which is well knov 
The width of the Red river betwee its banks, eight miles 
below the point where it issues from the Llano Estacado, is 2700 
feet; just below the mouth of the North fork, 2000 feet; about 
50 miles below the mouth of this tributary, 2100 feet; at the 
mouth of the Big Witchita, 60U feet; at Alexandria, 720 feet 
at mouth of Black river, 785 fee et; at ‘mout th, 1800 feet. These 
numbers indicate the characteristic variation in width, Whi 
traversing the sandy desert, the river spreads out iol 
greatly disproportionate to he depth; but when the more fer 
tile and clayey soil is entered, it contracts to the normal dimen: 
is some 50 feet in the fertile region. In extreme low water, ' 
mee th of 8 feet may be depended upon below Alexandria, about 
—_ ae to the head of the raft, and one » foot thence to Fort 
pelle of 4 feet draught ean ascend to Shreveport at any 
time except in extreme low water, but to Fort Towson oF 
Fulton, for only about three months in the year, nn they fre 
quently only run in one direction during a single r 
The river above the raft rises and falls more rigidly than the 
"4 "The river takes its name from the ee color of the water, probably derived 
the red gypsum over which it 
