Expedition^ ^c, 43 



appeared to have passed within a very short time. This 

 trace we followed until we found it entered the moun- 

 tains in the valley of a small stream which descends to the 

 Arkansa from the northeast. This we left on the east, and 

 traversing a rough and broken tract of sandstone hills, ar- 

 rived after a toilsome journey of about thirty miles at the 

 spot where the Arkansa leaves the mountains. 



Here we found several springs whose water is impregna- 

 ted with muriate of soda and other salts. They rise near 

 each other in a small marshy tract of ground occupying the 

 narrow valley of the river at the point where it traverses 

 the inclined sandstone ridge. Very little water flows from 

 them, and the evaporation of this has left a crystalline incrus- 

 tation whitening the surface of the surrounding marsh. The 

 springs are small excavations, which may perhaps have been 

 dug by the Indians or by white hunters. They appear to 

 remain constantly full; they all contain muriate of soda, and 

 the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is perceptible at a consi- 

 derable distance from them. They differ in taste a little 

 from each other; hence the account given of them by hunters 

 that one is sour, another sweet, a third bitter, and so on. 

 One contains so much fixed air as to give it considerable 

 pungency, but the water of all of them is unpalatable. The 

 sweetish, metallic taste observed in the water of one or two, 

 appears to depend on an impregnation of sulphate of iron. 



The sulphates of magnesia and soda will probably be found 

 to exist in these springs, if their water should hereafter be 

 analyzed; they may also be found to possess some active me- 

 dicinal properties. They are seven in number, and have re- 

 ceived the name of Bell's springs, in compliment to their 

 discoverer. Though the country around them abounds with 

 bisons, deer, &c., they donot appear to be frequented as most 

 saline springs are, by these, or other herbivorous animals. 



It was near sunset when Capt. Bell and his party arrived 

 at the springs, and being very much exhausted by their la- 



