Rocky Mountains. 167 



having mistaken some tributary of the Arkansa for the Red 

 river. 



Thick and extensive cane brakes occurred on all sides, 

 and though the bottoms were wide and covered with heavy 

 forests, we could see, at intervals, the distant sandstone hills 

 with their scattered forests of cedar and oak. 



10th. We left our camp at the usual hour, and, after riding 

 eight or ten miles, arrived at the confluence of our supposed 

 Red river with another of a much greater size, which we at 

 once perceived to be the Arkansa. Our disappointment 

 and chagrin, at discovering the mistake we had so long 

 laboured und r, was little alleviated by the consciousness that 

 the season was so far advanced, our horses and our means so 

 far exhausted, as to place it beyond our power to return and 

 attempt the discovery of the sources of Red river. We had 

 been misled by some little reliance on the maps, and the cur- 

 rent statements concerning the position of the upper branches 

 of Red river, and more particularly by the confident assu- 

 rance we had received from the Kaskaia Indians, whom we 

 did not suspect of a wish to deceive us in an affair of such 

 indifference to them. Knowing there was a degree of am- 

 biguity and confusion in the nomenclature of the rivers, we 

 had insisted particularly on being informed whether the river 

 we were descending, was the one on which the Pawnee Pi- 

 quas had their permanent residence, and this we were re« 

 peatedly assured was the case. Several other circumstances, 

 which have been already mentioned, led us to the commis- 

 sion of this unfortunate mistake. 



According to our estimate of distances on our courses, it 

 is seven hundred ninety-six and a half miles from the point 

 where we first struck the Canadian to its confluence with the 

 Arkansa. If we make a reasonable allowance for the mean- 

 ders of the river, and for the extension of its upper branches 

 some distance to the west of the place where we commenced 

 our descent, the entire length of the Canadian will appear to 



