Expedition, ^c. 261 



opposite to the sources of the Kiamesha, a branch of Red 

 river. Nearly the whole of its course is through a hilly or 

 mountainous region, but it is one so sparingly supplied with 

 water, that the Poteau, within two miles of its confluence 

 with the Arkansa, is in the dry season, no more than a tri- 

 fling brook. In an excursion which we made from Fort 

 Smith, we ascended the Poteau about a mile and a half, 

 where we observed an extensive bed of bituminous clay slate, 

 indicating the neighbourhood of coal. Tracing this slate to 

 the south and east, we found it to pass under a very consi- 

 derable sandstone hill. Several circumstances induce us to 

 believe, that it rests on a sandstone similar to that at the 

 fort; attentive examination will show, that these rocks have 

 a slight inclination towards the east, and if the bituminous 

 slate in question had been supported by compact limestone, 

 as has been conjectured,* it is highly probable this rock 

 would have emerged near where the sandstone appears at 

 Belle Point. We make this remark, because, although we 

 have often seen both limestone and bituminous clay slate, in 

 various parts of the Arkansa Territory, it has never been 

 our fortune to meet with them in connexion. 



A few rods above this bed of bituminous shale, we cross- 

 ed the Poteau almost at a single step, and without wetting 

 the soles of our mockasins, so inconsiderable was the quan- 

 tity of water it contained. The point between the confluence 

 of the Poteau and the Arkansa, is low and fertile bottom 

 land, and like that on the opposite side of the river, covered 

 with dense and heavy forests of cotton -wood, sycamore, and 

 ash, intermixed with extensive and impenetrable cane brakes. 

 In these low grounds the beautiful papaw tree, whose lus- 

 cious fruit was now ripe, occurs in great abundance. It rises 

 to the height of thirty or forty feet, and its trunk is some- 

 times not less than a foot in diameter. 



* Nuttall's Travels into the Arkansa Territory, p. 144. 



