Rocky Mountains. 27S 



When we have had occasion to mention among the peo- 

 ple of White river, that we had crossed the Arkansa at the 

 Rocky Mountains, more than one thousand miles to the 

 west, the question has been repeatedly put to us, " Where 

 did you cross White river?" Those who have known 

 only the lower portions of both rivers, consider them as 

 nearly of equal length, and as rising near each other, where- 

 as the entire extent of country drained by White river com- 

 pared to that of the Arkansa is as one to six nearly. 



Three miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, 

 White river divides into two branches, the lesser of which, 

 turning off at ri^^ht angles, flows southwest with a current 

 sometimes equal to three miles per hour, and falls into the 

 Arkansa at the distance of four and an half miles. It is 

 said the current flows through this communication alternate- 

 ly to and from the Arkansa, according as the water in that 

 river, is higher or lower than in White river. 

 - Major Long entered the Arkansa through this " cut ofl"" 

 on the 13th of October 1817, and it has been passed more 

 recently by Mr. Nuttall* in 1819. in both these instances, 

 the current flowed from White river towards the Arkansa. The 

 moatii of that branch of White river, which communicates 

 immediately with the Mississippi, is situated fifteen miles 

 above the mouth of the Arkansa, f and is about two hundred 

 yards wide. The current is very gentle, and the water deep. 

 Though perfectly transparent, it is of a yellowish colour. 

 The banks are low and subject to periodical inundations. 

 The soil near the mouth of White river, is an intermixture 

 of clay and fine sand, the clay predominating, and the whole 

 of a reddish tinge. 



* Nuttall's Travels, p. 65. 



^ The confluence of White river with the Mississippi, has been said to 

 be situated fifty miles above the raouth of the Arkansa; it has also been as- 

 serted that its bilurcation is at "about thirty miles above its junction with 

 the Mississippi." See Schoolcraft's view of the Lead Wines of Missouri, pp. 

 248, 253. There is, however, little reason to fey r that errors of this sort, 

 upon a subject so f.imiliariy known, will obtain general currency- In the 

 same work the length of White river is said to be thirteen hundred miles. 



