Rocky Mountains. 281 



as is commonly the case in the new settlements, of a single 

 room, with beds in two or three of the corners. We were 

 cordially invited to make use of the beds, though it would 

 have been at the expense of rendering it necessary for our 

 host, his wife, and daughters, to sleep upon the floor of the 

 same room. We accordingly spread our blankets and de- 

 posited ourselves around the hearth, while the family occu- 

 pied their usual stations. 



On the first of October we arrived at the ford of Straw- 

 berry river, a tributary entering the Big Black not far from 

 the confluence of the latter with White river, and about four- 

 teen miles beyond, at the ford of Spring river, a parallel 

 stream. Both these are rapid and beautiful rivers, possess- 

 ing all the peculiarities as to the abundance, transparency, 

 and purity of their waters, usually observed in those rivers 

 which traverse elevated and mniintainoiis districts. The 

 entire length of Spring river is said to be but about one hun- 

 dred and forty miles, yet in the quantity of water which it 

 discharges, it more than twice exceeds the Canadian, having 

 a course of more than nine hundred miles. It is said to have 

 its principal source in a spring of uncommon magnitude. 

 Spring river unites with another, called Eleven Point, near 

 the little town of Davidsonville, the seat of justice for Law- 

 rence county, and flows thence nearly due east two or three 

 miles, to its junction with Big Black. The country around 

 Davidsonville is hilly, having a deep and fertile primary 

 soil, and abounding in heavy forests. The sources of Eleven 

 Point, we have been told, are in eleven large springs, and 

 are near those of Spring river. 



To those who have been long accustomed to the thirsty 

 regions of the Missouri, the Platte, and the upper Arkansa, 

 it is somewhat surprising to meet in tracts having nearly the 

 same elevation, and resting to a great extent on rocks of a 

 similar character, so great a number of large streams crowd- 

 ed into such narrow compass. 



VOL. II. 36 



