354 Expedition to the 



broad and considerably extensive, and all of them covered 

 with a growth of cottonvvood and willows. These are the 

 only woodlands that make their appearance alona^ the river; 

 and in travelling westward, these become less numerous and 

 extensive, till at length, they entirely disappear. Copses and 

 skirts of woodland again present themselves in the neighbour- 

 hood of the mountains, but they are of small magnitude, and 

 the trees they furnish, are of a dwarfish growth. For a dis- 

 tance of nearly two hundred miles, commencing at the conflu- 

 ence of the North and South Forks, and extending westward- 

 ly toward the mountains, the country^ is almost entirely des- 

 titute of woodland, scarcely a tree, bush, or even a shrub 

 making its appearance. 



The Platte is seldom navigable except for skin canoes, re- 

 quiring but a moderate depth of water, and for these, only 

 when a freshet prevails in the river. No attempts have ever 

 been made to ascend the river in canoes, for any considerable 

 distance, the prevalence of shoals and the rapidity of the cur- 

 rent discouraging such an undertaking. The bed of the 

 Platte is seldc;m depressed more than six or eight feet below 

 the surface of the bottoms, and in many places even less — 

 and spreads to such a width, that the highest freshets pass 

 off, without inundating the bottoms, except in their lowest 

 parts — the rise of the water on such occasions being no more 

 than five or six feet. 



In order to account in some measure for the diversity of 

 soil observable in the vallies of most of our western rivers, 

 it may not be improper in this place, to assign one of the 

 principal causes that operate in producing this effect. The 

 alluvial deposits of which the river bottoms are formed, con- 

 sist of particles of mud and sand more or less minute. The 

 coarser and more ponderous particles are of course first de- 

 posited, while the finer are transported by the current to a 

 greater distance, and deposited nearer the mouths of the ri- 

 vers. Thus it happens, that the bottoms situated nearest to 

 the sources of the western rivers, are sandy, and contain but 

 a small proportion of vegetable mould, while those nearer 

 their mouths, are generally furnished with a rich and fertile 

 loam. 



The Konzas or Konzays, as it is pronounced by the In- 

 dians, is made up of two considerable streams, heading in 

 the plains between the Platte and Arkansa rivers, called the 

 Republican and Smoky Hill forks. Tributary to the former 

 of these, are the Solomon's and Saline forks, of less magni- 



