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tract of high prairie, interspersed with groves of 

 timber. It has a deep, rich soil, and abounds 

 with a great variety of wild game. They are 

 enemies to all the other nations except the little 

 Osage band ; none venture to settle near them, or 

 presume to enter upon their hunting ground. 

 The ridge of mountains between Arkansas andRed 

 river, form a barrier to the Caddos, and the small 

 nations who rised on those waters ; but they 

 sometimes make excursions round the mountains, 

 and descend Red river, spreading terror and dep- 

 redation among those tribes. 



The widely extended, tributary streams of Red 

 river, Arkansas, and Osage, extend into, and 

 water an immense tract of country ; and some 

 of the branches of these rivers nearly interlock 

 wjth each other. The head waters of the Osage 

 river take their rise at no great distance fromJ 

 those of Red river. The general course of the 

 Osage is nearly north, which, after running; 

 through, perhaps, the finest tract of country, east 

 of the rocky mountains, for more than six hun- 

 dred miles, enters the Missouri river, about two . 

 hundred miles above its mouth. 



The immensely extended prairies commence' 

 about forty or fifty miles above the mouth of the* 

 Osage, on the western side. They generally ap- 

 proach to a level, but in some parts rise into 

 swelling hills, destitute of wood ; in some parts 

 are small copses of wood ; in others, forests of 

 considerable extent ; and usually the streams of 



