72 The American Geologist. Feb. isoo 
thousand feet above the adjacent low plain of the Red river 
drainage, and can be seen from a distance of sixty miles or 
more, provided one can secure a view unbroken by the dense 
timber of the region. The western end, as seen in the Witchita 
mountains of the Comanche and Kiowa reservations, also 
consists of bold and conspicuous elevations, resembling some- 
what the topography of the Arkansas end. 
According to captain Randolph B. Marcy, who describes 
the Witchitas in his report upon the "Exploration of Red 
river," they are made up of three distinct ranges running from 
northeast to southwest. "They appear to be in groups, or in 
clusters of detached peaks, of a conical form, indicating a vol- 
canic (igneous?) origin, with smooth, level glades intervening; 
and rising, as they do, perfectly isolated from all surrounding 
eminences upon the plateau of the great prairies, their rugged 
and precipitous granite sides almost denuded of vegetation, 
they present a very peculiar and imposing feature in the topo- 
graphical aspect of the country." "The numerous peaks rise 
from eight hundred to nine hundred feet above the river. 
Mount Webster, one of the most conspicuous, was found to be 
783 feet above the plain, by the barometer. Twelve of these 
elevations were found to be composed of granite, which in 
many places is undergoing rapid disintegration."^ Of one of 
these Marcy says : 
"We are at this place directly at the base of one of the most 
lofty and rugged mountains of the range. Its bare and naked 
sides are almost destitute of anything in the shape of a tree 
or plant, and it is only here or there that a small patch of 
green can be discerned. Huge masses of flesh-colored granite, 
standing out in jagged crags from the lofty acclivities every- 
where present themselves to the eye, and the scenery is most 
picturesque, grand and imposing.^ " 
The principal sedimentary material composing the Ouachita 
mountains are shales, sandstones and firm limestones of the 
Coal Measures of the Carboniferous period. In Arkansas the 
sandstones have been intensely hardened into a kind of 
quartzyte and are known as "mountain rock." At Limestone 
gap and other places in central Indian Territory, the blue 
^ Dr. Edward Hitchcock in Marcy's exploration of Red river, p. 147. 
2 Ibid, p. G8. 
