FACE OF COUNTRY, &C.—BOOK I. 
29 
to trace the various ridge$, connections, spurs and dependencies 
of these mountains. There is a long chain of hills which gene¬ 
rally separate the waters of the Missouri from those of the Ar¬ 
kansas and Mississippi, these are commonly called the Black 
mountains. The. hills in the White river country, and those 
west of the Mississippi* towards the head of the St Francis and 
the Maramelc, so abundant in minerals, may be dependencies 
of the Black mountains* There are high rugged hills, approach¬ 
ing to mountains:,'between the upper part of the Washita river 
and the Arkansas, of which some account may be found in Hun¬ 
ter and Dunbar’s voyage up the Washita. 
Taking the distance from the Mississippi to the mountains, to 
be about nine hundred miles, of the first two hundred miles, the 
larger proportion is fit for settlements, There is a great deal of 
well timbered land and the soil is generally good; this quality, 
however, diminishes as we ascend north, where the soil becomes 
unproductive and almost barren, and as we advance westward 
the land becomes more bare of woods. For the next three hun¬ 
dred miles the country can scarcely be said to admit of settle- 
ments; the wooded parts form but trifling exceptions to its ge¬ 
neral appearance, and are seldom found except in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of streams; we may safely lay it down as a general 
remark, that after the first hundred miles, no timber is found 
on the upland except it be pine or cedar. The rest of the coun¬ 
try is made up of open plains of immense extent, chequered 
with waving ridges which enable the traveller to see his jour¬ 
ney of several days before him. Yet a great proportion of the 
soil would bear cultivation, the river bottoms, being generally 
fine, and many spots truly beautiful; there are other places, how¬ 
ever, barren in the extreme, producing nothing but hyssop and 
prickly pears. The same description will suit the rest of the 
country to the Rocky mountains; except that it is more moun¬ 
tainous, badly watered, and a greater proportion entirely barren.* 
In the two last divisions the bodies of land fit for settlements, 
* There are extensive tracts of moving sands similar to those of the 
African deserts. Mr. Makey informed me that he was several days in 
passing over one of these between the Platte and the Missouri, and near 
.the mountains; there was no sign of vegetation. 
