89 
a white belly. They considered it poisonous, and killed it; I be¬ 
lieve, however, that it was not, for at a dinner in the habitation of 
Mr. Andry, the sons of our host brought a similar snake, which 
he had found in the garden, into the chamber, and I permitted 
it, (to the terror of the ladies,) to creep into my sleeve upon the 
naked skin. Although the head of this snake had been cut off, 
yet the body still had life, and wound itself so fast upon my finger 
with the tail that I could carry it a considerable distance. There 
are many bears in the woods here, as the wife of the planter as¬ 
sured me, which make great havoc among the hogs of the inhabi¬ 
tants, but do not attack men. The islands in the river are very 
low, and covered thick with timber. 
The weather had become cold, on the 31st of March it became 
warmer. Nothing new! woody shores, high trees, poplars and 
sycamores, with large creeping plants, mostly of wild vines, and 
here and there tall cane. We passed several low islands, which, 
as well as a distance on both shores, were overflowed, also some 
solitary, mean, and miserable dwellings. The left bank of the 
river still is in the limits of the state of Mississippi, the right thus 
far is in Arkansas Territory; of which Little Rock on the Ar¬ 
kansas river is the principal place, at which many emigrants from 
the eastern states have settled themselves. About ten o’clock at 
night we reached the mouth of the Arkansas. Of this, the 
“Western Navigator” speaks as follows:—This very beautiful 
river is about three hundred and sixty yards wide, at its mouth 
it is said to be fifteen hundred miles long. It rises at forty de¬ 
grees north latitude in the Mexican mountains, between the river 
La Platte on the one side, and the Rio del Norte on the other. 
“ This river, (as Stoddart writes,) has a rocky bed, and the na¬ 
vigation of it is much impeded by rapids and shoals. The exten¬ 
sive country through which it rolls, is diversified by some moun¬ 
tains, numerous elevations, and fruitful vallies, especially along 
the water-courses; by scattered groves and copses of wood, and 
by prairies or natural meadows of great extent, where immense 
flocks of various kinds of wild animals resort to graze.” 
The pilot was obliged to be very careful here, since several 
dangerous snags”* lay in the river where we passed by the re¬ 
mains of the steam-boat Putnam, sunk there. We met the beau¬ 
tiful large steam-boat Caledonia, which, coming from Louisville, 
went down the river in a most imposing style. The mouth of 
* In these rivers there is a difference understood between the two kinds of 
tranks of trees which lie in the stream, and are dangerous to vessels, i. e. 
snags and sawyers. The first, of which I have spoken already in the Alabama 
river, are fast at one end in the bottom, and stand up like piles; the others are 
not fastened, by being moved by the current the upper end of the tree takes a 
sawing motion, from whence its appellation is derived. 
Vol. II. 12 
