20 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
freshness of its vegetation, we entered a bottom where the tall grass grew abundantly. As we 
wound along under a romantic cliff, our progress was suddenly stayed by a projecting bluff 
which rendered further advance impossible. To cross was impracticable ; to recede would 
occupy too much time ; it was therefore resolved to ascend the bluff, which was here very steep 
and high. * * * Passing onward, the road for a time promised to he smooth, when sud¬ 
denly an immense ravine yawned before us, and we were on the brink of the river again at a 
point where it was joined by one of its tributaries. As we looked onward, nothing but red 
precipices met our view, and they were piled up 250 feet perpendicular, and perfectly impassable. 
* * * On looking down into the deep canon, instead of the beautiful green strip at the 
bottom, which we had hitherto seen, we discovered that it was covered with sand-hills. * * * 
We now found ourselves obliged to turn hack in order to head the ravine we had encountered, 
* * and encamped on a neck of land between two valleys. * * 
September 12.—(No topographical remarks.) 
September 13.— * * * Shortly before reaching camp we were obliged to cross the bottom 
of a creek several times. * * 
September 14.—We now travelled down the sandy bottom of the creek for the distance of 
one-fourth of a mile, several times crossing the broad and shallow sheet of water. Just at the 
junction with the Canadian we flushed a large covey of quails. Our way now lay along the 
low lands on the river-side, where the grass grew tall and the sand was deep. * * * The 
bluffs on each side were filled with gypsum of snowy whiteness, crumbling easily. At one 
time the river swept down to the base of a projecting spur of the cliff. Our course being 
momentarily impeded and our embarrassments increasing, we resolved to hazard an attempt to 
cross the river. * * * The river is about half a mile wide, generally shallow, though in 
some places belly-deep to the mules. * * * A short distance below our ford we found a 
pretty good camping ground. * * * Latitude 35° 47' 56" ; longitude 101° 35' 47". 
September 15.— * * * Continuing on down the Canadian, we found the country 
around us composed of gypsum. * * * The bottom lands were very well timbered with 
cotton-wood, which in some places formed extensive groves. * * * Plum-trees are in abun¬ 
dance, and grape-vines in wild luxuriance, completely enshrouding the shrubbery which upheld 
them. 
Lieutenant Abert says that on the 27th of September, in longitude 99° 11', on the north side 
of the Canadian, he passed through a country “completely covered with a dense growth of 
oak, commonly called blackjack oak,” the trees not more than 30 feet in height. These 
forests stretched back from the river as far as the eye could reach, forming a portion of the 
celebrated Cross Timbers. In some of the bottoms, “ where the trees were of a more luxuriant 
growth,” he found “ the bur-oak.” 
