CROSSING THE ARKANSAS. 
29 
river. A few miles above the fort we passed the mouth of Timpas creek, marked on the 
southern bank by a break in the hills and a tree or two only. It is small and often dry, 
or nearly so. Most of the day the road led over the higher land, which is here considerably 
broken. “ Still it is easy to grade a railroad along the edge of the bottom.” “On the southern 
side of the river a broader flat is seen, which, in the event of a railroad being made here, should 
be its site, crossing the river a few miles above Bent’s Fort, and passing over the angle between 
the Huerfano and the Arkansas rivers.” The atmosphere for many days has been so cloudy 
that we have seldom had a distant view; and for the last two or three, smoke has quite obscured 
the whole country, so that we could see but a very few miles. A small opening in the clouds 
and smoke, however, an hour ago, gave us a first but not very distinct view of the Spanish 
peaks, bearing nearly southwest; but it was only a momentary view, and we were again left 
to gaze on barrenness and a circumscribed horizon. The bluffs above the fort, for several miles, 
are underlaid by nearly horizontal strata of a whitish, argillaceous, friable sandstone, which 
crumbles easily; the whole base of the hill being covered upwards for several feet with fallen 
fragments. Our camp is in the midst of fields of artemisia of several varieties, the principal 
of which are known as sage and greasewood; and, to add to our discomfort, it began to rain at 
sundown, softening the clay and rendering it so slippery as to make walking very uncomfortable. 
July 30.—To give time for the rain of last night to dry up to some extent, our departure was 
delayed an hour, which Captain Gunnison and myself, with a number of men, spent in search 
of a ford, but without any favorable result, the depth of water and rapidity of the current being 
too great, although the bed of the river was firm, being of water-worn stones of a small size. 
Our route again followed the high prairie for seven miles, and then descended to the river 
bottom, where we soon came to fine fields of coarse grass; but we were anxious to reach the 
Huerfano, that astronomical observations might be taken while we found the means of recruiting 
our animals and of crossing the Arkansas. According to the maps we had with us, and in the 
opinion of several men of the party who had passed here before, the Huerfano was believed to 
be already in sight, and, after ascending two or three high hills in the vicinity and obtaining a 
distant view of a broken line of trees in the direction in which this stream was believed to be, 
we turned in towards the river and encamped after travelling only eleven miles. A few deer 
were frightened from the coarse, rank grass as we entered it near the river, but, as usual, they 
escaped our marksmen. Captain Gunnison, whom I accompanied, went in search of the mouth 
of the river, which we found in a bend of the Arkansas immediately south of the camp, and of 
a ford by which to cross the latter stream: in this, however, we were unsuccessful, and it was 
not until the following day that Captain Gunnison found one, on the northern bend of the river, 
half a mile west of our camp. The river at this point was 300 yards wide, varying in depth 
from one to three feet, with a strong current and sandy bed. The 31st of July was passed in 
camp, and on the following morning the banks of the river were cut down, and Captain Morris’ 
wagons, with large wheels and broad tires, crossed successfully. The remainder of the wagons 
were not so favorably constructed for crossing fords, and Captain Gunnison, deeming it unsafe to 
attempt to cross them with their loads, built a raft of logs at a point on the river where it was 
fifty yards in width, a short distance above the ford. It was only by the greatest labor and 
difficulty that a rope could be carried across the stream, the current of which was very rapid 
at this point, but was accomplished, after one or two failures, by ascending the stream some 
distance and stationing men at short intervals along the rope, who entered the water in succes¬ 
sion ; the leading man pushing rapidly for the opposite shore, which he was barely able to reach, 
securing the rope by the aid of a man stationed there to assist him. One of the men—the 
second—in his desire and determination to succeed in crossing successfully, had lashed the rope 
with his handkerchief to his arm, from which he narrowly escaped a serious accident as his 
companions dropped the rope, the current sweeping him under with such force as to deprive 
him of all power in his bound arm; but he was rescued by the leading man returning to his 
