Chap. IV. LANDSCAPE SCENERY. 253 
ception of distances by different degrees of distinctness in 
which objects may be seen, or confuses it by the unequal 
temperature of the strata of air, it is impossible to avoid 
optical delusions. I mistook a rabbit near me for a stag 
in the distance, and some ravens walking along the road 
for men ; one of the foremost waggons passing through the 
bed of a river seemed to sink into the earth. Along the 
valley of the Little Arkansas grow elms and poplars ; 
which, seen from the plain, look as if their tops grew out 
of the ground. 
As soon as you descend to the bed of a river, a peculiar 
little world opens to your view in the barren prairie : the 
trees grow up from out of the depth, on the sides of which 
are sunflowers the height of two to three men, and vines 
entwine luxuriantly amidst the underwood. 
Whilst ascending the elevation on the west, commencing 
here with sandstone layers, I had an interesting view of 
the sandhills on the Arkansas river, to which we were 
very near. The range of these hills appears like strips of 
land variegated white and green — an effect produced by 
single bushes scattered upon the white sand. Close to 
these hills an interesting formation of the ground was seen 
under a remarkable evening light. Small conical hills, 
overgrown, like the surrounding country, with grass, rose 
like gigantic mole -hills from the gently undulating plain, 
casting dark shadows, with the appearance of black spots 
and stripes. The grass around was of a brilliant green for 
the time of year — a sign that the neighbourhood of these 
peculiar elevations, which were perhaps originally merely 
drift sandhills, must be rich in moisture : the capillary 
attraction, as I repeatedly observed afterwards, often draws 
a great quantity of moisture to the surface of the loose 
sand, especially in hollows amongst sandhills. 
