Chap. V. THE ARKANSAS. 261 
CHAPTEK V. 
Continuation — The Arkansas — "Wolves — A Stampede — Comanches and 
Kiowas — Visit of Chiefs — Indian Mourning, and Military Decorations 
— Fort Atkinson — Further Intercourse with the Kiowas — ■ Pillaging 
Expeditions to Mexico, and Mexican Prisoners — Use of the Spanish 
Language among the Prairie-Indians — Gradual Destruction of the 
Character of the Kace — Indian Tribes converted into Bands of Eobbers 
— Eastern limit of the Apaches — Indian Kock-tomb — Indian Ideas of 
a Future Life — Slave Trade among the Indians — Crossing the Eiver 
— Indian Visits to the Camp — A Step from the Sublime to the Ridi- 
culous. 
The 3rd of September brought us to the bank of the 
Arkansas, at the spot where it reaches the extreme point 
of its northern bend. In the evening we encamped a few 
hundred yards from the river on a green sward of buffalo- 
grass. The shores of the river are composed of clay, as on 
the Missouri, the Ohio, and the Mississippi : the surface of 
the water was at that time from four to six feet below the 
level of the prairie. The shores are undermined by the 
water and gradually fall away, whilst on the opposite shore 
of the river sandbanks are formed. The water is clayey, 
and the bed is composed of dangerous quicksands, upon 
which no one can safely stand still long when bathing. At 
this season the river was fordable at any place. At the 
foot of the vertical embankments poplars and willows grow 
here and there. But the prairie extends everywhere 
to the edge of the embankments, in the sides of which 
were several wolves'-dens very near to us, from out of 
which we heard a continual howling and whining of the 
young cubs. At night the noise and howling of the old 
and young wolves produced a music quite indescribable : 
