Chap. VI. BED OF THE CIMARRON. 283 
of the river, in a little rocky valley, enclosed by banks of 
sandstone and conglomerate. Further up the character of 
the principal valley improves: the soil, although sandy, 
becomes firmer, and is more overgrown with grass. At a 
distance, toward the west, are seen the first mountains — ■ 
high table-lands, completely level at the top — and toward 
the south several side-valleys branch off from the chief one. 
On the 20th the caravan was delayed by a team becoming 
restive and breaking the axletree of a waggon, just as at 
nightfall we were about to pass the dry bed of the Cimarron 
to encamp on the other side. We remained on the north 
side. The next morning, at daybreak, the bed of the river 
was filled with a deep and rapid stream, which rendered its 
passage impossible : here we halted two days, to await the 
subsidence of the water. After it had fallen a little we 
found, on the third day, a spot where a passage was prac- 
ticable, and reached the other bank safely. Probably, 
during the last hurricane from the north, there had been a 
heavy fall of snow in the Eaton mountains, and the sudden 
melting of the snows during the south wind had afterwards 
caused the sudden filling of the bed of the river ; for this 
took place in the most beautiful weather and with a cloud- 
less sky. 
In this part of the country our sportsmen shot the first 
antelopes. I had already seen two of these animals at a 
distance when we first reached the Arkansas. They are 
indeed rarely seen so far east : here they were more fre- 
quently seen, and in herds of twenty to thirty. 
From the banks of the Cimarron, which we left on the 
23rd of September, the general level of the country rises 
much more steeply than hitherto. We had travelled from 
Independence to Council Grove, at a mean elevation of 
about 1 100 feet above the level of the sea. This elevation 
