We return to give a hasty account of an excursion from Point Pleasant, in the country of the Cherokees, to the hot springs of the Washita. On the morning of the 25th, our little party, consisting of Captain Kearney, Lieutenant Swift, and myself, having taken leave of our companions, recrossed the Arkansa from Webber's, and proceeded on our journey without a guide. Having mistaken the route we had been directed to follow, we were bewildered during a considerable part of the day, wandering about through a fertile country without settlements, and so covered with dense forests as to render the travelling exceedingly harassing. Towards evening we arrived at a settlement of Cherokees, where we engaged a guide to conduct us to the trace leading to the springs. For this service we paid him two dollars. At night we encamped in an open forest of oak, where we found a sufficient supply of grass for our horses. The hills south of the Arkansa range from N.E. to S.W., their sides are sometimes nearly naked, but more commonly covered with small and scattered trees. Several kinds of oak, and the chinquapin (castanea pumila, Ph.) attaining the dimensions of a tree, are met with in the sandstone tracts. We distinguished here, in the uplands, two separate varieties of soil. That just mentioned, There are no settlements between those of the Cherokees about Derdonai on the Arkansa and the hot springs. The blind path which we followed traverses a rugged and mountainous region, having considerable resemblance, except in the want of parallelism in the ranges, to the sandstone portions of the Alleghanies. As the weather was rainy we felt the inconvenience of travelling in the wilderness and encamping without tents. On the 28th we arrived at the hot springs. The country near these, on the north and north-west, is high and rocky. The sandstone, which extends from the Arkansa to within a few miles to the springs, becomes, as you go south, something inclined, and apparently of a more ancient deposition, until it is succeeded by a highly inclined primitive argillite. Both these rocks are traversed by large veins of white quartz. They are inclined towards the south, and the argillite at a great angle. In some localities it is but indistinctly slaty in its structure, and its laminÆ are nearly perpendicular. It contains extensive beds of a yellowish white siliceous stone, which is often somewhat translucent, and resembles The hot springs of the Washita are in north latitude 34° 31´, and west longitude 92° 50´ 45?, We have been informed that these remarkable springs were unknown, even to the American hunters, until the year 1779. At that time, it is said, there was but one spring discharging heated water. This is described as a circular orifice, about six inches in diameter, pouring out a stream of water of the same size, from the side of a perpendicular cliff, about eight feet from its base. This cliff was situate then, as it is now, along the eastern side of a small creek, but was at a greater distance from the stream than at present. At another place, near the top of the mountain, which rises abruptly towards the east, the heated water is said to have made its appearance near the surface of the ground, in a state of ebullition, and to have sunk and disappeared again upon the same spot. It is probable these representations {151} are in a great measure fabulous; all we are to understand by them is, that the gradual augmentation of the thermal rocks, which are constantly forming about the springs, has changed the position, and perhaps increased the number of the orifices. These springs were visited by Hunter and Dunbar in 1804, and the information communicated by them, as well as much derived from other sources, together with an analysis of the waters, has been placed before the public We subjoin a note, containing some particulars observed by Major Long at the time of his visit in 1818. During the winter the steam which rises from the springs is condensed to a white vapour, which is often visible at a great distance. The water of the springs is limpid and colourless, and destitute, when cooled, of either taste or smell, {152} and, according to the analysis of Dr. Mitchell, purer than ordinary spring water. It however deposits, as it comes in contact with the air, a copious sediment, which has gradually accumulated until it has become an independent The time of our visit to the springs being one of very unusual drought, the quantity of water was somewhat less and the temperature higher than ordinary. The time required to boil eggs, as much as they usually are for the table, was fifteen minutes. In the same time a cup of coffee was made by immersing our kettle in one of the springs. A number of baths have been made, by hollowing out excavations in the rock, to which the hot water is constantly flowing. By cutting off or increasing the supply the temperature can be regulated at pleasure; over some of these are built small log cabins, and in the neighbourhood are twenty or thirty huts, occupied at some seasons of the year by persons who resort hither for the benefit of the waters. Three miles north-east from the hot springs is a large fountain of water, of the ordinary temperature, forming the source of the small stream already mentioned as flowing down from that direction. It rises from the summit of a little knoll, six or eight feet in diameter, and divides into two streams, one of which flows towards the east, the other towards the west. Both, however, unite at the base of the knoll, and {153} the brook flows thence south-west, between two petrosiliceous hills, to its confluence with another from the north-west, to form the hot spring creek. The quantity of water discharged by this spring can scarcely be less than from eighty to one hundred gallons per minute. Immediately on the south rises a large hill, and the elevation of the spring itself, above the level of the highest of the thermal springs, is thought to be not less than one hundred and fifty feet. The water is transparent, but has a perceptible metallic taste, and deposits upon the stones over which it flows a copious rust-like sediment. The spring is known in the neighbouring settlements as the "poison spring," a name which we were told it had received from the following circumstance, said to have taken place many years since. A hunter who had been pursuing a bear, and was much exhausted with heat and fatigue, arrived at this spring in the middle of the day, and finding the water cool, and not unpleasant to the taste, drank freely of it, but immediately afterwards sickened and died. His death was occasioned, probably, not by any deleterious quality in the water, but by the disease commonly induced by drinking too largely of cold water when the body is heated. The neighbouring inhabitants, however, imputed the hunter's death to some supposed poisonous property in the spring. Not long {154} About two miles to the north-east of this spring, a little to the left of the road leading to the settlement of Derdonai, is the principal quarry from which the Washita oilstones are procured. It is near the summit of a high and steep hill of the petrosiliceous rock already mentioned. The oilstones are found in the perpendicular seams or fissures of the rock, from which they are detached with little difficulty, having, as they are dug from the quarry, nearly the requisite shape and size. They are then carried by hand, or thrown to the foot of the precipice, whence there is an easy transportation of ten or twelve miles to the Washita. By this river they descend to New Orleans, and some have been carried thence to New York, where they are known as the Missouri oilstones. These stones are said not to be inferior in quality to the oilstones from Turkey. In the immediate neighbourhood of the hot springs we observed a number of interesting plants. The American holly (ilex opaca) is a conspicuous and beautiful tree in the narrow vallies within the mountains. The leaves of The sources of the Washita are in a high and broken part of the Ozark mountains, in north latitude 34° 15´, and between 93° and 94° west longitude, and sixty or an hundred miles south-west of the settlement of Cadron on the Arkansa. From the same mountainous district descend towards the north-east the Petit Jean and Le Fevre, tributaries to the Arkansa; on {155} the north-west the upper branches of the Poteau; on the south-west the Kiamesha; and on the south-east the Mountain, Cossetot, Rolling Forks, and other streams, discharging into Little river of Red river. None of the tributaries to the Washita, above the hot In the latter part of October 1820, at the time of our journey, the Washita at Keisler's settlement, about fifteen miles below the springs, was something {157} less than one hundred yards in width, flowing in a deep and unequal channel over a bed of clay-slate. The water is here ten or fifteen feet deep in many places, and the currents scarce perceptible; as we looked down upon the river from the elevated banks it appeared like a quiet lake, and the unusual blackness of the waters suggested the idea of its great depth. Little groups of naked rocky islands were disclosed here and there in different parts of the channel. On examination we found the apparent dark colour of the water to depend upon the complexion of the rocks which form the bottom and sides of the bed, they being principally of a dark-coloured argillite; and not only these, but the small fragments of quartz and other whitish stones, had acquired, from lying in the water, a peculiar tinge of dark brown. We expected to find an incrustation covering the surfaces of these stones, but upon examination the colouring matter seemed inseparably blended with the rock itself. The water, seen by transmitted light, was entirely transparent, and had no perceptible saltness. At the distance of five or six miles south-east from the hot springs, on the road leading towards the town of We arrived about sunset on the 28th at Keisler's plantation, The Cove is a valley commencing among the mountains at no great distance to the east of the hot springs, and containing a small rivulet which enters the Washita six or eight miles below Keisler's. The road, leading towards the Little Rock on the In the afternoon of the 29th we arrived at Lockhart's settlement, on the Saline Fork of the Washita. The soil of some of the bottom lands along this stream is not inferior to any we have seen west of the Mississippi. It is well watered, and abounds in excellent timber. Pine and oak are intermixed with the ash, hickory, and sugar maple. Here are some well cultivated gardens, and extensive plantations of corn, cotton, and tobacco. Mr. Lockhart and his family, who are emigrants from North Carolina, consider the climate more agreeable than that of the country they came from, and have continued, during a residence of several years, to enjoy good health. We could not fail to attribute this remarkable exemption from disease, in a great measure, to the regularity, neatness, and good order of their domestic economy. October 30th. In crossing some broken ridges of sandstone, which occupy the high and uninhabited tract between the vallies of the Arkansa and Washita, we followed the obscure path communicating between the settlements on the Saline and the town of Little Rock. As we were descending from one of these ridges our attention was called to an unusual noise, proceeding from a copse of low bushes on our right, at a few rods from From the occasional occurrence of the skulls of deer and elk with the horns interlocked with each other, and from the fact above mentioned, it appears that the contests of these animals at the rutting season often prove fatal to both parties. From the form of the horns, and the manner of fighting, it seems probable they must often be entangled with each other, and when this is the case both fall an easy prey to the wolves. The Saline has an entire length of about one hundred and fifty miles, running all the way nearly parallel to the Washita, to its confluence near the latitude 33° north. After entering the state of Louisiana, the Washita receives from the east the Barthelemi, the Boeuf, the Macon, and the Tensa, all of which, having their sources near the west bank of the Mississippi, may be considered as inosculating branches of that river, since at times of high floods they are fed from the Mississippi. The western tributaries are the Saluder, Derbane, and Ocatahoola, deriving their sources from a spur of the Ozark moun FOOTNOTES:Comment by Ed. Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764-1831), "the Nestor of American science," began the publication of the New York Medical Repository in 1797. He was a member of the faculty of Columbia College from 1792 to 1801; later he was professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City (1808-26), and in Queen's College (1826-30). He served several terms in the New York legislature, and from 1801 to 1813 was in Congress, part of the time in the Senate. Immersed in the water of the creek, below the springs, at 61º. In spring No. 1. being the lowermost on the creek, 122°, water discharged, 4 gallons per minute. No. 2. A few feet from No. 1, 104°, discharges 1 gallon per minute. No. 3. Twenty-five yards from the last, 106°, discharges two gallons per minute. No. 4. Six yards above the last, 126°, discharges 2 gallons per minute. Temperature of a spring issuing from the ground, at a considerable distance up the side of the hill, 64°. Springs, No. 5, 6, and 7, 126°, 94°, 92°. These rise very near each other, the warmest being more elevated than the rest; the three discharge about 8 gallons per minute. No. 8. Issuing from the ground, fifty feet above the level of the creek, uniting, as it rises, with another at 54°; temperature of the mixture, 128°, discharge of the two, 10 gallons per minute. No. 9. Rising on the point of a small spur, sixty feet above the level of the creek, 132°, discharges two gallons per minute. No. 10. Forty feet above the creek, 151°, discharges 10 gallons per minute. Green bushes in the edge of this, which is the hottest spring. No. 11. Three feet above the creek, 148°, discharges 12 gallons per minute. No. 12. Twenty yards above the last, 132°, discharges 20 gallons per minute. No. 13, 14, 15. Near the last, 124°, 119°, 108°, discharges each 4 gallons per minute. No. 16, 122°, discharges 2 gallons per minute. No. 17. The uppermost on the creek, 126°. No. 18, 126°; 19, 128°; 20, 130°; 21, 136°; 22, 140°. All these are large springs, and rise at an elevation of at least 100 feet above the creek. In the same area are several others, and what is more remarkable, several cold ones. In any of the hot springs I observed bubbles rising in rapid succession, but could not discover any perceptible smell from them. Not only confervas and other vegetables grow in and about the hottest springs, but great numbers of little insects are seen constantly sporting about the bottom and sides. Temperature of the water of the creek, above the springs, 46°. The entire quantity of water flowing in the creek after it receives the water of the hot springs, may be estimated at from 900 to 1000 gallons per minute.—James. Comment by Ed. Page 211 of reprint in our volume xiii. Fourche-au-Cadeau (now contracted to Caddo Creek) heads in Montgomery County, and flowing south-east meets the Ouachita on the northern line of Clark County. Cadeau is a corruption of Cadaux. Both words are French, the former meaning a gift, the latter being the plural of the name of an Indian tribe (Caddo in English) whose range included southwestern Arkansas. The stream is called Fourche des Cadaux (Fork of the Caddos) in Dunbar and Hunter's "Description of the Washita River" (American State Papers, "Indian Affairs," i, p. 731). At the south-east corner of Clark County is the mouth of the Little Missouri, which rises on the Polk-Montgomery county line, traverses Pike, and forms the southern line of Clark.—Ed. |