DEPART FROM THE CAVE--CHARACTER OF THE HUNTERS WHO GUIDED THE
AUTHOR--INCIDENTS OF THE ROUTE--A BEAUTIFUL AND FERTILE
COUNTRY, ABOUNDING IN GAME--REACH THE EXTREME NORTH-WESTERN
SOURCE OF WHITE RIVER--DISCOVERIES OF LEAD-ORE IN A PART OF
ITS BED--ENCAMP AND INVESTIGATE ITS MINERALOGY--CHARACTER,
VALUE, AND HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY--PROBABILITY OF ITS
HAVING BEEN TRAVERSED BY DE SOTO IN 1541.
It was the last day of the year 1818, when we reached the cave of
Winoca, as described in the preceding chapter, on the Ozark summit. An
inspection of the country had shown the fact that the mineral
developments of its underlying rocks were of a valuable character, while
the surface assumed the most pleasing aspect, and the soil, wherever
examined, appeared to be of the very richest quality. The bold, rough
hunters, who accompanied me, thought of the country only as an
attractive game country, which it was a great pity, they said, that the
Indians alone should occupy; and they had very little curiosity about
anything that did not minister to their immediate wants. They had lived
for so long a time by the rifle, that they had a philosophy of the
rifle. It was the ready arbiter between themselves, and the animal
creation, and the Indians, and even other hunters. Neither the striking
agricultural or mineral resources of the country, arrested much
attention on their part. And as soon as I was ready to relinquish my
examinations at the cave and proceed, they were ready to resume their
horses and lead forward. Unfortunately, it was now severely cold, and
everything in the heavens prognosticated its increasing severity.
On leaving the Valley of the Cave, and ascending the hills that
environed it, we passed over a gently sloping surface of hill and vale,
partly covered with forest trees, and partly in prairies. I have seldom
seen a more beautiful prospect. The various species of oaks and
hickories had strewed the woods with their fruits, on which the bear and
wild turkey revelled, while the red deer was scarcely ever out of sight.
Long before the hour of encampment had arrived, the hunters had secured
the means of our making a sumptuous evening meal on wild viands; and
when, at an early hour, we pitched our camp on the borders of a small
brook, Holt, who was ever ready with the rifle, added a fat brant from
this brook to our stores. We had not travelled more than twelve miles,
but we had a sharp wind to face, the day being severe; and nothing was
so agreeable, when we halted, as the fire, around which we enjoyed
ourselves, as we each displayed our skill in forest cookery. There was
cutting, and carving, and roasting, in the true prairie style. We then
prepared our couches and night-fires, and slept. At the earliest peep of
light, we were again in motion.
The 1st of January, 1819, opened with a degree of cold unusual in these
regions. Their elevation is, indeed, considerable; but the wind swept
with a cutting force across the open prairies. We were now on the
principal north-western source of White river, the channel of which we
forded in the distance of two miles. The western banks presented a naked
prairie, covered with dry grass and autumnal weeds, with here and there
a tree. We pushed on towards the north-east. The prairie-hen,
notwithstanding the cold, rose up in flocks before us, as we intruded
upon their low-couched positions in the grass. Of these, Holt, whose
hunting propensities no cold could restrain, obtained a specimen; he
also fired at and killed a wild goose from the channel of the river. On
passing about four miles up the western banks of the stream, we observed
a lead of lead-ore, glittering through the water in the bed of the
river, and determined to encamp at this spot, for the purpose of
investigating the mineral appearances. The weather was piercingly cold.
We found some old Indian camps near at hand, and procured from them
pieces of bark to sheath a few poles and stakes, hastily put up, to form
a shelter from the wind. A fire was soon kindled, and, while we cooked
and partook of a forest breakfast, we recounted the incidents of the
morning, not omitting the untoward state of the weather. When the labor
of building the shanty was completed, I hastened to explore the
geological indications of the vicinity.
The ore which had attracted our notice in the bed of the stream, existed
in lumps, which presented bright surfaces where the force of the current
had impelled its loose stony materials over them. It was a pure
sulphuret of lead, breaking in cubical lines. I also observed some
pieces of hornblende. It was not easy to determine the original width of
the bed of ore. Its course is across the stream, into the banks of red
marly clay on which we had encamped. Its geological position is in every
respect similar to the metalliferous deposits at Potosi, except that
there were no spars, calcareous or barytic, in sight. I gathered, in a
few minutes, a sufficient number of specimens of the ore for
examination, and employed myself in erecting, on the banks of the river,
a small furnace, of the kind called "log-furnace" in Missouri, to test
its fusibility. In the mean time, my New England companion took a survey
of the surrounding country, which he pronounced one of the most fertile,
and admirably adapted to every purpose of agriculture. Much of the land
consists of prairie, into which the plough can be immediately put. The
forests and groves, which are interspersed with a park-like beauty
through these prairies, consist of various species of oaks, maple, white
and black walnut, elm, mulberry, hackberry, and sycamore.
Holt and Fisher scanned the country for game, and returned to camp with
six turkeys and a wolf. Their fear of the Osages had been only
apparently subdued. They had been constantly on the look-out for signs
of Indian enemies, and had their minds always filled with notions of
hovering Osages and Pawnees. The day was wintry, and the weather
variable. It commenced snowing at daylight, and continued till about
eight o'clock, A. M. It then became clear, and remained so, with
occasional flickerings, until two o'clock, when a fixed snowstorm sat
in, and drove me from my little unfinished furnace, bringing in the
hunters also from the prairies, and confining us strictly to our camp.
This storm continued, without mitigation, nearly all night.
Jan. 3d. The snow ceased before sunrise, leaving the country wrapped in
a white mantle. The morning was cold; the river began to freeze about
nine o'clock, and continued till it was closed. The weather afforded an
opportunity for continuing the explorations and examinations commenced
yesterday. I found that the red clay afforded a good material for laying
the stones of my lead-furnace, and continued working at it for a part of
the day. The hunters came in with the carcases of two deer, and the skin
of a black wolf. Except in its color, I could not distinguish any
permanent characteristics in the latter differing from the large grey
wolf, or coyote. Its claws, snout, and ears, were the same--its tail,
perhaps, a little more bushy. The size of this animal, judging from the
skin, must have been double that of the little prairie-wolf, or
_myeengun_ of the Indians of the North.
I found the bed of the stream, where it permitted examination, to be
non-crystalline limestone, in horizontal beds, corresponding to the
formation observed in the cave of Winoca. Its mineral constituents were
much the same. The country is one that must be valuable hereafter for
its fertility and resources. The prairies which extend west of the river
are the most extensive, rich, and beautiful, of any which I have yet
seen west of the Mississippi. They are covered with a most vigorous
growth of grass. The deer and elk abound in this quarter, and the
buffalo is yet occasionally seen. The soil in the river valley is a rich
black alluvion. The trees are often of an immense height, denoting
strength of soil. It will probably be found adapted to corn, flax, hemp,
wheat, oats, and potatoes; while its mining resources must come in as
one of the elements of its future prosperity.
I planted some peach-stones in a fertile spot near our camp, where the
growth of the sumac denoted unusual fertility. And it is worthy of
remark that even Holt, who had the antipathy of an Indian to
agriculture, actually cut some bushes in a certain spot, near a spring,
and piled them into a heap, by way of securing a pre-emption right to
the soil.
The region of the Ozark range of mountain development is one of singular
features, and no small attractions. It exhibits a vast and elevated
tract of horizontal and sedimentary strata, extending for hundreds of
miles north and south. This range is broken up into high cliffs, often
wonderful to behold, which form the enclosing walls of river valleys.
The Arkansas itself forces its way through, about the centre of the
range. The Washita marks its southern boundary. The St. Francis and the
Maramec, at the mouth of the former of which De Soto landed, constitute
its northern limits. The junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi
may be said to be its extreme northern development. The Missouri, from
the influx of the Osage, is pushed northward by the Ozark range. It
rests, on the south, upon the primitive granites, slates, and quartz
rock, of Washita. The celebrated Hot Springs issue from it. The
long-noted mines of Missouri, which once set opinion in France in a
blaze, extend from its north-eastern flanks. The primitive sienites and
hornblende rock of the sources of the St. Francis and Grand rivers,
support it. The Unica or White river, the Strawberry, Spring river,
Currents and Black rivers, descend from it, and join the Mississippi.
The Great and Little Osage, and the Gasconade, flow into the Missouri.
The great plains, and sand-desert, which stretches at the eastern foot
of the Rocky mountains, lie west of it. It is not less than two hundred
miles in breadth. No part of the central regions of the Mississippi
valley exhibits such a variety in its geological constituents, or such a
striking mineralogical development. Its bodies of the ore of iron called
iron-glance, are unparalleled. These are particularly developed in the
locality called Iron Mountain, or the sources of the St. Francis. Its
ores of lead, zinc, antimony, and manganese, are remarkable. Its
limestones abound in caves yielding nitre. Salt and gypsum are found in
the plains on its western borders. Its large blocks of quartz rock,
which are found north of the Arkansas river, particularly scattered over
the formations crossing the Little Red, Buffalo, and White rivers,
about the Buffalo shoals, furnish indications of the diluvial gold
deposit, which would justify future examination.
Through these alpine ranges De Soto roved, with his chivalrous and
untiring army, making an outward and inward expedition into regions
which must have presented unwonted hardships and discouragements to the
march of troops. To add to these natural obstacles, he found himself
opposed by fierce savage tribes, who rushed upon him from every glen and
defile, and met him in the open grounds with the most savage energy. His
own health finally sank under these fatigues; and it is certain that,
after his death, his successor in the command, Moscoso, once more
marched entirely through the southern Ozarks, and reached the buffalo
plains beyond them. Such energy and feats of daring had never before
been displayed in North America; and the wonder is at its highest, after
beholding the wild and rough mountains, cliffs, glens, and torrents,
over which the actual marches must have laid.
Some of the names of the Indian tribes encountered by him, furnish
conclusive evidence that the principal tribes of the country, although
they have changed their particular locations since the year 1542, still
occupy the region. Thus, the Kapahas, who then lived on the Mississippi,
above the St. Francis, are identical with the Quappas, the Cayas with
the Kanzas, and the Quipana with the Pawnees.