Having now related the principal events which I witnessed, or in which I
was an actor, both in California and in Texas, as these countries are
still new and but little known (for, indeed, the Texians themselves know
nothing of their inland country), I will attempt a topographical sketch
of these regions, and also make some remarks upon the animals which
inhabit the immense prairies and mountains of the wilderness.
Along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, from the 42 degrees down to the
34 degrees North, the climate is much the same; the only difference
between the winter and summer being that the nights of the former season
are a little chilly. The causes of this mildness in the temperature are
obvious. The cold winds of the north, rendered sharper still by passing
over the snows and ices of the great northern lakes, cannot force their
passage across the rocky chain south of the latitude 44 degrees North,
being prevented by a belt of high mountains or by impenetrable forests.
To the eastward, on the contrary, they are felt very severely; not
encountering any kind of obstacles, they sweep their course to the very
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, so that in 26 degrees North latitude, on
the southern boundaries of Texas, winter is still winter; that is to
say, fire is necessary in the apartments during the month of January,
and flannel and cloth dresses are worn; while, on the contrary, the same
month on the shores of the Pacific, up to 40 degrees, is mild enough to
allow strangers from the south, and even the Sandwich islanders, to wear
their light nankeen trowsers and gingham round-abouts.
There is also a wide difference between the two coasts of the continent
during summer. In Upper California and the Shoshone territory, although
the heat, from the rays of the sun, is intense, the temperature is so
cooled both by the mountain and sea-breeze, as never to raise the
mercury to more than 95 degrees Fahrenheit, even in San Diego, which
lies under the parallel of 32 degrees 39 minutes; while in the east,
from 27 degrees in South Texas, and 30 degrees at New Orleans, up to 49
degrees upon Lake Superior, the mercury rises to 100 degrees every year,
and frequently 105 degrees, 107 degrees in Saint Louis, in Prairie du
Chien, Green Bay. Saint Anthony's Falls, and the Lake Superior.
The _resume_ of this is simply that the climate of the western coast of
America is the finest in the world, with an air so pure that during the
intense heat of summer a bullock, killed, cleansed, and cut into slices,
will keep for months without any salting nor smoking.
Another cause which contributes to render these countries healthy and
pleasant to live in is, that there are, properly speaking, no swamps,
marshes, nor bayous, as in the United States, and in the neighbourhood
of Acapulco and West Mexico. These lakes and bayous drying during
summer, and exposing to the rays of the sun millions of dead fish,
impregnate the atmosphere with miasma, generating typhus, yellow fever,
dysenteries, and pulmonary diseases.
If the reader will look over the map I have sketched of the Shoshone
country, he will perceive how well the land is watered; the lakes are
all transparent and deep, the rivers run upon a rocky bottom as well as
all the brooks and creeks, the waters of which are always cool and
plentiful. One more observation to convince the reader of the
superiority of the clime is, that, except a few ants in the forests,
there are no insects whatever to be found. No mosquitoes, no prairie
horse-flies, no beetles, except the coconilla or large phosphoric fly of
California, and but very few worms and caterpillars; the consequence is,
that there are but two or three classes of the smaller species of
carnivorous birds; the large ones such as the common and red-headed
vulture and crow, are very convenient, fulfilling the office of general
scavengers in the prairies, where every year thousands of wild cattle
die, either from fighting, or, when in the central deserts, from the
want of water. On the western coast, the aspect of the country, in
general, is gently diversified; the monotony of the prairies in the
interior being broken by islands of fine timber, and now and then by
mountains projecting boldly from their bases. Near the seashore the
plains are intersected by various ridges of mountains, giving birth to
thousands of small rapid streams, which carry their cool and limpid
waters to the many tributaries of the sea, which are very numerous
between the mouth of the Calumet and Buonaventura. Near to the coast
lies a belt of lofty pines and shady odoriferous magnolias, which
extends in some places to the very beach and upon the high cliffs, under
which the shore is so bold that the largest man-of-war could sail
without danger. I remember to have once seen, above the bay of San
Francisco, the sailors of a Mexican brig sitting on the ends of their
topsail yards, and picking the flowers from the branches of the trees as
they glided by.
In that part of the country, which is intersected by mountains, the soil
is almost every where mineral, while the mountains themselves contain
rich mines of copper. I know of beds of galena extending for more than
a hundred miles; and, in some tracts, magnesian earths cover an immense
portion of the higher ridges. Most of the sandy streams of the Shoshone
territory contain a great deal of gold-dust, which the Indians collect
twice a year and exchange away with the Mexicans, and also with the
Arrapahoes.
The principal streams containing gold are tributaries to the
Buonaventura, but there are many others emptying into small lakes of
volcanic formation. The mountains in the neighbourhood of the Colorado
of the West, and in the very country of the Arrapahoes, are full of
silver, and perhaps no people in the world can shew a greater profusion
of this bright metal than these Indians.
The Shoshone territory is of modern formation, at least in comparison
with the more southern countries where the Cordillieres and the Andes
project to the very shores of the ocean. It is evident that the best
portion of the land, west of the Buonaventura, was first redeemed from
the sea by some terrible volcanic eruption. Until about two centuries
ago, or perhaps less, these subterranean fires have continued to
exercise their ravages, raising prairies into mountains, and sinking
mountains and forests many fathoms below the surface of the earth; their
sites now marked by lakes of clear and transparent water, frequently
impregnated with a slight, though not unpleasant, taste of sulphur;
while precious stones, such as topazes, sapphires, large blocks of
amethysts, are found every day in the sand and among the pebbles on
their borders.
In calm days I have often seen, at a few fathoms deep, the tops of pine
trees still standing in their natural perpendicular position. In the
southern streams are found emeralds of very fine water; opals also are
very frequently met with.
The formation of the rocks is in general basaltic, but white, black, and
green marble, red porphyry, jasper, red and grey granite, abound east of
the Buonaventura. Quartz, upon some of the mountains near the
sea-shore, is found in immense blocks and principally in that mountain
range which is designated in the map as the "Montagne du Monstre," at
the foot of which were dug up the remains of the huge Saurian Lizard.
The greater portion of the country is, of course, prairie; these
prairies are covered with blue grass, muskeet grass, clovers, sweet
prairie hay, and the other grasses common to the east of the continent
of America. Here and there are scattered patches of plums of the
green-gage kind, berries, and a peculiar kind of shrub oaks, never more
than five feet high, yet bearing a very large and sweet acorn; ranges of
hazel nuts will often extend thirty or forty miles, and are the abode of
millions of birds of the richest and deepest dyes.
Along the streams which glide through the prairies, there is a luxuriant
growth of noble timber, such as maple, magnolia, blue and green ash, red
oak, and cedar, around which climb vines loaded with grapes. Near the
sea-shores, the pine, both black and white, becomes exceedingly common,
while the smaller plains and hills are covered with that peculiar
species of the prickly pear upon which the cochineal insect feeds. All
round the extinguished volcano, and principally in the neighbourhood of
the hill Nanawa Ashtajueri e, the locality of our settlement upon the
banks of the Buonaventura, the bushes are covered with a very superior
quality of the vanilla bean.
The rivers and streams, as well as the lakes of the interior, abound
with fish; in the latter, the perch, trout, and carp are very common; in
the former, the salmon and white-cat fish, the soft-shelled tortoise,
the pearl oyster, the sea-perch (Lupus Maritimes), the ecrevisse, and
hundred families of the "crevette species," offer to the Indian a great
variety of delicate food for the winter. In the bays along the shore,
the mackerel and bonita, the turtle, and, unfortunately, the sharks, are
very numerous; while on the shelly beach, or the fissures of the rocks,
are to be found lobsters, and crabs of various sorts.
The whole country offers a vast field to the naturalist; the most common
birds of prey are the bald, the white-headed eagle, the black and the
grey, the falcon, the common hawk, the epervier, the black and
red-headed vulture, the raven and the crow. Among the granivorous, the
turkey, the wapo (a small kind of prairie ostrich), the golden and
common pheasant, the wild peacock, of a dull whitish colour, and the
guinea-fowl; these two last, which are very numerous, are not indigenous
to this part of the country, but about a century ago escaped from the
various missions of Upper California, at which they had been bred, and
since have propagated in incredible numbers; also the grouse, the
prairie hen, the partridge, the quail, the green parrot, the blackbird,
and many others which I cannot name, not knowing their generic
denomination. The water-fowls are plentiful, such as swans, geese,
ducks of many different species, and the Canadian geese with their long
black necks, which, from November to March, graze on the prairies in
thousands.
The quadrupeds are also much diversified. First in rank, among the
grazing animals, I may name the mustangs, or wild horses, which wander
in the natural pastures in herds of hundreds of thousands. They vary in
species and size, according to the country where they are found, but
these found in California, Senora, and the western district of Texas,
are the finest breed in the world. They were imported from Andalusia by
the Spaniards, almost immediately after the conquest of Grenada, the
Bishop of Leon having previously, by his prayers, exorcised the devil
out of their bodies.
Mr Catlin says, that in seeing the Comanche horse, he was much
disappointed; it is likely, Mr Catlin having only visited the northern
borders of Texas, and the poorest village of the whole Comanche tribe.
If, however, he had proceeded as far as the Rio Puerco, he would have
seen the true Mecca breed, with which the Moslems conquered Spain. He
would have also perceived how much the advantages of a beautiful clime
and perpetual pasture has improved these noble animals, making them
superior to the primitive stock, both in size, speed, and bottom. With
one of them I made a journey of five thousand miles, and on arriving in
Missouri, I sold him for eight hundred dollars. He was an entire horse,
as white as snow, and standing seventeen and a half hands high. One
thousand pounds would not have purchased him in England.
Next, the lordly buffaloes, the swift wild-goat the deer, the antelope,
the elk, the prairie dogs, the hare, and the rabbits. The carnivorous
are the red panther, or puma [see note 1], the spotted leopard, the
ounce, the jaguar, the grizzly black and brown bear, the wolf, black,
white and grey: the blue, red, and black fox, the badger, the porcupine,
the hedgehog, and the coati (an animal peculiar to the Shoshone
territory, and Upper California), a kind of mixture of the fox and wolf
breed, fierce little animals with bushy tails and large heads, and a
quick, sharp bark.
The amphibious are the beaver, the fresh-water and sea otter; the
musk-rat, and a species of long lizard, with sharp teeth, very like the
cayman as regards the head and tail, but with a very short body. It is
a very fierce animal, killing whatever it attacks, dwelling in damp,
shady places, in the juncks, upon the borders of some lakes, and is much
dreaded by the Indians; fortunately, it is very scarce. The Shoshones
have no particular name for it, but would sooner attack a grizzly bear
than this animal, which they have a great dread of, sometimes calling it
the evil spirit, sometimes the scourge, and many other such
appellations. It has never yet been described by any naturalist, and I
never yet saw one dead, although I have heard of their having been
killed.
In Texas, the country presents two different aspects, much at variance
with each other, the eastern borders and sea-coast being only a
continuation of the cypress swamps, mud creeks, and cane-brakes of south
Arkansas, and west Louisiana; while, on the contrary, the north and west
offer much the same topography as that of the countries I have just
delineated. The climate in Texas is very healthy two hundred miles from
the sea, and one hundred west of the Sabine, which forms the eastern
boundary of Texas; but to the east and south the same diseases and
epidemics prevail as in Louisiana, Alabama, and the Floridas.
The whole of Texas is evidently of recent formation, all the saline
prairies east of the Rio Grande being even now covered with shells of
all the species common to the Gulf of Mexico, mixed up with skeletons of
sharks, and now and then with petrified turtle, dolphin, rock fish, and
bonitas. A few feet below the surface, and hundreds of miles distant
from the sea, the sea-sand is found; and although the ground seems to
rise gradually as it recedes from the shores, the southern plains are
but a very little elevated above the surface of the sea until you arrive
at thirty degrees north, when the prairies begin to assume an undulating
form, and continually ascend till, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains,
they acquire a height of four and five thousand feet above the level of
the sea.
Texas does not possess any range of mountains with the exception that,
one hundred miles north from San Antonio de Bejar, the San Seba hills
rise and extend themselves in a line parallel with the Rocky Mountains,
as high as the green peaks in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe. The San
Seba hills contain several mines of silver, and I doubt not that this
metal is very common along the whole range east of the Rio Grande. Gold
is also found in great quantities in all the streams tributary to the
Rio Puerco, but I have never heard of precious stones of any kind.
Excepting the woody districts which border Louisiana and Arkansas, the
greater proportion of Texas is prairie; a belt of land commences upon
one of the bends of the river Brasos, spreads northward to the very
shores of the Red River, and is called by the Americans "The Cross
timbers;" its natural productions, together with those of the prairies,
are similar to those of the Shoshone country. Before the year 1836, and
I dare say even now, the great western prairies of Texas contained more
animals and a greater variety of species than any other part of the
world within the same number of square miles; and I believe that the
Sunderbunds in Bengal do not contain monsters more hideous and terrible
than are to be found in the eastern portion of Texas, over which nature
appears to have spread a malediction. The myriads of snakes of all
kinds, the unaccountable diversity of venomous reptiles, and even the
deadly tarantula spider or "vampire" of the prairies, are trifles
compared with the awful inhabitants of the eastern bogs, swamps, and
muddy rivers. The former are really dangerous only during two or three
months of the year, and, moreover, a considerable portion of the trails
are free from their presence, owing to the fires which break out in the
dry grass almost every fall. There the traveller knows what he has to
fear, and, independent of the instinct and knowledge of his horse, he
himself keeps an anxious look-out, watching the undulating motion of the
grass, and ever ready with his rifle or pistols in the event of his
being confronted with bears, pumas, or any other ferocious quadruped.
If he is attacked, he can fight, and only few accidents have ever
happened in these encounters, as these animals always wander alone, with
the exception of the wolf, from whom, however, there is but little to
fear, as, in the prairies, this animal is always glutted with food and
timid at the approach of man.
As the prairie wolf is entirely different from the European, I will
borrow a page of Ross Cox, who, having had an opportunity of meeting it,
gives a very good description of its manners and ways of living. Yet as
this traveller does not describe the animal itself, I will add, that the
general colour of the prairie wolf is grey mixed with black, the ears
are round and straight, it is about forty inches long, and possesses the
sagacity and cunning of the fox.
"The prairie wolves," says Cox, "are much smaller than those which
inhabit the woods. They generally travel together in numbers, and a
solitary one is seldom met with. Two or three of us have often pursued
from fifty to one hundred, driving them before us as quickly as our
horses could charge.
"Their skirts are of no value, and we do not therefore waste much powder
and ball in shooting them. The Indians, who are obliged to pay dear for
their ammunition, are equally careful not to throw it away on objects
that bring no remunerating value. The natural consequence is, that the
wolves are allowed to multiply; and some parts of the country are
completely overrun by them. The Indians catch numbers of them in traps,
which they set in the vicinity of those places where their tame horses
are sent to graze. The traps are merely excavations covered over with
slight switches and hay, and baited with meat, etcetera, into which the
wolves fall, and being unable to extricate themselves, they perish by
famine or the knife of the Indian. These destructive animals annually
destroy numbers of horses, particularly during the winter season, when
the latter get entangled in the snow, in which situation they become an
easy prey to their light-footed pursuers, ten or fifteen of which will
often fasten on one animal, and with their long fangs in a few minutes
separate the head from the body. If, however, the horses are not
prevented from using their legs, they sometimes punish the enemy
severely; as an instance of this, I saw one morning the bodies of two of
our horses which had been killed the night before, and around were lying
eight dead and maimed wolves; some with their brains scattered about,
and others with their limbs and ribs broken by the hoofs of the furious
animals in their vain attempts to escape from their sanguinary
assailants."
Although the wolves of America are the most daring of all the beasts of
prey on that continent, they are by no means so courageous or ferocious
as those of Europe, particularly in Spain or the south of France, in
which countries they commit dreadful ravages both on man and beast;
whereas a prairie wolf, except forced by desperation, will seldom or
never attack a human being.
I have said that the danger that attends the traveller in the great
prairies is trifling; but it is very different in the eastern swamps and
mud-holes, where the enemy, ever on the watch, is also always invisible,
and where the speed of the horse and the arms of the rider are of no
avail, for they are then swimming in the deep water, or splashing,
breast-deep, in the foul mud.
Among these monsters of the swamps and lagoons of stagnant waters, the
alligator ranks the first in size and voracity; yet man has nothing to
fear from him; and though there are many stories among the cotton
planters about negroes being carried away by this immense reptile, I do
firmly believe that few human beings have ever been seized alive by the
American alligator. But although harmless to man, the monster is a
scourge to all kinds of animals, and principally to dogs and horses. It
often happens that a rider loses his track through a swamp or a muddy
cane-brake, and then, if a new comer in East Texas, he is indubitably
lost. While his poor steed is vainly struggling in a yielding mass of
mud, he will fall into a hole, and before he can regain his footing, an
irresistible force will drag him deeper and deeper, till smothered.
This force is the tail of the alligator, with which this animal masters
its prey, no matter how strong or heavy, when once within its reach. M.
Audubon has perfectly described its power: I will repeat his words:--
"The power of the alligator is in its great strength, and the chief
means of its attack or defence is its large tail, so well contrived by
nature to supply his wants, or guard him from danger, that it reaches,
when curled into a half-circle, to his enormous mouth. Woe be to him
who goes within the reach of this tremendous thrashing instrument; for,
no matter how strong or muscular, if human, he must suffer greatly, if
he escape with life. The monster, as he strikes with this, forces all
objects within the circle towards his jaws, which, as the tail makes a
motion, are opened to their full stretch, thrown a little sideways to
receive the object, and, like battering-rams, to bruise it shockingly in
a moment."
Yet, as I have said, the alligator is but little formidable to man. In
Western Louisiana and Eastern Texas, where the animal is much hunted for
the sake of his grease, with which the planters generally oil the
machinery of their mills, little negroes are generally sent into the
woods, during the fall, "grease-making" as at that season the men are
better employed in cotton-picking or storing the maize. No danger ever
happens to the urchins during these expeditions, as, keeping within the
sweep of the tail, they contrive to chop it off with an axe.