A deeper view of the Ozark Chain. Pass along the flanks of the
highlands which send out the sources of the Black, Eleven points,
Currents and Spring rivers. Reach a romantic glen of caves. Birds
and animals seen. Saltpetre earth; stalactites. Cross the alpine
summit of the western Ozarks. Source of the Gasconde river.
Accident in fording the Little Osage river.--Encamp on one of
its tributaries.
It was found, as we began to bestir ourselves for wood to light our fire
that we had reposed not far from a bevy of wild ducks, who had sought
the grassy edge of the lake during the night, and with the first alarm
betook themselves to flight. With not so ready a mode of locomotion, we
followed their example, in due time, and also their course, which was
south. At the distance of a couple of miles, we crossed a small stream,
running south-east, which we judged to be the outlet of the small lakes
referred to, and which is, probably the source of Black River, or the
Eleven points. Our course led us in an opposite direction, and we soon
found ourselves approaching the sterile hills which bound the romantic
valley of the currents. There had been some traces of wheels, on the
softer soil, which had been driven in this direction towards the
saltpetre caves, but we completely lost them, as we came to and ascended
these arid and rugged steeps. Some of these steeps rose into dizzy and
romantic cliffs, surmounted with pines. We wound our way cautiously
amongst them, to find some gorge and depression, through which we might
enter the valley. For ourselves we should not have been so choice of a
path, but we had a pack horse to lead, and should he be precipitated
into a gulf, we must bid adieu to our camp equipage. Our arms and a
single blanket, would be all we could carry. At length this summit was
reached. The view was enchanting. A winding wooded valley, with its
clear bright river, stretched along at the base of the summit. Rich
masses of foliage, hung over the clear stream, and were reflected in its
pellucid current, with a double beauty. The autumnal frost, which had
rifled the highland trees of their clothing, appeared to have passed
over this deeply secluded valley with but little effect, and this
effect, was only to highten the interest of the scene, by imparting to
portions of its foliage, the liveliest orange and crimson tints. And
this was rendered doubly attractive by the contrast. Behind us lay the
bleak and barren hills, over which we had struggled, without a shade, or
a brook, or even the simplest representative of the animal creation. For
it is a truth, that during the heat of the day, both birds and
quadrupeds betake themselves to the secluded shades of the streams and
vallies. From these they sally out, into the plains, in quest of food at
early dawn, and again just before night fall. All the rest of the day,
the plains and highlands have assumed the silence of desolation. Evening
began to approach as we cautiously picked our way down the cliffs, and
the first thing we did, on reaching the stream was to take a hearty
drink of its crystal treasure, and let our horse do the same. The next
object was to seek a fording place--which was effected without
difficulty. On mounting the southern bank, we again found the trail,
lost in the morning, and pursued it with alacrity. It was my turn this
day to be in advance, as guide, but the temptation of small game, as we
went up the valley, drew me aside, while Enobitti proceeded to select a
suitable spot for the night's encampment. It was dark when I rejoined
him, with my squirrel and pigeon hunt. He had confined himself closely
to the trail. It soon led him out of the valley, up a long brushy ridge,
and then through an open elevated pine grove, which terminated abruptly
in a perpendicular precipice. Separated from this, at some eight hundred
yards distance, stood a counter precipice of limestone rock, fretted
out, into pinnacles and massy walls, with dark openings, which gave the
whole the resemblance of architectural ruins. The stream that ran
between these cliffs, was small, and it lay so deep and well embrowned
in the shades of evening, that it presented vividly from this elevation,
a waving bright line on a dark surface. Into this deep dark terrific
glen the path led, and here we lit our fire, hastily constructed a bush
camp, and betook ourselves, after due ablutions in the little stream, to
a night's repose. The sky became rapidly overcast, before we had
finished our meal, and a night of intense darkness, threatening a
tempest, set in. As we sat by our fire, its glare upon huge beetling
points of overhanging rocks, gave the scene a wild and picturesque cast;
and we anticipated returning daylight with an anxious wish to know and
see our exact locality. By the restless tramping of our horse, and the
tinkling of his bell, we knew that he had found but indifferent picking.
Daylight fulfilled the predictions of the evening. We had rain. It also
revealed our position in this narrow, and romantic glen. A high wall of
rocks, encompassed us on either hand, but they were not such as would
have resulted in a volcanic country from a valley fissure. Narrow and
deep as the glen was, it was at once apparent, that it was a valley of
denudation, and had owed its existence to the wasting effects of the
trifling stream within it, carrying away, particle by particle, the
matter loosened by rains and frosts, and mechanical attrition. The
cliffs are exclusively calcareous, and piled up, mason like, in
horizontal layers. One of the most striking pictures which they
presented, was found in the great number, size and variety of caves,
which opened into this calcareous formation. These caves are of all
sizes, some of them very large, and not a few of them situated at
elevations above the floor of the glen, which forbade access.
One of our first objects, after examining the neighbourhood, was to
remove our baggage and location up the glen, into one of these caves,
which at the distance of about a mile, promised us an effectual shelter
from the inclemency of the storm. This done, we determined here to wait
for settled weather, and explore the precincts. By far the most
prominent object, among the caverns, was the one into which we had thus
unceremoniously thrust ourselves. It had evidently been visited before,
by persons in search of saltpetre earth. Efflorescences of nitric earth,
were abundant in its fissures, and this salt was also present in masses
of reddish diluvial earth, which lay in several places. The mouth of
this cave presented a rude irregular arc, of which the extreme height
was probably thirty feet, and the base line ninety. The floor of this
orifice occurs, at an elevation of about forty feet above the stream.
And this size is held for about two hundred feet, when it expands into a
lofty dome, some eighty or ninety feet high, and perhaps, three hundred
in diameter. In its centre a fine spring of water issues from the rock.
From this dome several passages lead off in different directions.
One of these opens into the glen, at an inaccessible point, just below.
Another runs back nearly at right angles with the mouth, putting out
smaller passages, of not much importance, however, in its progress. So
splendid and noble an entrance gave us the highest hopes of finding it
but the vestibule of a natural labyrinth; but the result disappointed
us. These ample dimensions soon contract, and after following the main
or south passage about five hundred yards, we found our further entrance
barred, by masses of fallen rock, at the foot of which a small stream
trickled through the broken fragments, and found its way to the mouth.
Have we good reason to attribute to this small stream, a power
sufficient to be regarded as the effective agent in carrying away the
calcareous rock, so as to have in a long period produced the orifice?
Whence then, it may be asked, the masses of compact reddish clay and
pebble diluvium, which exist? These seem rather to denote that these
caves were open orifices, during the period of oceanic action, upon the
surface of the Ozarks, and that a mass of waters, surcharged with such
materials, flowed into pre-existing caverns. This diluvium is, in truth,
of the same era as the wide spread stream of like kind, which has been
deposited over the metalliferous region of Missouri. If these, however,
be questions for geological doubt; we had lit upon another inquiry,
very prominent on our minds in making this exploration, namely, whether
there were any wild beasts sheltered in its fissures. Satisfied that we
were safe on this score, we retraced our footsteps to our fire, and
sallied out to visit other caves. Most of these were at such heights as
prevented access to them. In one instance, a tree had fallen against the
face of the cliff, in such a manner that by climbing it to its forks,
and taking one of the latter, the opening might be reached. Putting a
small mineral hammer in my pocket, I ascended this tree, and found the
cave accessible. It yielded some wax yellow and white translucent
stalactites, and also very delicate white crystals of nitre. The
dimensions of this cave were small, and but little higher than to enable
a man to stand upright.
In each of the caves of this glen which I entered, during a halt of
several days in this vicinity, I looked closely about for fossil bones,
but without success in any instance. The only article of this kind
observed was the recent leg and foot bones and vertebra of the bos
musarius, which appeared to be an inhabitant of the uppermost fissures
in these calcareous cliffs, but I never saw the living species, although
I ranged along their summits and bases, with my gun and hammer, at
various hours. Some of the compact lime stone in the bed of the creek
exhibited a striped and jaspery texture. The wood-duck and the duck and
mallard sometimes frequented this secluded stream, and it was a common
resort for the wild turkey, at a certain hour in the evening. This bird
seemed at such times to come in thirsty, from its ranges in quest of
acorns on the uplands, and its sole object appeared to be to drink.
Sitting in the mouth of our cave, we often had a fine opportunity to see
flocks of these noisy and fine birds flying down from the cliffs, and
perching on the trees below us. If they came to roost, as well as to
slack their thirst, a supposition probable, this was an ill-timed
movement, so long as we inhabited the glen, for they only escaped the
claw and talons of one enemy, to fall before the fire-lock of the other.
This bird, indeed, proved our best resource on the journey, for we
travelled with too much noise and want of precaution generally, to kill
the deer and elk, which, however, were abundant on the highland plains.
We passed three days at the Glen Cave, during which there were several
rains; it stormed one entire day, and we employed the time of this
confinement, in preparing for the more intricate and unknown parts of
our journey. Hitherto we had pursued for the most of the way, a trail,
and were cheered on our way, by sometimes observing traces of human
labour. But, from this point we were to plunge into a perfect
wilderness, without a trace or track. We had before us, that portion of
the Ozark range, which separates to the right and left, the waters of
the Missouri from those of the Mississippi. It was supposed, from the
best reports, that by holding south-west, across these eminences, we
should strike the valley of the White River, which interposed itself
between our position there and the Arkansas. To enter upon this tract,
with our compass only as a guide, and with the certainty of finding no
nutritious grass for our horse, required that we should lighten and
curtail our baggage as much as possible, and put all our effects into
the most compact and portable form. And having done this, and the
weather proving settled, we followed a short distance up the Glen of
Caves; but finding it to lead too directly west, we soon left it and
mounted the hills which line its southern border. A number of latter
valleys, covered with thick brush, made this a labour by no means
slight. The surface was rough; vegetation sere and dry, and every
thicket which spread before us, presented an obstacle which was to be
overcome. We could have penetrated many of these, which the horse could
not be forced through. Such parts of our clothing as did not consist of
buckskin, paid frequent tribute to these brambles. At length we got
clear of these spurs, and entered on a high waving table land where
travelling became comparatively easy. The first view of this vista of
high land plains was magnificent. It was covered with moderate sized
sere grass and dry seed pods, which rustled as we passed. There was
scarcely an object deserving the name of a tree, except, now and then, a
solitary trunk of a dead pine, or oak, which had been scathed by
lightning. The bleached skull of the buffalo, was sometimes met, and
proved that this animal had once existed here. Rarely we passed a
stunted oak; sometimes a cluster of saplings crowned the summit of a
sloping hill; the deer often bounded before us; we sometimes disturbed
the hare from its sheltering bush, or put to flight the quail or the
prairie hen. There was no prominent feature for the eye to rest upon.
The unvaried prospect produced satiety. We felt in a peculiar manner the
solitariness of the wilderness. We travelled silently and diligently. It
was a dry and thirsty barren. From morning till sun set we did not
encounter a drop of water. This became the absorbing object. Hill after
hill, and vale after vale were patiently scanned, and diligently footed,
without bringing the expected boon. At length we came, without the
expectation of it, to a small running stream in the plain, where we
gladly encamped. There was also some grass which preserved a greenish
hue, and which enabled our horse also to recruit himself.
Early the next morning we repacked him, and continued our course,
travelling due west south-west. At the distance of five or six miles, we
reached the banks of a clear stream of twenty feet wide, running over a
bed of pebbles and small secondary boulders. This stream ran towards the
north-west, and gave us the first intimation we had, that we had crossed
the summit and were on the off drain of the Missouri. We supposed it to
be the source of the Gasconade, or at farthest some eastern tributary of
the Little Osage.
A few hours travelling brought us to the banks of another stream of
much larger size and depth, but running in the same direction. This
stream we found it difficult to cross, and spent several hours in
heaping piles of stone, and connecting them with dry limbs of trees,
which had been carried down by floods. It had a rapid and deep current,
on each side of which was a wide space of shallow water and rolled
boulders of lime and sand stone. We succeeded in driving the horse
safely over. Enobitti led the way on our frail bridge-work, but
disturbed the last link of it as he jumped off on the south bank, so
that it turned under my tread and let me in. There was no kind of danger
in the fall as it was in the shallow part of the stream, but putting out
my hands to break the fall, it so happened that my whole weight rested
on my gun, which was supported on two stones, merely on its butt and
muzzle; the effect was to wrench the barrel. I gave it a counter wrench
as soon as we encamped, but I never afterwards could place full
confidence in it. We had not gone over three or four miles beyond this
river, when we came to the banks of a third stream, running west, but
also sweeping off below, towards the north-west. This stream was smaller
than the former and opposed no difficulty in fording it. Having done
this we followed it up a short distance, and encamped on its south
banks.