I OS
TRAVELS INTO THE
ther, felt extremely disagreeable, and foreboded the
destruction of all the fruit in the territory. This
morning we passed the fifth Pine Bluff, and the last
previous to our arrival at the Little Rock; the fas^ade
was about the same height and of the same materials
as the preceding. Among the pebbles of a gravel
beach which I examined were scattered a few frag-
ments of cornelian, similar to those of the Missouri,
and abundance of chert or hornstone containing or-
ganic impressions of entrocites, caryophillites, &c. here
and there were also intermingled a few granitic frag-
ments, which, if not more remotely adventitious, had
probably descended from the mountains.—We pro-
ceeded to-day about 17 miles.
17th.] This morning we had the disagreeable pros-
pect of ice, and the wind was still from the north-
west, but abating. To-day we progressed about 20
miles. The sixth point we passed, since our en-
campment of the preceding night, was called the
Eagle’s Nest, which is here seen situated on the oppo-
site side of the bend before us, of six miles in circuit,
and only about 100 yards across at the isthmus.
The almost uninterrupted alternation of sand-bars
in the wide alluvial plain of the Arkansa afford, as on
the Mississippi, great facilities to navigation, either in
propelling the boat by poles, or towing with the cor-
delle. As the bars or beaches advance, so they con-
tinually change the common level of the river, and
driving the current into the bend with augmenting
velocity, the curve becomes at length intersected, and
the sand barring up the entrances of the former bed
of the river, thus produces the lakes which we find in-
terspersed over the alluvial lands.
In the present state of the water, which is remark-
ably low, considering the rains which have fallen, it
is difficult to proceed with a large merchant boat more
than 18 or 20 miles a-day.