Volume 17 / Part 4 — {148} CHAPTER II {X}[33] Hot Springs of the Washita—Granite of the Cove—Saline River

{148} CHAPTER II {X}[33] Hot Springs of the Washita—Granite of the Cove—Saline River

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, based upon a compact hard sandstone, and bearing forests of oak, and another resting upon a white petrosiliceous rock, with fragments of which it is much intermixed. This latter is often covered {149} with pine forests. The most common species, yellow pine (P. resinosa,) attains unusual magnitude. The rigida, and some other species occur, but are not frequent. We also observed several species of vaucinum, the mitchella, the kalmia latifolia, hamamelis virginica? cunila mariana, and many other plants common to this region and the Alleghany mountains.

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 some varieties of hornstone. Its fracture is a little splintery, and sometimes largely conchoidal; it is of a close texture, but the recent surface is generally destitute of lustre. It is this rock which affords the stones called Washita oilstones. It may, with propriety, be denominated petrosilex. This name is, however, to be understood as having the application given it by Kirwan,[34] who uses it to designate the fusible varieties of the hornstone of {150} Werner, and not the several varieties of compact felspar to which it has been sometimes applied. In passing from the hot springs, north-east to the lead-mine country, about the sources of the Merimeg, this rock is found to be intimately connected, and to pass by minute and imperceptible gradations, into the flint rock of that district, which is decidedly secondary, and of contemporaneous origin with the compact limestone which it accompanies. About the hot springs it is not distinctly stratified, but occurs in very extensive masses, sometimes forming the body of large hills, and is marked by perpendicular seams and fissures, often placed very near each other.

The hot springs of the Washita are in north latitude 34° 31´, and west longitude 92° 50´ 45˝,[35] near the base of the south-eastern slope of the Ozark mountains, and six miles north of the Washita. They have been erroneously represented as the principal sources of that river, which are more than one hundred miles distant.[36]

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.[37]

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 by Dr. Mitchell.[38] They have been subsequently examined by Major Long, in January 1818, from whose notes we derive much of the information we have to communicate respecting them. They are about seventy in number, occupying situations at the bottom and along one side of a narrow ravine, separating two considerable hills of clay-slate. A small creek enters the ravine from the north by two branches, one from the north-west, and the other from the north-east, flowing after their union nearly due south, and blending with the water of the springs, increasing rapidly in size, and acquiring so high a temperature, that at the time of our visit the hand could not be borne immersed in it. After traversing from north to south the narrow valley containing the springs, this creek meanders away to the south-east, and enters the Washita at the distance of eight or ten miles. All the springs are within a distance of six hundred yards below the junction of the two brooks, and all, except one, on the east side of the creek.

We subjoin a note, containing some particulars observed by Major Long at the time of his visit in 1818.[39]

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 rock formation of considerable extent. This rock appears to consist of flint, lime, and a little oxide of iron. It is often of a porous or vascular texture, and the amygdaloidal cavities are sometimes empty and sometimes contain very delicate stalactites. Hæmatitic iron ore occurs disseminated in every part. Also extensive caverns, sometimes filled with a bright red metallic oxide. Dr. Wilson, who has been some time resident at the springs, informed us, that the continued use of the water occasions salivation, from which it has been commonly inferred that mercury exists in the water in solution.[40]

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.[41]

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 afterwards a discontented invalid, residing at the hot springs, came to a resolution of putting a period to his own life. This he concluded to bring about by drinking the water of the poison spring. He accordingly repaired to it, and after drinking as much as he could, filled his bottle, and returned home. Instead of dying, as he had expected, he found himself greatly benefited by his potation. Notwithstanding this discovery of the sanative quality of the water the spring still retained its former name. It is however used without apprehension, and is much resorted to by people who visit the warm springs.

{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 another species of ilex (I. cassine), the celebrated cassine naupon frequent about the springs, are there used as a substitute for tea. The angelica tree (aralia spinosa, Ph.) is common along the banks of the creek, rising to the height of twelve to fifteen feet, and bending beneath its heavy clusters of purple fruit. The pteris atropurpurea, asplenium melanoraulon, A. ebeneum, and other filices are found adhering to the rocks. In the open pine woods the germandia pectinata, considered as a variety of G. pedicularia, is one of the most conspicuous objects.

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.[42] The principal source of the Washita is said to be very near that of the Fourche Le Fevre, and to descend towards the west from the same hill, out of which flow the upper branches of the Le Fevre towards the east. These particulars are, however, of little importance, except as serving to illustrate the character of that portion of the country. The whole of that region is strictly mountainous, and its numerous streams are rapid and circuitous, winding their way among abrupt and craggy hills, so thinly covered with pine and post oak, that the sober gray of the sandstone is often the prevailing colour of the landscape. The hills, at the sources of the Poteau and the Kiamesha, abound in clay-slate, and a slaty petrosilex destitute of organic remains.[43] It is remarked by hunters, that the most remote and elevated sources of all the rivers of this region are joined in or near extensive woodless plains. As far as this is the case, it would seem to prove that the existing inequalities of the surface have been produced almost entirely by the currents of water wearing down and removing extensive portions of the horizontally stratified rocks. In districts where secondary rocks only are found, as in the country of the Ohio, there appears little difficulty in attributing this origin to all the hills; and even in the mountainous district under consideration, as the most recent rocks, and those of horizontal stratification, occupy the highest portions of the hills, we may perhaps be allowed to suppose they formerly covered a much greater extent of country than at present, overlaying those strata of more ancient deposition, which now appear upon the declivities of the mountains. It cannot escape {156} the remark of any person who shall visit the range of country, which we call the Ozark mountains, that the direction of the ridges, (particularly of those where sandstone is the prevailing rock,) conforms to the course of the principal streams.

None of the tributaries to the Washita, above the hot springs, have hitherto been explored. The Little Missouri and the Fourche-au-Cadeau, enter it in succession from the west, in the course of a considerable bend which it makes to the south, after receiving the waters of Hot Spring creek.[44] These two streams run mostly in a mountainous country, though some fertile lands and some settlements occur on each. On the Little Missouri, Hunter and Dunbar found the maclura, a tree confined to fertile soils. The first considerable stream entering the Washita from the north is the Saline, rising in three principal branches, twenty or thirty miles north-west of the hot springs. The road from Derdonai to the springs crosses these streams near their sources, in an extremely rugged and mountainous region. The Saline, like the Washita itself in this part, and the other tributaries already enumerated, is liable to great and sudden floods, and also to great depression in seasons of drought. Originating in a mountainous tract, and in the continuation of the range so profusely supplied with springs in the country about the sources of White river, we might expect that the Washita would be fed by numerous and unfailing fountains. It appears, however, to derive the greater part of its supplies from the water of rains, and consequently to rise and fall according to the time of year and the state of the weather. Where Major Long crossed the Washita, on the 31st December 1817, six miles south-west of the hot springs, the river was one hundred and fifty yards wide, about four feet deep, and extremely rapid.

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 Little Rock, on the Arkansa, commences a tract of land, having a fertile soil and a beautiful situation, and extending to the Washita. Some parts of this region afford exceptions to the remark generally applicable to Arkansa territory, that the best soils are found in the alluvion of the rivers. Some extensive districts of primary soil along the base of the mountains are of a quality rarely surpassed in fertility, bearing heavy forests of oak, ash, and sugar maple, which attain here to greater size than we have seen in other parts of the United States.

We arrived about sunset on the 28th at Keisler's plantation,[45] where we made application for permission to spend the night. This was readily granted, though, as is often the case in such remote and solitary habitations, the house was not in the most complete {158} readiness for the accommodation of travellers. A quantity of Indian corn was immediately gathered in the adjoining field, a part of it given to our horses, and a part prepared for our own supper. During the green-corn season, which is a time of jubilee and rejoicing among the agricultural Indians, and scarcely less so with many of the white settlers, those who live remote from corn mills use no other bread than such as we now saw prepared, within the space of an hour, from the standing corn. Such ears are selected as are fit for roasting, and the corn grated from the cob by means of the side of a tin lanthorn, or some portion of an old coffee-pot, perforated with several holes. In this state it forms a soft paste, which, with the addition of a little salt, is spread upon a heated stone or an iron pan, and baked before the fire. Our supper consisted of bread of this sort, bear's meat, and coffee—a treat worthy the attention of an epicure.

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.[46] This valley is bounded towards the west by loamy hills, disclosing at intervals cliffs and ledges of clay-slate and petrosilex. In the lowest part of this valley, at a place called Roark's settlement, we discovered a bed of granite forming the basis of a broad hill, which rose by a very gradual ascent towards the east. We were directed to the examination which brought us acquainted with the existence of this rock by the representation of Roark, that in his corn field, not far from the house, was a bed of plaister of Paris. Being conducted to the spot, we found a quantity of loose granitic soil, that had been raised from a shallow excavation, and was intermixed with numerous large scales of talc. The examination had been carried a few feet below the surface, and had terminated upon the granite in question. Having collected {159} several beautiful masses of an aggregate of felspar, talc and quartz, we returned to the house where our breakfast was in preparation. Being informed by our landlord that blue vitriol, native copper, and other interesting minerals, had been formerly discovered near the sources of the little brook that ran past the house, we delayed our journey some time, that we might continue our examination. In following the brook towards its sources, we were much gratified in finding an extensive bed of native magnet, which seemed to be embraced in the granite. Not far distant the same rock contained large masses of pyrites and of bluish green mica. In these we readily perceived the blue vitriol and native copper mentioned by our host. In some places we found the bed of the brook paved almost exclusively with detached schorls. We collected also several other interesting imbedded minerals. More extensive examinations will hereafter show this spot to be one among the most interesting in America to a mineralogist. The great depth of soil resting upon this formation of granite prevented our examining it at as many points as we could wish; also from ascertaining to our satisfaction its extent, and its connexion with the neighbouring rocks. It appears, however, at several points in an area of fifteen or twenty acres, and always in place. We saw not a single detached mass at any distance. This may be owing in part to the perishable structure of the granite, and in part to its being surrounded on all sides by more elevated rocks of slate or sandstone. On the summit of the hill a grave had recently been dug. In the granitic soil which lay about it we saw many fragments of pyrites, also uncommonly large and beautiful laminæ of talc intermixed with scales of mica. These two minerals are, we think, rarely found in such intimate connexion, yet retaining so perfectly their distinctive characters, as in the instance under consideration. The talc in some instances forms an integrant part of the granite, and {160} we have seen it blended with mica in the same specimen.

The road, leading towards the Little Rock on the Arkansa, passes from the granite of the Cove over a coarse hard sandstone, embracing beds of conglomeratic or puddingstone, and in many respects closely resembling some of the varieties of the old red sandstone of the Alleghany mountains. Towards the east the surface of the country rises gradually, and the sandstone, without giving place to any other stratum, becomes more micaceous and slaty, and at length assumes all the characters of a sandstone accompanying coal.

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 the path. On arriving at {161} the spot we found two buck deer, their horns fast interlocked with each other, and both much spent with fatigue, one, in particular, being so much exhausted as to be unable to stand. As we perceived it would be impossible they should extricate themselves, and must either linger in their present situation until they died of hunger, or were destroyed by the wolves, we despatched them with our knives, not without having first made an unavailing attempt to disentangle their antlers. Leaving their bodies in the place where we had killed them, we called at the cabin of a settler, which we found within a few miles, and requested him to go back and fetch the venison for the use of his family.

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 mountains, which, in the northern part of Louisiana, divides the broad alluvial valley of Red river from that of the Mississippi. About twenty miles south-west from the confluence of the Tensa, Washita, and Ocatahoola, {162} the latter expands into a considerable lake, and sends off a branch to Red river. Indeed the Washita might, without great impropriety, be considered as entering the Mississippi at the point where its waters unite with those of the Ocatahoola and Tensa. The periodical inundations cover the country westward to this point, and even in times of low water the channels communicating with the Mississippi are numerous. From this point there is an uninterrupted connexion, through a system of lakes and watercourses, stretching along parallel to the Mississippi, about thirty miles distant, and communicating, through the river and lake Atchafalaya, with the gulf of Mexico, at a point more than one hundred and fifty miles west of the principal debouchure of the Mississippi.[47]

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