Note IV-3 — Chapter IV · PIKE'S DISSERTATION ON LOUISIANA.[IV-1]

The river which the Expedition crossed was of course the Neosho, which Wilkinson was correct in stating to fall into the Arkansaw a short distance below the Vermilion or Verdigris—"a quarter of a mile," his Report says. Pike's wrong conclusion is not here animadverted upon, as it has been set right before; but I wish to note that the "White river of the Mississippi" has given rise to much confusion, from the very simple circumstance that it is a branch both of the Mississippi and of the Arkansaw. It runs into the very crotch between these two, and has a sort of a delta of its own, as well as a double debouchment. Various maps consulted on this point, as I have never been on the spot, differ in that some run White r. into the Arkansaw, some into the Mississippi, and some into both these rivers. The latter seems to be the present arrangement; but this may have repeatedly altered in former times.