The Arkansas advocate., 1834-02-21

Neither of these ff;;iseS f;iseSes ii tiie opinion of
 those who best understand them, and who
 are most interested i'd their improvement,
 will admit of any ameleration. From 1t.
 Smith to Little RoekAfhe navigation is bet
 ter, though the shallow bars oasHuct it very
 much, and in two or three places the chan
 nel, when the waters arc low, Is very crook
 ed and narrow, being confined by gravel
 bars on one side. and lodges of rock on
 the other. II IS eeesssssssy t;y,# e.l.tflierate these difficulties here, as they pii sufficient 1 y appear on the map sud slsetches with
 which I shali aceonlpasls slss report. and
 are, besides, not tie i Kind of ohatrnctons
 to which my attention was particularly di-
 rected in your instructions. Improvements
 were. however slsaaeatel t .sa. ;;t ;;t ;,its sii
 two points, by intelligent individuals, which
 l have noted on the sketches for the infor-
 nation of the department.
 At Little Rock IS seen the last rock which
 IS visible upon the river. From that point
 to its moutk, the Ar'smsas runs entirely
 through all aliuVial country. From 60 to
 60 miles below Little Rock, the river Is
 touched, on the right, by s'ouf red clay bluffs,
 from 90 to 60 feet in height, covered in
 part with pines, and which bear Il striking resemblance to the tGlckasaw BfuAs' Of
 tie Mississippi. Fms part of the river
 has not in general more taaa oae~tiilssfd the
 breadth which exists ii places above. and the channel IS approximately deepef.- l fhe Arkansas in this feature resembles the
 Red river, the Mississippi, and other siflS-
 lar streams. Below Little Rock the couse
 of the river IS remarkably devions, eFen
 among the crooked streams Of the s1uth-
 west; numerous places appear where Hcut- oflsa have been formed, and a ieNlyears 5 must produce many others. The Iive does
 not, should imagine, exceed, in II aver
 age breadth, 250 Or 300 yards; tlieIcurYa-
 tafe Of the bends $ very great, and the 2oiats frequent. There are, towalds the upper part Of this section, seYerf sloal
 bars, which obsfruet the navigation paltic-
 ularly bar called .tDog F I ooti1 babb bb'' about
 four miles below Littie Rock, wien may
 possibly admit, at future day of some
 improvement, as is indicated on a.eteh No.
 --. About twenty-five niiei, by the
 course of the stream, s:hbofe ftie proper
 mouth Of the Arkansas, there iy channel
 leading from t to }Yh6e s,4 s.is-.,s, =. aiaAt ,s.ls IT 5f mouth, and which is usually 7esignated. b5
 tbe local name of s'The ldt-f5ii.o iD this
 cut-cr inc water flows hdi!fesently from
 the Arkansas to the Whie river, or iron the White river 10 inc Arkansas, as either
 happens to be the highest When steam
 boats can navigate tie Atkansas to Little
 Rock, they can always piss through thls
 opening, though at the veE lowest stages there Is occasionally not water enough iol keel boats, and in some Instances, thougl
 very rarely, the channel has been dry
 At present, the steam boats which navigate the Arkansas enter 1t fromthe Mississippi exclusively, by the mouth of White rver , and this cutoff; and though, as am Ill r formed, four or five steam boats have, a various tines, entered the Arkansas by 1t main channel, some of the best pilots oi
 the river have never seen the last p mic
 of it's course. This has arisen from tn
 fact, that the principal, and, indeed, for ma ; nv years, the only landing fer the Afkar !, sas has been on the Mississippi, at tn | mouth of White river. But the Arkansa : proper, below the cutoff, is fine, deep, ma l. yigabIe stream, with no obstruction wlnc !, : does not equally cucumber the latter; an \ IS an establishment IS now forming at I ? junction with the Mississippi, 1t cannot b z doubted that in future years It will be, : least, as much frequented as the cham \, which is nog exclusively used It appeal
 to me that the two entrances are equal 3f- entitled to the attention of the Goyermnen ,s Of the impediments to navigation, 1T which my attention was particularly callt ,e by the department, there do not exist. aa the part of the river which ] saw, any '.rafti sv which require removal, nor, as far as hc could learn, after diligent inquiries, Q er there any ss3etached nlasses of stone ,s honlders,'' which in any way impede |
 aassaee of beats, but of s'snags, sawyer ,e- cypress stamps, and sunken legs" the .ya s,,si, numbers as to render 1t Q matt P 5, or surnFise that more accidents have I nd nd occurred from them. Nothing but extsei .ha care. ereat skill, the most anxious attenli ,or m in running at night, and laying by altoge' sso CT when it was too dark to distinguish be, ects with tolerable clearness, could ha snd nrevented the most serious results. s;aa sl tween Little Rock and the mouth ot ar river, in particular, the snags are refnaf ,as - l.lv numerous. and in some places, at ,ery ,..r water. there is barely room for boa the pass between siiei'' '9 t.i e.a,,, e;, hem fifty having to be removed from sn , He'd bends. To designate particularly VI h. ' these distinctions occur, would be to ' 2 to tify individually nearly every mlie oi inc river. Where the stream flows throus outh layial flats, it may safely be asserted, n- wherever there is bend, there are i' are banks, and wherever there are falling D elow there are snags 10 De rehioNea iae. e