The Arkansas advocate., 1835-08-07

course to the Mississippi Is southeast, but l Il IS constantly every five or six miles de-
 scribng curves, and following the direction
 ot southwest and northeast. The channel
 Is thus alternately on the right and Jeff bank of the river. Sometimes an extensive san-
 dy beach viii project itself from the oppo-
 site shore, and jut so far into the channel as { to render il very difficult to get over with a
 boat drawing three feet. These beaches sometimes cover more than fifty acres of land, and are thrown up by the stream as 1t
 abrades the banks at the foot of which it runs. The banks being thus constantly
 undermined by the action ofthe river. m- 1meuse masses of timber, together with the loity canes. twenty to twenty-five feethigh, Ithat grow up with il, fall into fhe river with the earth about their roots, and thus at the same time form tue snags and sawyers which embarrass the stream, and point of resistance which gives a new direction to 1t. Sometimes, during the great ffeshets which descend from the upper country, the river not only breaks through the reaches of. land which iut out into the river, but ahsa-= iutely gets under the extensive sand beach, es, and lifting them up above the general level of the country, deposites them upon it. In this way, have observed considerable portions oi rich plantations, distant several hundred yards from the edge of the rIver, buried several feet deep beneath barren sand. At other times, the freshet brough!. the whole of the vegetation up from the ground for thirty or forty acres, and depo- slted It In mass, with all it's timber, upon some beach lower down. This IS the gen eral character of the Arkansas, as l have observed 1t for several hundred miles, and I have been told by those who have visited 1t nearer 10 It's sources, that i has in some places abraded the whole surface of the country for several miles in width. a
 "Ihose abrasions are more interesting 10 the geologlst than 10 the planter, for the fresh fracture enables him to trace for great distances the pafty-colored depostes, alter hating with each other, some white, some gray, and often lntermixed. Some parts of the banks are from one hundred to one hundred and thirty feet high, and assume an. important appearance in country where. much of the surrounding country is at al low dead level. About fifty miles below Little Rock the Red Pine bluffs occur, which the river is fast wearing down.
 Twenty miles lower down are similar bluffs of q lighter color, called the White bluffs, and about thirty miles lower down are the Pine bluffs, which are higher than the oth- 8ers. At the Red Pine bluffs, there is al bed of limestone, seen at low wafer, formed aof broken down oyster shells, like those in the Saline river. This is the only calca- reous deposite within my knowledge on the banks of the Arkansas east of Little Rock. except one afterwards saw in the high banks at the Post of Arkansas. They all present a fine study of fuviatile depostes, not only in the party-colofed seams of the old banks, but where they are at present tormlng on the surface of the country.
 "This immense river has its sources six or seven hundred miles apart. It's south ernmost branch, the south fork of the Ga nadiap, receives streams which rise pear the thirty-iourth degree of north latitude. its most noftherly source is from the Rocky Mountains, between 39 deg. and 40 deg. ;; and is most eastern sources, including the heads of the Yerdigris, Neosho, and Illi- nos, rise about 38 deg. north latitude, at least six hundred miles from the central and principal sources in the Rocky Noun taIns. The southernfnost sources flow through an ancient deposite of red argl- laceous matter for several hundred miles, and it IS this which colors the Canadian and its branches. The western and north- ern sources bring down mineral matter of different colors, but to the east the sources take their rise in a high siliceous country, and their mineral deposites are indicative of their origin. The branches Of the Ar kansas, included in this area, are .numer- ous; the Illinois, the Neosho, the Verdigris, the Canadian, aud its two principal trlbata- ries, are all fine rivers, and would belong to the class Of most important European streams. They are of unequal length, and, being separated by great geographical dis tances, are subject to increased their volume at distinct periods; and this volume, on ac- count oftheir unequal length, being eInptied Ut distinct times into the main channel of the Arkansas, the deposites which thls last leaves, in it's irregular progress 10 the Mis- slssippi, are characteristic ot the mineral substances which it's tributaries and their branches pass through. The Canadian, which passes through red earth, has al- ways dull red waters, like those of Red river, rising still further south. We are, hence, enabled to assign the red deposites to the materials transported by that stream, whilst the winter and silicious deposites may be attributed to the northern and east