Excerpt from A Geological Reconnoisance of the Arkansas River
IN presenting myself before this body with a simple bird's-eye view of one of the greatest tributaries of the Father of Waters, I feel a diffidence, arising from the paucity of facts which have fallen under my notice, but I am urged to proceed, in consequence of the very limited and imperfect information which I had been able to ac quire from books, respecting this unknown region. Arkansas is a vast state, embracing within its borders a varied surface of different geological characters. It is usually the case, that wherever the peo ple are ignorant of the wealth beneath and around them, two classes are found, the one doubters, the other possessed of extravagant Opin ions respecting the fancied value of the mineralogical sources they possess. So I found it in this interesting region.
The Arkansas river is a much more important tributary than is generally imagined, rising amidst the Rocky Mountains, bringing the melted snows and rains, from Pike's Peak and the Spanish Peaks, in an elevated region which furnish streams that run in almost every direction, it receives meny tributaries of more or less consequence, as it sweeps through New Mexico and the Indian Territory, entering this State on its western border at Fort Smith, it passes diagonally toward the south-east, to its confluence with the Mississippi at N apo leon. During this progress it has run over a distance of 2500 miles The supply of atmospheric moisture in the Great Western Desert being'cut off by the height of the Rocky Mountains, we do not find the size of this stream commensurate with its length it is however, navigable during a portion of the year, for a distance of 700 miles by steamboats.
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