Ancre River

“ It stands at one end of the town, surrounded by a huge, deep moat, which originally contained the waters of the Maine, now divided from it by a quay. The water-front of Angers is poor, - wanting in color and in movement; and there is always an effect of perversity in a town lying near a great river and, yet not upon it. The Loire is a few miles off; but Angers contents itself with a meagre affluent of that stream. The effect was naturally much better when the huge, dark mass of the castle, with its seventeen prodigious towers, rose out of the protecting flood. ”

“ On the march we perceived for the first time, to our left, at a distance of about 10 miles, the low sandy bluffs of the Arkansas river, partly wooded with cotton trees. The Little Arkansas, its tributary, was now a small, very fordable creek; but when swelled by rains it becomes a wild torrent, overflowing its steep banks, and the whole valley. The soil is sandy; grass rather indifferent. ”

“ The tract of land ceded to the Indians by the treaty above alluded to, is for the most part rocky and barren. Some of the tributaries of White river have extensive and fertile bottoms, but the greater part of the country watered by this river, is mountainous and unfit for cultivation. At MacNeil's ferry, where the road from Little Rock on the Arkansa to Davidsonville, in Lawrence county, crosses White river, the bottoms are wide, and as fertile as any of those on the Arkansa. ”

“ Of the valleys of the rivers last enumerated, viz. those north of the Arkansa and tributary to the Mississippi, it is observable that they are uniformly possessed of a rich soil, but owing to the excessive floods occasionally brought down through them from {217} the hills and mountains, their cultivation is very precarious. The valley of White river, and those of some few others, are in many places elevated above the reach of the highest freshets, and are not altogether subject to this inconvenience. ”

“ The Arkansa, below the great bend, becomes more serpentine than it is above, and very much obstructed by sand-bars and islands, either naked or clothed with a recent vegetation; they are but little elevated above the water, and are covered to some depth during the prevalence of floods in the river. At Belle Point, and some distance above, these islands almost wholly disappear, but the sandy shores still continue, and are, as above, alternately situated on either side of the river, as the stream approaches or recedes from the opposite river bottoms. The colour of the water was now olive green. ”

“ Thence the vast stream sweeps boldly into the south, and with a rush discharges down the rapids, and straight over the line of precipice, in a vast tumultuous greyish-drab torrent which speedily emerges into comparatively still water below. The rock here is an exceedingly hard, mottled limestone, resembling the stone at St. Andrew's Rapids on Red River. Where exposed it is pitted or bitten into by the endless action of wind and water, and lies in thick layers, forming an irregular dyke all along the shore, over the surface of which passes the portage, some forty yards in length. ”

“ The error has been, in some degree, corrected in Robinson's new map of Louisiana, lately published at Natchez, which may be esteemed the best map extant respecting that section of country. He calls it Pine river.
Black river is a large, deep, and gentle stream, composed of numerous auxiliaries, which draw their waters from the counties of Wayne, New Madrid, and Lawrence; the two former lying in Missouri Territory, and the latter in Arkansas. It is navigable with boats of the largest burden, at all seasons of the year, for more than one hundred miles. ”

“ The Arkansas River once a mighty stream, has held out with more success than the Republican against the winds and drifting sands, but it is slowly and certainly disappearing, burying itself in the sand and earth it carries down at flood times—a work in which it is assisted by the strong, persistent prairie winds. ”

“ As you approach the Arkansaw on this route within 15 or 20 miles, the country appears to be low and swampy; or the land is covered with ponds extending out from the river some distance. The river at the place where I struck it is nearly 500 yards wide, from bank to bank, those banks not more than four feet high, thinly covered with cottonwood. The north side is a swampy low prairie [Cheyenne Bottoms] , and the south a sandy sterile desert. Thence, about halfway to the mountains, the country continued with low prairie hills, and scarcely any streams putting into the river ”

“ Whenever land can be reclaimed for agriculture or grazing on the flanks of the mountains and in the protected valleys and parks, it is done, so that the district has extensive irrigation canals, in some parts diverting practically all the available flow of water in the streams. This is particularly the case with the Upper Arkansas River, such diversion of the headwaters 464 in Colorado having robbed the river of its water to such a degree that the people of Kansas, whither it flows on its route to the Mississippi, are greatly annoyed and have protracted litigation about it. ”

“ Anne's is a small village, and the rapids being impassable in low water they have built a lock to enable steamers to ascend; but fortunately, when we passed, there was sufficient water, and we steamed up the song-famed rapids, above which the river spreads out into the Lake of the Two Mountains. It is proposed to build a railway bridge for the main trunk line, just above the rapids. How utterly the whizzing, whistling kettle spoils the poetry of scenery, undeniable though its utility be! There is no doubt that the Lake of the Two Mountains has many great beauties ”

“ Ten miles out the trail crossed a river. It must have been the Canadian River, a tributary of the Arkansas, which it joins several hundred miles to the east. The surrounding country was desolation and solitude itself. Half prairie, half waste, almost desert, it was a country of new sensations. Just to the west, from horizon to horizon, stretched the gaunt and rugged Sangre de Cristo range, dark and threatening always in their aspect. Not a living thing was in sight, not even a suggestion of life. ”

“ The impetuous current of the Arkansas River, contracted at times to the breadth of some twenty or thirty yards, and penned into a space in which the waters boil and toss as if about to leap on and submerge the passing cars, roars wildly down below on our right at a depth varying as the line rises and falls. ”

“ Black river has its origin near the heads of the Gasconade and the Maramec, and is swelled in its course by the river Currents, Fourche à Thomas, Eleven-points, Spring and Strawberry rivers, and forms a junction with White river about forty miles below Poke Bayou, where the road to Arkansas and Red river crosses it. The banks of Black river, and of all its tributaries, afford rich alluvial land of more or less extent ”

“ For example, let us apply this method of dividing a stream to the White and Black Rivers in Arkansas. Starting from the head-waters of the Black River, we find the first center of economic interest at Black Rock, another on the White River at Newport, and a third at Clarendon. Now, the river might properly be broken at these points, forming four main sections. ”

“ Ten or twelve leagues above this brook is a creek, near which those Natchez retreated, who escaped being made slaves with the rest of their nation, when the Messrs. Perier extirpated them on the east side of the river, by order of the Court.
The Black River takes its rise to the north-west of its confluence, and pretty near the river of the Arkansas, into which falls a branch from this rise or source; by means of which we may have a communication from the one to the other with a middling carriage. ”

“ The Ancobra River empties itself here. Axim being at its mouth, this river would be very useful in helping to develop the interior of this part, were it not that the mouth was so shallow and dangerous, two obstacles that the science of the future will, I expect, remove. We are now passing some of the finest specimens of coast scenery it is possible to see. I can better describe it by comparing it somewhat to our North Devon and Cornwall coasts, such splendid rocks and headlands and land that I venture to say will eventually prove very valuable. ”

“ The Arkansas River at this point is about 300 yards wide, its waters are muddy, not quite so much so, as those of the Mississippi or Rio Bravo. Its valley is wooded and about two miles in width, the main bottom here, being on the east side. On the west it is a rolling prairie as far as the eye can see, affording excellent grass. ”

“ The rich black soil of the valley of this stream is noticeable.
"July 5. To a small stream thirty feet wide, two feet deep, clayey bottom, easily crossed by the wagons; prairie high, firm, and almost level for some thirteen miles, becoming more rolling and with small ponds in the last seven miles of the march; on the edge of some of the ponds are salt incrustations; camp on the river; water good; grass good; no wood, and the bois de vache is used for fuel.
"July 6. Country wet and marshy; not a tree in sight; prairie with low ridges and knolls, and great number of ponds and marshes ”

“ To hold that high level the main ditch, which is first taken out to serve the west side, crosses the Rio Grande on a high flume to Derry; curves high and winding about the wide farm lands of Garfield valley; is siphoned under the river for Hatch and Rodey, and then is siphoned once again to the east side, to break out in the sunlight for the use of Rincon Valley. Rough and crooked is made smooth and straight; safe bridge and easy grade, a modern highway follows up the valley, with a brave firefly twinkling by night, to join the great National Trail [Pg 76] at Engle Dam. ”

“ But the truth is that it forms a watercourse dependent at present upon floods, admitting of navigation for hundreds of miles at certain seasons, and at others being as dry as the Arno at Florence or the Manzanares at Madrid. By a series of dams and canals this river might be navigable all the year round. The same remark applies to several of its tributaries, and to rivers generally running toward the inland centres [Pg 236] and flowing into the Murray. The governments of the several colonies have long realized the importance and the necessity of a grand and comprehensive system of irrigation. ”

“ The River Earn, if it lacks the majesty of the Tay and the impetuosity of the Garry, makes itself recognised as the dominating feature, whether in its quiet meandering moods or in the flooded temper, overflowing its banks and spreading its deposit of alluvial soil. ”

“ I was glad to find that the channel of the river was full of water; and as there were fresh tracks of blacks near the river I supposed them to be in the neighbourhood, so to avoid them I returned up Archer Creek for about four miles to some fine young grass and encamped. The country we saw today has in many places a rich soil with grass and saltbush. It is wooded chiefly with myall and western-wood acacia. Near the channel of the river there are gumtrees, and on the banks of the river and Archer Creek there are box-trees. ”

“ Orange River water is always turbid, and the treacherous [Page 189] bottom was quite invisible; moreover, the ridge did not run straight, but zigzagged, and altogether the passage of this preliminary channel was by no means pleasant. Another foot of water would have rendered it perilous, two feet would have made it wellnigh impossible for the strongest swimmer, for the rapids immediately below lead to one of the side-falls.
Once across and we were on an island of sand and silt, split up into deep channels by past floods, and with plenty of big trees ”

“ The river Archer flows from the north-east, through a valley of great richness and beauty, and considered by the explorers to be the best country for cattle seen north of Broadsound. The banks of the river are fringed by a thick belt of vine-scrub, containing very many Leichhardt and other handsome trees and shrubs of great luxuriance and growth. ”

“ If, as is the case in Alaska, the same valleys have some of the characteristics of youth and some of maturity, a special explanation must be sought.
A second characteristic which results from the normal development of stream valleys is the accordance in grade between main and tributary streams. No matter how fast the main stream may be lowering its valley, even though it be a Colorado River, the side streams, including even weak tributaries, lower their mouths at approximately the same rate that the main stream deepens its valley. ”

“ The Nile never flows over the top of the dam, but always through the gates and the canal at one side. When the gates are closed during the dry season, enough water is held back by this structure of steel and granite to form a [133] lake over one hundred miles long, and this is let out as needed to supplement the ordinary flow of the river and give the crops plenty of water all summer through. There is water enough in the reservoir to give all the families of the United States all they could use for four or five months, and enough to supply Great Britain and Ireland the entire year. ”

“ The valley of Red river abounds in limestone, often presenting the shells of oysters and other molluscous animals in a state of petrifaction, scattered in profusion over the surface of the ground, and retaining their original form entire, while on the Arkansa, the rocks are generally sandstone, no limestone being found, except of the Illinois, Grand, and Canadian rivers. ”