Black River

“ Black River is a clear, sparkling trout stream at the bottom of a deep, rugged box canyon, cut through a lava bed and forming a series of wildly picturesque views. The sides of Black River Canyon and its small tributaries are well forested. On the cool northerly slope the forest is made up of a heavy growth of pines, firs, aspens and alder bushes, which give way on the southerly slope, where the full force of the sun is felt, to a thin growth of pines, grass and a little underbrush. ”

“ The pulse of the drum was fitful, growing more distinct as we advanced. We struggled through jungle-thick growth; tangled vines tripped us; our boots sank in scummy mire. We were entering the fringe of the swamp which grew deeper and denser until it culminated in the uninhabitable morass where the Tularoosa flowed into Black River, miles farther to the west. ”

“ 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 ”

“ To the west is Black River Point, with its rocky promontories, and on the north stretches out an unbroken expanse of water, with here and there the long black trail of a steamer floating in the air, its wake like a white line upon the water ”

“ Whether any course of this kind operates to supply the unusual profusion of water with which this hilly tract is irrigated, must be for others to decide. The fact is an established one.
Black river originates in an elevated part of the Ozark mountains, between 37° and 38° north latitude, and between 90° and 91° west longitude. From the same tract descend, on the north, the waters of the Merameg; on the north-east, those of Big river; [27] on the east and south, those of the St. Francis and Black river; and on the west, those of the Osage and the Gasconade. ”

“ In the muddy water-holes of the great, intermittently-flowing rivers of Northern Australia, we have seen aborigines successfully chase the finny denizens of the deep pools, and bring them otter-like to the shore in their white-toothed jaws. And many a hunted black has saved himself from the cruel rifle of squatter invaders of his native land by pretending to fall as if shot into a river or water-hole, and remaining, apparently, at the bottom. ”

“ But in summer, when, freed from snow, the higher range limned ghostly out of the purple-gray distance and drouth shrunk the river, the Black Rock peaked to a height of thirty feet and caused the water to drop into a great whirlpool, not far from the Red Village, where it blossomed like a gigantic waxen flower.
Too, it is in summer that the khirli fish, obeying their ancient tribal customs, come from their spawning, and when they return down the River of Hate on their way to the Persian Gulf, they are tired and weary with the many miles. ”

“ In the darkness that foreruns dawn I crossed Nigger Head Creek, a streak of shining black fringed by walls of solid shadows. My horse's hoofs splashed through the shallow water and clinked on the wet stones, startlingly loud in the stillness. Beyond Nigger Head Creek began the country men called Canaan.
Heading in the same swamp, miles to the north, that gives birth to Tularoosa, Nigger Head flows due south to join Black River a few miles west of Sharpsville, while the Tularoosa runs westward to meet the same river at a higher point. The trend of Black River is from northwest to southeast ”

“ It is the sunset hour, and before us, far up in the upper air, and companion of the evening star, and a host of glowing clouds, rises the majestic form of Black Mountain, enveloped in a mantle of rosy atmosphere. The bosom of the lake is without a ripple, and every cliff, ravine and island has its counterpart in the pure waters. ”

“ This river rises on the Black Mountain, is a charming tributary of the French Broad, from five to twenty yards in width, cold and clear, very rapid, and throughout its entire length is overshaded by a most luxuriant growth of graceful and sweet-scented trees and vines. The plantations on this stream are highly cultivated, the surrounding scenery is mountainous, graceful, and picturesque, and among the small but numerous waterfalls which make the first half of its course exceedingly romantic, may be enjoyed the finest of trout fishing. ”

“ The Black Hills occupy a rectangular realm which is roughly one hundred miles long, north to south, and fifty miles across its east-west 4 axis. The White River Badlands, which are customarily visited on any Black Hills trip, form a depression in the high prairies some forty miles long and fifteen miles across the widest part. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the stirring days of the Riel Rebellion were over, there came the rush of immigration, which startled the quiet solitudes of the Red River prairies. It was to Mr. Black, as to the older people of the country, a time of change, but the religious needs of the new settlements were well looked after, and the movement begun of the mission advance, which has been so notable a feature of the Presbyterian cause in the Northwest, and has led to the Church, which John Black came to the west to found, becoming much the largest and most influential body of the prairies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As to the truth of an assertion, that is a point which never enters into negro consideration.
The two ringleaders of the proposed rebellion have been condemned at Black River, the one to be hanged, the other to transportation. The plot was discovered by the overseer of Lyndhurst Penn (a Frenchman from St. Domingo) observing an uncommon concourse of stranger negroes to a child’s funeral, on which occasion a hog was roasted by the father. He stole softly down to the feasting hut, and listened behind a hedge to the conversation of the supposed mourners ”

“ The Black Warrior River winds slowly among the rolling southern foothills. On the banks of this river many centuries ago there flourished a great Indian metropolis. Here dwelt a pleasant and contented people whose story is not of warring braves but of peaceful artisans. ”

“ Marcus asked me to go round the bank with him, and after thinking it well over I have concluded to throw out three of my fields and make up a straight bank from the upland down to the Black River, a distance of half a mile, high, wide, and strong enough to act as a river bank, and resist the rushing water which comes with immense force in the Black River, for it is the deepest stream in this section, in many places 60 or 70 feet deep. ”

“ In its lower course, where it is generally called the Black River, it is connected with the Mississippi by a large network of bayous, the most important of which is the Tensas. The river flows through a rich corn and cotton region, is navigable for large river steamers 300 miles to Camden, Ark., and for smaller steamers to Arkadelphia, 70 miles farther. ”

“ Down at their feet, near the shore, a dusky line of huts and houses was scarcely visible, and over these lay a pale blue film of peat-smoke that did not move in the still air. Then they saw the bay into which the White Water runs, and they could trace the yellow glimmer of the river stretching into the island through a level valley of bog and morass. Far away, toward the East, lay the bulk of the island—dark green undulations of moorland and pasture; and there, in the darkness, the gable of one white house had caught the clear light of the sky, and was gleaming Westward like a star. ”

“ Myriads of voracious insects ate up every green thing, and heaps of their dead, decaying and putrid, filled the air with disgusting odors.
Sympathy in Britain and America was awakened for the people left without food in Red River Settlement. The Hudson's Bay Company gave £6,000 stg. to relieve the distress, and Canada sent her quota. Mr. John Black, as a member of the Relief Executive, took an active part in relieving the distress, and was in his element in comforting the discouraged and the suffering. ”

“ Black was identified with every moral movement in Red River Settlement. Coming as he did to people who had had for forty years an unfortunate religious experience, he had naturally to take a firm stand against evil of every kind. The Highland ideal of church discipline is very high, and Mr. Black seemed equally solicitous with his people to suppress aggravated forms of sin. It would neither be interesting nor expedient to detail the session cases which came up as the years rolled on. ”

“ But was not this a fine, fair scene that Miss Gertrude White saw around her when they came in sight of the river and Erith pier?—the flashes of blue on the water, the white-sailed yachts, the russet-sailed barges, and the sunshine shining all along the thin line of the Essex shore. ”

“ They were well up toward the Black Hills, in a country broken with forest, hill and prairie, and interspersed with streams of every size, from the rivulet and foaming cañon to the broad, serenely-flowing river.
They were in a region infested with grizzly bears and the [17] fiercest of wild animals, and above all with the daring and treacherous Blackfeet—those dreaded red-skins of the North-West, with whom the hunters and trappers are compelled to wage unceasing warfare, and who are more feared than any tribe that the white men encounter. ”

“ We shall see." His return to Red River on this occasion was one that even he confessed to be "tedious and toilsome." He actually took forty-nine days to reach his destination, starting from Galena, on the Mississippi river. On his northward journey he reached the establishment of the Presbyterian missionaries at Red Lake, in Minnesota. Supplied by these kind friends with pemican, bread, and flour, Mr. Black and his voyageur, about the end of October, pushed through Red Lake in their birch bark canoe, the missionary having to paddle as well as the boatman. ”

“ CUTBANK RIVER. A GOOD TROUT RIFFLE July 27.
Last night, in Black Bull’s lodge, we had more tales of the long ago in this Cutbank Valley. Would that I had the time to collect all the [Pg 85] Blackfeet legends of the various places in their once enormous domain. From the Saskatchewan to the Yellowstone, and from the Rockies between these two streams, eastward for about three hundred miles, there are tales of adventure, of camp-life, and wonderful legends, for every mountain, stream, butte, and spring within that great area. ”

“ Still, like an ever-flowing river, running through a sandy region that drinks in but part of its waters, there is a stream of raw mineral wealth flowing without bar or break through the absorbing district that produces it, and watering distant counties of England. ”

“ Lying in the extreme western end of present-day South Dakota, the Black Hills were two hundred miles west of the settlements around Pierre, on the Missouri River, and two hundred miles north of the towns along the North Platte, the valley of the Oregon-California Trail. The most important reason, though, for its belated opening was that gold was not discovered in the Black Hills 3 until 1874, and it was the discovery of gold in various sections which more than any other single set of circumstances dictated the pattern of the development of the trans-Mississippi West. ”

“ If the alluvial lands on the Mississippi River were protected from overflow and brought into a condition where they could be cultivated they would afford all the homes, and of the best character, that the negroes could possibly want in the South, and the natural tendency is to come to just such lands. ”

“ In pursuing their trail from this point to the Wisconsin, many were found literally starved to death. They were compelled to live upon roots, the bark of trees and horse flesh. A party of Black Hawk's band, including many women and children, now attempted to descend the Wisconsin upon rafts and in canoes, that they might escape, by recrossing the Mississippi. They were attacked however, in their descent, by troops stationed on the bank of the river, and some were killed, others drowned, a few taken prisoners, and the remainder, escaping to the woods, perished from hunger. ”

“ Mary’s Lakes in October, 1882, in company with Charles Phemmister, James Rutherford, Charles Carter, and Oliver Sanderville, all old plainsmen, good company, and best of hunters. We outfitted for the trip at the Old Agency, on Badger Creek, Blackfeet Reservation, and started northward. There was no trail after leaving the crossing of Little or Milk River, and we struck up country toward the big gap in the mountains, in which we knew the lakes must lie, and that evening camped on the shore of a large prairie lake that was black with ducks. ”

“ The Black Creek, rising to the south-west of Stevensville, runs in a general north-easterly direction, and empties itself into the Niagara River, about eight miles from Fort Erie, at the village which takes its name from the stream. It is very sluggish, running through a marsh for a portion of its course, and for two or three miles from its mouth appears quite deep and unfordable. ”