Creeks

“ The path that has charmed and wooed, becomes uncertain, treacherous, gloomy, and engulfing. Creeks become [Pg 68] rivers, rivers impassable torrents, and marshes bottomless abysses. Pits of quicksand develop in most unexpected places. Driven from smooth lake margins, the trailers' ponies are forced to climb ledges of rock, and to rattle over long slides of shale. ”

“ After breakfast started over a fine flat, well wooded with box, myall, gum, with numbers of small creeks running into it; water in many of them. We went on our course 305° for eleven miles, and crossed a fine creek going to the north; then changed our course five points, and crossed one spinifex ridge on to a splendid open flat with beautiful grass, high ranges to the east, and camped on the first creek, with abundance of water in it. ”

“ Beautiful grass, plenty of water in the lower part of the creek, and useful timber, unite to recommend this locality for such a purpose. The creeks to the east and south-east are also equally adapted for cattle stations. After passing a stony ridge covered with spotted-gum, from which the remarkable features of the country around us--the flat-topped mountain wall, the isolated pillars, the immense heaps of ruins towering over the summits of the mountains--were visible, we descended a slope of silver-leaved Ironbark, and came to a chain of water-holes falling to the east. ”

“ Instance the above-named Creeks, of whom, according to Schoolcraft, "a large portion of the old and middle-aged men, by frequently changing, have had many different wives, and their children, scattered around the country, are unknown to them." ”

“ Every brook and every creek is made up of water that falls near it, and rivers are made of the water poured into them by brooks and creeks. A river and all the streams that carry their water into it make a river system, and the land from which they drain the water is called the river basin. ”

“ These creeks, with the canals and ditches dependent on them, complete the water-system alike of irrigation and traffic throughout this wonderful land, where nature has done so much, and art and skill yet more. ”

“ Along the river on the south, is a low land covered with rushes, and high nettles, and near the mouths of the creeks, supplied with oak, ash, and walnut timber. On the north the land is rich and well situated. We made seventeen and a half miles this day. The river is falling slowly. We continued our route the next morning early: a small creek called Lead creek, on the south; another on the north, known to the French by the name of Little Good Woman's creek, and again Big Rock creek on the south were the only streams we passed this morning. ”

“ After leaving the river, we kept our old course due north, crossing, at a distance of one mile, three creeks with gum trees on their banks. The soil of the flats through which they flow is a red loam of fair quality and well grassed. Beyond the third creek is a large plain, parts of which are very stony, and this is bounded towards the east by a low stony rise, partly composed of decayed and honeycombed quartz rock in situ, and partly of waterworn pebbles and other alluvial deposits. ”

“ The creeks, some of considerable length and breadth, extend many miles inland, and are arteries whence branches out a fibrous tissue of smaller channels, flushed with water twice in the twenty-four hours. ”

“ I was too unwell to move yesterday, but, feeling a little better this morning, I rode down the creek. For three miles it takes a south-east course, then east-south-east through table land, with rocky and precipitous hills on each side. I then went on a south-east course for nine miles, through a splendidly-grassed country, with numerous small creeks running into the Stevenson. During my ride I found plenty of water, and splendid grass, up to the saddle-flaps, and quite green. Ducks and numerous other birds abound here; the water is quite alive with them. ”

“ Our hands are very bad from being torn by the scrub, and the flies are a perfect torment. Indications of scurvy are beginning to show themselves upon us. Wind west; cool night.
Thursday 12th April, The Hugh. Started for the bluff. At eight miles we again struck the creek coming from the west, and several other gum creeks coming from the range and joining it. We have now entered the lower hills of the range. Again have we travelled through a splendid country for grass, but as we approached the creek it became a little stony. At twelve miles we found a number of springs in the range. ”

“ At the end of this distance, six and three-quarter miles, two creeks again full in view, one apparently on bearing 9 degrees, passing above and below a small table-topped hill, the other on bearing of 40 degrees, which I suppose I must follow till I can cross. For five miles passing stony slopes towards the creek and a vast abundance of vine with large yellow blossoms, the fruit being contained in a leafy pod; that fruit when ripe contains three or four black seeds as large as a good-sized pea. I must try them cooked as I find the emu tracks very abundant where the vine is most plentiful. ”

“ In the wet season, and when the great rains of the southern sky are falling upon the earth, the whole surface of this marsh appears a vast lake. It is interspersed here and there with large islands and knolls of rich land, one of which, the largest island, situated in the centre of the lake, the present generation of Creeks represent to be a most blissful spot of earth. ”

“ Surface, rolling and in places hilly; soil, clay and loam, mixed with sand. In the forks of the creeks, sand predominates. On the west and north-west, inclined to clay.
Jefferson.—Watered by the Ohio river, Indian, Kentucky and Big creeks. Surface various; along the river and creeks, low alluvion; soil, loam mixed with sand. The bottoms are bounded by precipitous bluffs, with towering cliffs of limestone. The table lands are undulating, and the soil inclined to clay. Timber various. Abounds with limestone, masses of freestone, and scattered granite bowlders. ”

“ For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main. ”

“ I have tryed it by way of experiment & find it moderately pergative, but painfull to the intestens in it's opperation. this creek runs directly towards some low mountains which lye N. W. of it and appear to be about 30 mes. distant, perhaps it heads in them. This range of mountains appear to be about 70 miles long runing from E to W. having their Eastern extremity about 30 mes. distant in a northwardly direction from pot Island.—also passed two small creeks on Lard. and two others on Stard. all inconsiderable and dry at their entrances. just above the entrance of Teapot Creek on the stard. ”

“ If not, shall a temporary boundary be marked making the Oconee the line, and the other parts of the treaty be concluded? In this case shall a secure port be stipulated and the pecuniary and honorary considerations granted? In other general objects shall the treaties formed at Hopewell with the Cherokees, Chickesaws, and Choctaws be the basis of a treaty with the Creeks?
"Seventh. Shall the sum of $20,000 appropriated to Indian expenses and treaties be wholly applied, if necessary, to a treaty with the Creeks? If not, what proportion?" ”

“ The aborigines, who seemed to have reached a stage of civilization somewhat similar to that of the Aztecs, were conquered and exterminated or absorbed by Creeks about the middle of the 18th century. There was a strong demand for the removal of these Creek Indians, known as Seminoles, and by treaties at Payne’s Landing in 1832 and Fort Gibson in 1833 the Indian chiefs agreed to exchange their Florida lands for equal territory in the western part of the United States. ”

“ Over the little creek which dashes far adown from pine-dressed mountain peaks, and trails its shining waters through the flowering land, is built another structure—of logs, strongly and carefully erected, and thatched by a master hand with bark and grass. ”

“ Within a glade that sloped into the bank
Of that wild mountain Creek — midway within,
In partial record of a terrible hour
Of human agony and loss extreme,
Four grassy mounds stretched lengthwise side by side,
Startled the wanderer; — four long grassy mounds
Bestrewn with leaves, and withered spraylets, stript
By the loud wintry wing gales that roamed
Those solitudes, from the old trees which there
Moaned the same leafy dirges that had caught
The heed of dying Ages: these were all;
And thence the place was long by travellers called
The Creek of the Four Graves. ”

“ The creek is very clear and beautiful, gliding through tangles of shrubs and flower beds, gay bee and butterfly pastures, the grove’s own stream, pure Sequoia water, flowing all the year, every drop filtered through moss and leaves and the myriad spongy rootlets of the giant trees. One of the most interesting features of the grove is a small waterfall with a flowery, ferny, clear brimming pool at the foot of it. How cheerily it sings the songs of the wilderness, and how sweet its tones! ”

“ There was an elevated expanse, smooth and fertile, raised many feet above the level of the stream. An undulating prairie, covered with waving grass and flowers, spread far away for leagues toward the north and the west, bordered, in the distance, by forest-covered hills. The river flowed placidly upon the east, entering into the long and wide bay upon the south. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the prairie, waving in the richest bloom of flowers of every variety of tint. ”

“ After successfully negotiating the channels we went up the creek leading to the lake, a lovely creek, fringed with bush, and with flax, tree-fern, and clumps of pampas grass growing in and on the edge of the water. Rugged ratas flung their misshapen branches out against the sky to be reflected in the water as in a mirror, and their scarlet flowers made grateful dashes of colour in the gloomy setting of the forest picture. ”

“ The creek runs winding between two steep hills, and ends in a chain of ponds that extends into a fertile valley of great beauty. For half a mile above the head of the creek, the valley is contracted and narrow; but the soil is extremely rich, and the fields are well covered with grass. Beyond this it suddenly expands, and becomes broad and flat at the bottom, whence arise long grassy slopes, that by a gentle but increasing ascent continue to mount the hills on each side, until they are hidden from the view by the woods of large timber which overhang their summits. ”

“ CREEK (Mid. Eng. crike or creke, common to many N. European languages) , a small inlet on a low coast, an inlet in a river formed by the mouth of a small stream, a shallow narrow harbour for small vessels. In America and Australia especially there are many long streams which can be everywhere forded and sometimes dry up, and are navigable only at their tidal estuaries, mere brooks in width which are of great economic importance. They form complete river-systems, and are the only supply of surface water over many thousand square miles. ”

“ We are rowed on the beautiful river every day that it is warm enough—a very winding river not much broader than your favourite creek—flowing sometimes through level meadows, sometimes round rocky promontories & steep wooded hills which, with their wonderful autumn tints, are like a gay flower border mirrored in the water. ”

“ Where that little creek runs singing over its mossy bed, and the cedar-boughs bend down so thick and close that only a gleam of the bright water can be seen, even in the sunlight, there the fireflies crowd, and the damp foliage is all alive with their dazzling light. ”

“ Imagine, if you please, the forest primeval; yes, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks of the poem as well, by the side of a rapidly rushing mountain torrent fed by the eternal snows of the lofty peaks of the great range. A level stretch of grassy land where a mountain brook joined the creek was dotted with clumps of pines and great boulders rolled down from the everlasting hills—half an acre of open clearing. On the opposite side of the brook the cañon wall rose almost sheer for perhaps five hundred feet, ending in jagged, needle-edged pinnacles of rock, sharp, picturesque and beautiful. ”

“ At a short distance we crossed a small creek which issues from a spring of water. The prairie is now very fertile, interspersed with pleasing groves of oak, and swelling, on either hand, and in the distance, into remarkable pyramidal and conical hills, of which the summits are rocky. The spice-wood (laurus benzoin) and the pecan (carya olivæformis) first occurred to-day. Our distance, twelve miles.
[115] CHAPTER XIV [VIII] 128 Verdigrise River—Mr. Glenn's Trading-house—New Species of Lizard—Neosho or Grand River—Salt Works—Large Spider—Illinois Creek—Ticks—Arrival at Belle Point. ”

“ The bed of the creek was of pure sand, as well as the plains through which it ran, although there was alluvial soil partially mixed with the sand, and they had an abundance of grass upon them, the seed having been collected by the natives for food. ”

“ A small creek enters the ravine from the north by two branches, one from the north-west, and the other from the north-east, flowing after their union nearly due south, and blending with the water of the springs, increasing rapidly in size, and acquiring so high a temperature, that at the time of our visit the hand could not be borne immersed in it. After traversing from north to south the narrow valley containing the springs, this creek meanders away to the south-east, and enters the Washita at the distance of eight or ten miles. ”

“ At seven miles came upon a large creek or chain of ponds, having long broad deep reaches of water; followed this, running nearly my course for seven miles in a straight line. Camped. My horses cannot do more. The country that I have travelled over to-day is of the very finest description, rich black alluvial soil, completely matted with grass, the water most excellent and abundant. The timber, gum and melaleuca, a few of the trees resembling the shea-oak also; a few of the fan palms growing among the springs, very tall, upwards of forty feet; the cabbage palm, and a number of other bushes. ”