White River

“ Here, at the end of your first half-mile of ascent, you may lie in the shadow of maple - 98 - and white birch on the brink of a narrow gulf, see the white joy of the river as it makes its swiftest plunge toward the sea, and listen to the myriad voices in which it tells the lore of the lonely ravine which the waters have traversed from the very summit of the head wall. No water comes down the Crystal Cascade that is not beaten into a foam as white as the quartz vein in which it has its very beginnings, high up the cone of the summit. ”

“ The river-bottom lands were taken up, then the lower valleys, then the higher slopes, and finally, as the nineteenth century grew, the ultimate pioneers landed on the very shoulders of the White Mountains. Up the valley of the Wildcat River climbed the Fernalds, the Hayeses, the Wilsons, the Meserves, Wentworths, Johnsons and half a dozen other pioneer families, each hewing out of the terrific timber and grubbing out of the grim rocks with infinite labor the fields that to this day smile up to the sun. ”

“ Balancing Rock, however, cannot escape the attention of the most indifferent.
We finally caught a glimpse of a bit of the White River Valley through the gorge toward which we were moving: a beautiful stretch of meadow-like land reaching up to timber-clothed mountains. The view continued to expand until we arrived at the border of the stream. The way wound among willows and mountain beech, with [Pg 64] a few scrub oaks, now and then an alder bush, and what Joshua termed haw bushes, bringing us suddenly to the margin of the river. ”

“ Water fixes here animal life, and human population may spread far away from the main stream, generally on the White River, which may be considered as shoreless. We go round a sand-head of the right shore from N.E. to E., and at a quarter before one o’clock to S. On the right an island, and on the shore a village; on the left several people. With a short bend we have come to the N.; go, at half-past one o’clock, to E., and immediately left to N.E. At two o’clock E., and at half-past two N. A sand-bank here protrudes itself half into the river from the left shore. ”

“ On the main White river is large timber and fine ground for cultivation. Hence a doubt arises as to the disemboguing of this stream. Lieutenant Wilkinson, from some authority, has drawn the conclusion that it discharges itself into the Arkansaw a short distance below the Vermilion river; but from the voyages of Captain Maney [Many] on White river, the information of hunters, Indians, 515 etc., I am rather induced to believe it to be the White river of the Mississippi, as at their mouths there is not so great a difference between their magnitude ”

“ He set the example by throwing himself full length against a slanting pile and most leisurely filling his pipe. The men stared a moment; then followed his example. A great peace of evening filled the sky. The horizon lay low and black against the afterglow. Beneath it the river shone like silver. Only the groaning, the heave and shrugging of the jam, and the low threatening gurgle of hurrying waters reminded the toil-weary men of the enemy's continued activity. ”

“ We carry our boat across the divide between this and the river, have a row on its quiet waters, and succeed in shooting several ducks.
June 29.--A mile and three quarters from here is the junction of the White River with the Green. The White has its source far to the east in the Rocky Mountains. This morning I cross the Green and go over into the valley of the White and extend my walk several miles along its winding way, until at last I come in sight of some strangely carved rocks, named by General Hughes, in his journal, "Goblin City." ”

“ I remained at the mouth of the Pelly during the next day taking magnetic and astronomical observations, and making some measurements of the river. On the 19th I resumed the survey and reached White River on the 25th. Here I spent most of a day trying to ascend this river, but found it impracticable, on account of the swift current and shallow and very muddy water. The water is so muddy that it is impossible to see through one-eighth of an inch of it. The current is very strong, probably eight miles or more per hour, and the numerous bars in the bed are constantly changing place. ”

“ The mud-bar and adjacent waters were so entirely of the same color that the line of demarcation was not readily apparent, and had it not been for the drift rubbish around the former it might have escaped our scrutiny even at our short distance from it. The Indians say that the White River rises in glacier-bearing lands, and that it is very swift, and full of rapids along its whole course. So swift is it at its mouth, that as it pours its muddy waters into the rapid Yukon it carries them nearly across that clear blue stream ”

“ Wet wood gripped the long saws vice-like, so that a man's utmost strength could scarcely budge them. The water deadened the force of axe-blows. Nevertheless, with the sure persistence of the riverman, they held to it. Orde, watching them a few moments, satisfied himself that they would succeed, and so departed up river to take charge of the rear.
This crew he found working busily among some overflowed woods. They were herding the laggards of the flock. The subsidence of the water consequent upon the opening of the sluice-gate had left stranded and in shallows many hundreds of the logs. ”

“ We were, in fact, on the extreme head-waters of the Great North Fork of White river; the Unica of the Cherokees, and the Riviere au Blanc of the French. The manner in which the waters develop themselves on descending the southern slope of these highlands, is remarkable. They proceed in plateaux or steps, on each of which the stream deploys in a kind of lake, or elongated basin, connected with the next succeeding one by a narrow rapid. The rock is a grey sandstone in the lower situations, capped with limestone. In some places the water wholly disappears, and seems to permeate the rock. ”

“ THE ANDROSCOGGIN AT SHELBURNE.
Beyond the river, over gently meeting slopes of the valley, two magnificent shapes, Washington and Madison, rose grandly. Those truly regal summits still wore their winter ermine. They were drawn so widely apart as to show the familiar peaks of Mount Clay protruding between them. It is hardly possible to imagine a more beautiful picture of mountain scenery. Noble river, hoary summits, blanched precipices, over whose haggard visages a little color was beginning to steal, eloquently appealed to every perception of the beautiful and the sublime. ”

“ The River flows on, ever on; the hills watch, watch always; the birds sing, the sun shines grateful across your shoulders; the big trout and the little rise in predestined order, and make their predestined fight, and go their predestined way either to liberty or the creel; the pools and the rapids and the riffles slip by upstream as though they had been withdrawn rather than as though you had advanced.
Then suddenly the day has dropped its wings. The earth moves forward with a jar. Things are to be accomplished; things are being accomplished. The River is hurrying down to the Lake ”

“ 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. ”

“ The bed of White river, at the place where we crossed it, is paved with pebbles and fragments of a yellowish white petrosiliceous stone, intermixed with rounded masses of transparent quartz, and sometimes with pieces of calcedony. Its water is uncommonly transparent, and this, with the whiteness of its bed, and the brisk motion of the current, gives it an aspect of unusual beauty. The banks are high, and in many places not exposed to inundation. ”

“ LOWER WHITE RIVER WILDERNESS— Certain Federal land managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, comprising approximately 2,870 acres, as generally depicted on the map entitled `Lower White River Wilderness—Lower White River', dated July 16, 2007, which shall be known as the `Lower White River Wilderness'. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is a most curious phenomenon, and we believe entirely without a parallel. Another river, called the White River, unites with this some miles below its origin: this river, which is so called from the turbidness of its waters, its salutary to men and animals; fishes live in it, and vegetation is nourished by its waters; but after the junction it becomes clear; the acid dissolving the earthy particles which discoloured it, and it now becomes fatal to living beings: kills the fish, destroys the vegetation, and corrodes the stones in its channel. ”

“ That in executing their plans as above described, the officers of the United States had by the levees which they had constructed or maintained along the front of the White river and Tensas basins, prevented the flow of a large volume of water into those basins, which would have found its way to the Gulf without returning to the Mississippi, as above stated, and had thus increased largely the volume of water flowing past the claimants' land, and which therefore, in time of flood, would rest against the levee which protected their lands from overflow. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But forty men, all busily at work, soon had the river full. Orde detailed some six or eight to drop below in order that the river might run clear to the next section, where the next crew would take up the task. These men, quite simply, walked to the edges of the rollway, rolled a log apiece into the water, stepped aboard, leaned against their peavies, and were swept away by the swift current. The logs on which they stood whirled in the eddies, caromed against other timbers, slackened speed, shot away; never did the riders alter their poses of easy equilibrium. ”

“ And standing beside the white waters with the ground shaking underfoot to the tune of their mighty onrush, with the meadows, trees, and flowers round about, the awesome cliffs for guardians, and the bright blue sky over all, it requires no visionary to conjure up legendary cities at this river's end, for but half lend yourself to the notion and the glorious Sierran stream becomes a beckoning highway to a land of pleasant dreams. ”

“ Down the current past their feet swept the debris of flood. Soon logs began to swirl by,—at first few, then many from the remaining rollways which the river had automatically broken. In a little time the eddy caught up some of these logs, and immediately the inception of another jam threatened. The rivermen, without hesitation, as calmly as though catastrophe had not thrown the weight of its moral terror against their stoicism, sprang, peavey in hand, to the insistent work.
“By Jove!” said the journalist again. “That is magnificent! They are working over the spot where their comrades died!” ”

“ In like manner the softer moods of the spring rarely penetrate through the concentration of faculties on the work. The warm sun shines; the birds by thousands flutter and twitter and sing their way north; the delicate green of spring, showered from the hand of the passing Sower, sprinkles the tops of the trees, and gradually sifts down through the branches; the great, beautiful silver clouds sail down the horizon like ships of a statelier age, as totally without actual existence to these men. The logs, the river—those are enough to strain all the faculties a man possesses, and more. ”

“ And for the first time Orde completely lost his poise and became fluently profane. He shook his fist against the menacing logs; he apostrophised the river, the high water, the jam, the deserters, Newmark and his illness, ending finally in a general anathema against any and all streams, logs, and floods. Then he stormed away to see if anything had gone wrong at the dredged channel.
“Well,” said Tom North, “they've got the old man real good and mad this time.” ”

“ Of course, a dry year would make necessary a larger crew and more labour; of course, a big flood might sweep the logs past all defences into the lake for an irretrievable loss. But such floods come once in a century, and even the dryest of dry years could not now hang the drive. As Orde sat in his buckboard, ready to go into town for a first glimpse of Carroll in more than two months, he gazed with an immense satisfaction over the broad river moving brown and glacier-like as though the logs that covered it were viscid and composed all its substance. ”