On the 24th the movements of the party were resumed. Major Long, with the division destined to Red river, crossed the Arkansa at five A. M. On arriving at the opposite bank three cheers were given, which our late companions returned from the other side. We lost sight of them as they were leaving the camp to descend the Arkansa.
The party, consisting of ten men, took with them six horses and eight mules, most of them in good condition for travelling. A few had sore backs, but one horse only was unfit for service.
Our course was a little to the east of south, nearly at right angles to the direction of the Arkansa. It was our intention to cross to and ascend the First Fork, a considerable stream, entering the Arkansa eighteen miles below our last encampment. After leaving the river we found the surface to rise gradually till, at the distance of six or eight miles, it is broken by a few small gravelly ridges. These are of little elevation; and their summits overlook an extensive waste of sand, terminated towards the south and east only by the verge of the sky, on the west and north-west by the snowy summits of the Spanish mountains. As our way led across the general course of the stream, we met with no water, except such as was still standing in puddles, which had been filled by the last night's rain. Near one of these we halted to dine. The thermometer, hanging in the shade of our tent, the most perfect, and indeed the only shade we could find, stood at 100°. The little water we could procure was thick with mud, and swarming with the larva of mosquitos; but this we regretted the less, as we had no cooking to perform. We dined upon jerked meat from our packs. Some animals, seen at a distance, { 256} were at first mistaken for bisons; but were found, by the hunters sent in pursuit of them, to be horses, and too wild and vigilant to be taken.
A species of cone-flower (rudbeckia tagetes)[42] with an elongated receptacle, and large red brown radial florets, was observed about the margin of the stagnant pool near which we halted.
We also collected the linum rigidum, and a semi-procumbent species of sida, which appears to be undescribed. It is a little larger than the S. spinosa, to which it has some general resemblance.