Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the Year 1852: Report of the Secretary of War, Communicating, in Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate, Captain Marcy's Report of His Exploration of the Red RiverB. Tucker, Senate Printer, 1854 - 310 pages |
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Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the Year 1852: Report of the ... United States War Dept No preview available - 2015 |
Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the Year 1852: Report of the ... United States War Dept No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
abdomen abundant Ackerman Lith Amer anal fin animals antennę Arkansas banks blotches bluffs borders branch of Red Cache creek camp Captain carboniferous cephalothorax coal color Comanches composed copper cotton-wood cretaceous Cross-Timbers Cumulus clouds dorsal dorsal scale drift elevated encamped expedition Fork of Red formation Fort Smith Fort Washita genus granite grass Gray gypsum head inches Indians joint July June Kunth labials lateral line latitude length light limestone Linn Llano estacado longitude Marcy margin middle miles Moderate morning Nimbus clouds Nutt observed Otter creek PALEONTOLOGY palpi passed plains Plate posterior posteriorly prairie Prodr pronotum quartz rain red clay Red river ridge rocks rows sandstone scales scutellę seen Shumard side slender species specimens spines strata Stratus clouds stream surface tail Texas timber tion to-day Torr Total distance travelled tributaries upper valley Washita Witchita mountains yellowish ZOOLOGY
Popular passages
Page 100 - The traveller in passing over it sees nothing but one vast, dreary, and monotonous waste of barren solitude. It is an ocean of desert prairie, where the voice of man is seldom heard, and where no living being permanently resides. The almost total absence of water causes all animals to shun it: even the Indians do not venture to cross it except at two or three points, where they find a few small ponds of water. I was told in New Mexico that, many years since, the Mexicans marked out a route with stakes...
Page 207 - ... series of blotches, alternating with the lowest already mentioned. The throat and chin are unspotted. The head is light brown, with a narrow whitish line finely margined before and behind with black, which crosses in front of the centre of the vertical, and through the middle of the superciliaries : a second similar but more indistinct line runs parallel to this, just behind the rostral, and extending down in front of the eye. A third equally indistinct and similar line crosses the posterior...
Page 217 - Occipitals maintaining more their width posteriorly, obtuse-angled behind. Nasal more elongated ; loral smaller, and longer than high. Two large temporal shields and a few small ones behind. Scales strongly carinated, except the outer row, which is perfectly smooth, and the second row, which is but slightly carinated. The scales of both of these rows are broader than the rest.
Page 214 - The black rings are continuous on the abdomen, those of contiguous pairs (not of the same pair) sometimes with their intervening spaces black. The scales in the white rings are always more or less mottled with black, especially along the sides of the body, this mottling being very rarely observable on the red portion. The anterior black ring of the first pair is extended so as to cover the whole head above, except the very tip ; the yellow ring behind it involves the extreme tip of the occipitals.
Page 29 - The Comanches, during the past year, have not been friendly with the Delawares and Shawnees ; and although there has as yet been no organized demonstration of hostilities, they have secretly killed several men, and in consequence our hunters entertain a feeling of revenge towards them.
Page v - The astronomical observations were made by Captain George B. McClellan, of the engineer corps, who, in addition to the duties properly pertaining to his department, performed those of quartermaster and commissary to the command. An interesting collection of reptiles and other specimens, in alcohol, was also made under his superintendence, and put into the hands of Professors Baird and Girard, of the Smithsonian Institution, whose reports will be found in the appendix.
Page 62 - ... leaving a long, narrow corridor beneath, at the base of which the head spring of the principal or main branch of Red river takes its rise. This spring bursts out from its cavernous reservoir, and, leaping down over the huge masses of rock below, here commences its long journey to unite with other tributaries in making the Mississippi the noblest river in the universe. Directly at the spring we found three small cotton-wood trees, one of which was blazed, and the fact of our having visited the...
Page 24 - ... Mount Webster," in honor of our. great statesman ; and upon a rock directly at the summit he has chiselled the names of some of the gentlemen of the party. The valleys lying between many of these mountains have a soil which is arable in the highest degree. They are covered with grasses, which our animals eat greedily. There are also many springs of cold, limpid water bursting out from the granite rocks of the mountains, and flowing down through the valleys, thereby affording us, at all times,...
Page 18 - It has rained violently during all of last night, 1 and has not ceased this morning. When this long storm will abate we do not pretend to form even a conjecture. It has occurred to me that possibly these rains may fall annually in the basin of Upper Red river; -thus, perhaps, accounting for what is termed the June rise in the river. As to the cause of this rise there have been various conjectures ; some supposing the river to have...
Page 3 - Marcy, 5th Infantry, with his company as an escort, will proceed, without unnecessary delay, to make an examination of the Red river, and the country bordering upon it, from the mouth of Cache creek to its sources, according to the special instructions with which he will be furnished.