Grape vines, several scandent species of smilax and cissus, and a most singular vine allied to menispermum, are so intermixed with the sturdy under growth as to render the woods almost impassable. Paths have been opened by the people of the garrison where they have been found necessary by cutting away the canes and small trees; but they may be said to resemble subterranean passages, to which the rays of the sun never penetrate. We found the air in these, and indeed in every part of heavy forests, stagnant, and so loaded with the effluvia of decaying vegetable substances as to be immediately oppressive to the lungs. After spending an hour or two in an atmosphere of this kind, we found ourselves perceptibly affected with languor and dizziness. The gardens at Fort Smith afforded green corn, melons, sweet potatoes, and other esculent vegetables, which to us had for a long time been untasted luxuries. It is probable we did not exercise sufficient caution in recommencing the use of these articles, as we soon found our health beginning to become impaired. We had been a long time confined to a meat diet, without bread or condiments of any kind, and were not surprised to find ourselves affected by so great and so sudden a change. It may be worth while to remark, that we had been so long unaccustomed to the use of salt, that the sweat of our faces had lost all perceptible saltness, and that the ordinary {38} dishes which were brought to our mess-table at the Fort appeared unpalatable, on account of being too highly seasoned. In a region of extensive river alluvion, supporting, like that of the Arkansa, boundless forests, impervious to the winds, and the rays of the sun, it is not surprising that a state of the atmosphere should exist unfavourable to health; intermitting, remitting, and continued bilious fevers prevail during the summer and autumn, and in many instances terminate fatally. Among recent settlers, the want of the most common comforts, of the advice and attendance of skilful physicians, and, above all, the want of cleanliness, and the destructive habits of intemperance, are causes operating powerfully to produce and aggravate these diseases. The settlements about Fort Smith were sickly, and we saw numbers with that peculiar sallowness of complexion which accompanies those chronic derangements of the functions of the liver, so often the consequence of bilious fevers. It is obvious, that the causes of the acknowledged sickliness of the recent settlements in the south and west, are in a great measure local and unconnected with the climate; by the increase of settlements, and the progress of cultivation, they will be in part removed.