The sassafras (laurus sassafras) occurred this morning; and soon after our departure from the trading-house, we saw the cane (miegia macrosperma), and were soon involved in a dense cane brake. Here we were hardly fanned by a breath of air, and during the prevalence of the extreme heat of the day, which was 96 degrees, the state of the atmosphere was extremely oppressive. A short ride brought us to the Neosho, or Grand river, better known to the hunters by the singular designation of the Six Bulls. It enters the Arkansa very near to the confluence of the Verdigrise, and at the ripple, which offers us a facility of crossing, is about eighty yards wide, the water clear, above and below moving with a gentle current, and its bed and shores paved with large pebbles. At the entrance of the opposite forest, our guide, to whom the direct and very obvious path was supposed to be so familiar, now became bewildered, and {118} after reconnoitring to his heart's content amongst the entangled briers, vines, and nettles, ushered us into a trace which conducted to an old Indian encampment, and terminated there. Further progress was in a great measure intercepted by the cane brake, which not presenting any path, obliged us to break our passage with much labour. The dusk of the evening found us still pursuing a devious course through a world of vegetation impenetrable to the eye, vainly seeking a spot upon which an encampment could be fixed, when, to our unspeakable joy, and without previous intimation, the prairie of Bayou Menard[131] appeared suddenly before us. The timber of these bottoms is large and various. The extreme heat of the day, 96 degrees. Distance, eighteen miles. Our pleasure at first seeing civilized white men was of no ordinary kind; it appeared as though we had already arrived at our own homes and families, in anticipation of Belle Point, which had hitherto seemed the utmost boundary and terminus of our pilgrimage. Wednesday, 6th. A fine morning, and, as on the days of the first instant, and 30th ultimo, no dew had fallen. Crossed the ravine at the head of Bayou Menard, and ascended the elevated hills, clothed with small oaks, and arrived at a branch of Greenleaf Bayou about nine o'clock; a distance of eight miles.[132]