Near Harding's ferry, on the south side of White river, is the Chattahoochee mountain,[17] of about two thousand feet elevation, somewhat surpassing any other point in its vicinity. The top of this mountain marks the north-eastern angle of the Cherokee boundary, as established by General Jackson's treaty. The eastern boundary of the tract, ceded by that treaty to the Cherokees, runs in a straight line from the top of the Chattahoochee to the mouth of Point Remove or Eddy Point creek, which enters the Arkansa about thirty miles above Cadron. This line coincides nearly with the eastern limit of the mountainous region. Many small portions of valuable land are included in the territory lately ceded to the Cherokees, but by far the greater part is mountainous and barren, and unfit for cultivation. White river has its source in the Ozark mountains, near the 94th degree of west longitude, and about the 36th degree north latitude, in the same district, from which descend, on the south-west the Illinois river of Arkansa, and on the north the Yungar Fork of the Osage. The average direction of its course is nearly due east parallel to the Arkansa, crossing about four degrees of longitude to its confluence with Black river, in latitude 350° 15´, then turning abruptly south, it flows through 1º 15´ of latitude to its bifurcation, and the confluence of its eastern branch with the Mississippi in 34 degrees north.[18] Below the point where it receives the Black river from the north, and even at the Chattahoochee mountains, near one hundred miles above that point, White river is little inferior, either in the width of its channel, or in its volume of water, to the Arkansa under the same meridian. When we have had occasion to mention among the people of White river, that we {136} had crossed the Arkansa at the Rocky Mountains, more than one thousand miles to the west, the question has been repeatedly put to us, "Where did you cross White river?" Those who have known only the lower portions of both rivers, consider them as nearly of equal length, and as heading near each other; whereas the entire extent of country drained by White river, compared to that of the Arkansa, is as one to six nearly. Three miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, White river divides into two branches, the lesser of which, turning off at right angles, flows south-west, with a current sometimes equal to three miles per hour, and falls into the Arkansa at the distance of four miles and a half. It is said the current flows through this communication alternately to and from the Arkansa, according as the water in that river is higher or lower than in White river. Major Long entered the Arkansa through this cut-off on the 13th of October 1817, and it has been passed more recently by Mr. Nuttall,[19] in 1819. In both these instances the current flowed from White river towards the Arkansa. The mouth of that branch of White river which communicates