As this route is included within the thirty-second and thirty-fourth parallels of latitude, it would never be obstructed with snow. The whole surface of the country is covered with a dense coating of the most nutritious grass, which remains green for nine months in the year, and enables cattle to subsist the entire winter without any other forage. The line of this road east from Fort Smith would intersect the Mississippi in the vicinity of Memphis, Tenn., and would pass through the country bordering the Arkansas River, which can not be surpassed for fertility.--_Marcy's Red River Exploration_. The route thus described lies through the following counties, and attention is specially directed to their several products in 1858:-- Acres County White Slave Corn Wheat Cotton Sug. Misc'l Total. Bowie 2,077 2,321 10,392 1,421 8,240 23 3,232 23,308 Cass 6,112 4,816 28,474 5,552 20,168 36 4,368 58,508 Titus 6,025 1,891 18,987 2,272 9,872 92 6,227 36,450 Upshur 5,999 2,801 22,515 3,092 16,692 45 3,122 46,065 Wood 3,254 733 8,336 1,090 3,194 31 1,841 14,501 Van Zandt 2,548 242 6,504 837 1,213 8 596 8,160 Henderson 2,758 827 8,470 845 4,768 70 908 15,061 Navarro 2,885 1,579 10,531 2,785 4,678 127 2,609 20,730 Hill 1,858 508 5,161 3,189 181 201 761 9,493 Bosque 887 182 2,702 872 224 45 83 4,026 ______ ______ _______ ______ ______ ___ ______ _______ 34,403 15,800 121,072 22,564 69,330 678 22,748 236,392 Let us allow the usual proportion of field hands to the whole number of slaves, viz., one-third, and we have a force of 5297; if whites do not labor in the field, each field hand must cultivate 44 64/100 acres of land. The customary allotment is ten cotton and five corn, or, where corn and wheat are the principal products, from twenty to twenty-five acres. July 15, 1852. We were in motion at two o'clock in the morning, and, taking a north-east course towards the base of the mountain chain, passed through mezquite groves, intersected by brooks of pure water flowing into the south branch of Cache Creek, upon one of which we are encamped. We find the soil good at all places near the mountains, and the country well wooded and watered. The grass, consisting of several varieties of the grama, is of a superior quality, and grows luxuriantly. The climate is salubrious, _and the almost constant cool and bracing breezes of the summer months_, with the entire absence of anything like marshes or stagnant water, remove all sources of noxious malaria, with its attendant evils of autumnal fevers.--_Marcy's Exploration of the Red River_, p. 11.