University of Virginia Library

[Note C.]

This river Semaron is a branch of the Arkansas on the south.
It is a singular river. You may see it one day running flushly in

one part of it, and sinking, below, entirely in the sand, and the
next day the case will be reversed. The dry place will then run
water, and the place which was before running will be dry as a
desert. The bed of the river and its banks are covered with salt;
not like the salt of the Brazos, pure muriate of soda, but bitter and
nauseous, like the sulphate of soda. I believe it would produce
precisely the same effect as the latter substance. This river is a
great haunt of the Comanches, heads in the mountains, and has
beaver at its heads.