From the Brazos, the road skirts small affluents of that stream and the Colorado for two hundred miles.  The soil upon this section is principally a red argillaceous loam, similar to that in the Red River bottoms, which is so highly productive.

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,