I passed several beautiful islands of pecan, plum, and peach trees.  It is a peculiarity worthy of remark, that these islands are nearly always of one sort of tree.  It is very rare to meet with one where there are two sorts.  Like the beasts of the forest, that herd together according to their kind, so does this wild vegetation preserve itself distinct in its different species.  One island will be entirely composed of live oaks, another of plum, and a third of pecan trees; the vine only is common to them all, and embraces them all alike with its slender but tenacious branches.  I rode through several of these islands.  They were perfectly free from bushes and brushwood, and carpeted with the most beautiful verdure it is possible to behold.  I gazed at them in astonishment.  It seemed incredible that nature, abandoned to herself, should preserve herself so beautifully clean and pure, and I involuntarily looked around me for some trace of the hand of man.  But none was there.  I saw nothing but herds of deer, that gazed wonderingly at me with their large clear eyes, and when I approached too near, galloped off in alarm.  What would I not have given for an ounce of lead, a charge of powder, and a Kentucky rifle?  Nevertheless, the mere sight of the beasts gladdened me, and raised my spirits.  They were a sort of society.  Something of the same feeling seemed to be imparted to my horse, who bounded under me, and neighed merrily as he cantered along in the fresh spring morning.

I was now skirting the side of an island of trees of greater extent than most of those I had hitherto seen.  On reaching the end of it, I suddenly came in sight of an object presenting so extraordinary an appearance as far to surpass any of the natural wonders I had as yet beheld, either in Texas or the United States.

At the distance of about two miles rose a colossal mass, in shape somewhat like a monumental mound or tumulus, and apparently of the brightest silver.  As I came in view of it, the sun was just covered by a passing cloud, from the lower edge of which the bright rays shot down obliquely upon this extraordinary phenomenon, lighting it up in the most brilliant manner.  At one moment it looked like a huge silver cone; then took the appearance of an illuminated castle with pinnacles and towers, or the dome of some great cathedral; then of a gigantic elephant, covered with trappings, but always of solid silver, and indescribably magnificent.  Had all the treasures of the earth been offered me to say what it was, I should have been unable to answer.  Bewildered by my interminable wanderings in the prairie, and weakened by fatigue and hunger, a superstitious feeling for a moment came over me, and I half asked myself whether I had not reached some enchanted region, into which the evil spirit of the prairie was luring me to destruction by appearances of supernatural strangeness and beauty.