world. This barrier will, however, be effectually removed by the progressive accession of population, which, like a resistless tide, still continues to set towards the west.
Contiguous to the north-eastern, or opposite declivity of the chain of hills, which flank the settlement of Mr. M'Ilmery, I observed in my ramble, a considerable collection of aboriginal tumuli, towards the centre of which, disposed in a somewhat circular form, I thought I could still discern an area which had once been trodden by human feet;—but, alas! both they and their history are buried in impenetrable oblivion! their existence is blotted out from the page of the living! and it is only the eye which has been accustomed to the survey of these relics, that can even distinguish them from the accidental operations of nature. How dreary is this eternal night which has overtaken so many of my fellow-mortals!—a race, perhaps brave, though neither civilized nor luxurious, and who, like the retreating Scythians pursued by Darius, made, perhaps, at last, an obstinate resistance around their luckless families, and the revered tombs of their ancestors!
Besides these tumuli scattered through the forests, there are others on the summits of the hills, formed of loose stones thrown up in piles. We have no reason to suppose, that these remains were left by the Arkansas; they themselves deny it, and attribute them to a people distinct and governed by a superior policy.
29th and 30th.] Still at Mr. M'Ilmery's, during which time the weather has been cold and stormy.
The United States have now ordered the survey of all the alluvial and other saleable lands of the Arkansa, which are to be ready for disposal in about two years from the
