n
analysed, and exhibit no mineral properties beyond common spring water.
Their efficacy, then, for they are undoubtedly efficacious to many
invalids that resort there, results from the shades of the adjacent
mountains, and from the cool and oxygenated mountain breeze; the
convenience of warm and tepid bathing; the novelty of fresh and mountain
scenery, and the necessity of temperance, imposed by the poverty of the
country and the difficulty of procuring supplies. The cases in which
the waters are supposed to be efficacious, are those of rheumatic
affection, general debility, dyspepsia, and cutaneous complaints. At a
few yards from the hot springs is one strongly sulphuric and remarkable
for its coldness. In the wild and mountain scenery of this lonely
region, there is much of grandeur and novelty to fix the curiosity of
the lover of nature."

The next morning I bade farewell to Finn and Boone, and set off on my
journey. I could not help feeling a strange sensation of loneliness, as
I passed hill after hill, and wood after wood. It seemed to me as if
something was wrong; I talked to myself, and often looked behind to see
if any one was coming my way. This feeling, however, did not last long,
and I soon learned that, west of the Mississippi, a man with a purse and
a good horse must never travel in the company of strangers, without he
is desirous to lose them and his life to boot.

I rode without stopping the forty-five miles of dreary road which leads
from the hot springs to Little Rock, and I arrived in that capital early
at noon.

Foreigners are constantly visiting every part of the United States, and
yet very few, if any, have ever visited the Arkansas. They seem all to
be frightened away by the numerous stories of Arkansas murders, with
which a tourist is always certain to be entertained on board one of the
Mississippi steam-boats. Undoubtedly these reports of murders and
atrocities have been, as all things else are in the United States, much
exaggerated, but none can deny that the assizes of Arkansas contain more
cases of stabbing and shooting than ten of the other states put
together.

The very day I arrived at Little Rock I had an opportunity of witnessing
two or three of these Arkansas incidents, and also to hear the comments
made upon them. Legislature was then sitting. Two of the legislators
happened to be of a contrary opinion, and soon abused each other. From
words they came to blows, and one