it is wet and swampr. But as you recede northward from the gulf townrd the mountains, beyond the dis- tance oi about scwnty miles, the land becomes roll- ing, but not broken. In from two to three hundred miles thert> are mountains, not lofty, naked of trees, bnt co,·ered with grass. Between the mountains it is ~aid there are fertile and pleasant vallies, through which the pm·est of waters flow. .A very large portion of the better land, east of Trinity river, is a mixed soil, composed mostly of red clay, from which circum- stances it is called The Red Lands. The hilly or uplands resemble the uplands of the southern States, in soil, which is gravelly, and in timber, a great part of which is southern pine. The prairies of this section arc generally low, and wetter than those of the west. 'fhey are rich, bnt require more labor to make them profitable. By much the largest portion of the soil, within the limits of my second division, is stiff black clay, with more or less sand, as it is high or low. Immediately upon the borders of the largest rivers, as the Brazos and Colorado, and the smaller ones in their vicinity, that part of the land covered with small trees, called wild peach and red cane is generally known by the appellation of peach and cane land; the soil is spongy, of a gray color, and probably equal in fertility to any in the known world. Toward the coast, below the dis- tance of seventy miles, the intermediate timbered bot-
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