My health is gradually improving.  Yesterday I walked over to the R. R. station & back 2 1/2 ms I was quite tired when I got home, I have a severe cold & feel weak on that acount, but I am better this morning, my throat is clear of soreness for the first time for 3 or 4 months.  I was on picket from Saturday morning last until Sunday morning, lay out in the open air, on some brush & leaves, suffered no inconvenience, except taking cold.  I think this a verry unhealthy country.  Weather verry changeable. some times freezing cold then in 24 hours raining, then a few warm days  To day the house flies are as saucy as in summer! an other cause of bad health is that the country is almost a level & when it rains the water hardly gets away, & only settles about 18 inches below the surface on high ground, as we call a slight elevation, such as our present camp.  We have little wells all over camp, from 12 to 18 inches deep, tolerably good water.  The soil is a poor yellow & on the flatts, the soil is a kind of white clay, tough & compact, on the higher ground the soil is porous or spongy & the water being so near the surface causes the air in the tents to be verry damp & the atmosphere at night cold & damp both in & out of doors.  And for all this except during a wet season, wells have to be dug fifty feet & water scarce at that.  There is said to be a better country over on the Ark River, "but its sickly over thar" as if it were not "sickly" here.  I can't see why any one can see any atraction here, Prairie soil is worthless, timber soil is verry poor, poorly watered, climate changable & unhealthy as the sallow complexion of the natives will atest.  But it is a great place for wild game of all kinds.  Bear, Deer, Turky, Squirils &c & there are always those who will live as best they can if they can subsist by the chase
