L I B RAR.Y OF THE U N I VLRSITY OF I LLI NOIS X . 3 xte Cop. 3 1UJN$ HISTORICAL SURVEY ILLINOIS IN 1837; A SKETCH DESCRIPTIVE OF THE SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, FACE OF THE COUNTRY, PROMINENT DISTRICTS, PRAIRIES, RIVERS, MINERALS, ANIMLAS, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS, PUBLIC LANDS, PLANS OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, MANUFACTURES, &c. OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS: ALSO, SUGGESTIONS TO EMIGRANTS, SKETCHES OF THE COUNTIES, CITIES, AND PRINCIPAL TOWNS IN THE STATE: TOGETHER WITH A LETTER ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE PRAIRIES, BY THE HON. H. L. ELLSWORTH. TO WHICH ARE ANNEXED THE LETTERS FROM A RAMBLER IN THE WEST. -It is a goodly sight to see What Heaven hath done for this delicious land ! What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree ! What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand ! ***** The vine on high, the willow branch below, Mixed in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. Childe Hardd',8 Pilgrimage. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY S. AUGUSTUS MITCHELL, AND BY GRIGG & ELLIOT, No. 9, N. FOURTH STREET. 1837. 1 Entered according to the act of congress, in the year 1837, by S. AUGUSTUS MITCHELL, in the office of the district court for the eastern district of Penn sylvania. STEKEOTYPED BY J. FAGAN PHILADELPHIA. 977.3 CONTENTS. Situation, Boundaries, Extent, &c. Page 9 Face of the Country, Soil, &c 10 PRAIRIES 11 Grand Prairie 12 Origin of the 13 Breaking up, Cost of, &c 14 Barrens 15 Forest or Timbered Land 16 Bottom Land 17 American Bottom 18 Prominent Districts 19 MILITARY BOUNTY TRACT 19 Situation and Extent 19 Climate of the 21 Adaptation for Agriculture and Commerce 21 Geological Structure of the Upland Prairies of the 22 ROCK RIVER COUNTRY 22 Fertility v 23 Objection* to the 23 Minerals of 24 Health of the 25 Prospective Improvement 25 SANGAMON COUNTRY 25 Rapid Settlement of '. . . 25 Superiority of the Prairies for agri- cultural purposes 26 Adaptation for raising Stock 26 Cultivation of the Sugar Beet Root 26 Results in France 27 Historical Anecdote 27 RIVERS 28 Mississippi 28 Rock River 31 Kaskaskia 32 Ohio and Tributaries 32 Wabash and Tributaries 33 Illinois and Tributaries 34 Sangamon 36 Minerals 37 Animals, Wild '38 Domestic 41 Wild and Cultivated Fruits 43 PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL 43 Corn, Wheat, &c 44 Sugar Beet Root, mode of cultiva- tion 44 Climate 46 Winds 47 Diseases 47 Civtl Divisions 48 ilTable of the Area and Population of the Counties 48 Government 50 PUBLIC LANDS 51 System of Surveys 51 Meridian and Base Lines 51 Diagram of a Township surveyed into sections, and a Section into halves, quarters, &c 52 Land Districts and Offices 53 Pre-emption Rights, Taxes, &c. . . 54 Plans of Internal Improvement 55 Manufactures 58 EDUCATION 59 Colleges, &c 61 Religion 62 Suggestions to Emigrants 63 h are backed up by the freshets of the former, break over their banks, and cover rfu the low ground^ Here they stand for a few days, or for many weeks, especially towards tneikitfri; for it is a striking fact in the geology of the western country, that all the river bottoms are higher on the margins of the streams than at some distance back. Whenever increase of population shall create a demand for this species of soil, IK most of it can be reclaimed at comparatively small ex- pense. Its fertility will be inexhaustible, and if the waters from the rivers could be shut out by dykes or levees, the soil would be perfectly dry. Most of the small lakes on the American Bottom disappear in the summer, and leave a deposit of vegetable matter undergoing decomposition, or a luxuriant coat of weeds and grass. As the prairies mostly lie between the streams that drain the country, the inte- rior of the large ones is usually level. Here are formed small ponds and lakes after the winter and spring rains, which remain to be drawn off by evaporation, or absorbed by the soil. Hence the middle of the large level prairies arc wet, and for several we^ks portions of them are covered with water. To remedy this in- convenfencelfompletely, and render all this portion of soil dry and productive, only requires fl dirch or drain of two or three feet deep to be cut into the nearest ravine. In many instances, a single furrow with the plough would drain many acres. At present this species ortnundatejj land offers no inconvenience to the people, except in the production of miasm, and even that, perhaps, becomes too much diluted with the atmosphere to produce miscU.ieF before it reaches the settlements on the bor- ders of the prairie. Hence the inference is correct that the inundated lands pre- sent fewer obstacles to the settlipient and growth of the country, and can be re- claimed at much less expense, thkn the swamps and salt marshes of the Atlantic states. The surface of the alluvial bottoms is not entirely level. In some places it re- sembles alternate waves of the ocean, and looks as though the waters had left their deposit in ridges, and retired. The portion of bottom land capable of present cul- tivation, and on which the waters never stand, if, at any extreme freshet, it is cov- ered, is a soil of exhauetlf 3 fertility ; a soil that for ages past has been gradually deposited by the annual -floods. Its average depth on the American Bottom is from twenty to twenty-five feet. Logs of wood, and other indications, are fonnd at that depth. The soil dug from wells on these bottoms, produces luxuriantly the first year. The most extensive and fertile tract, of this description of soil, in this state, is the American Bottom, a name it received when it constituted the western boundary of the United States, and which it has retained ever since. It commences at the confluence of the Kaskaskia river with the Mississippi, and extends northwardly to the mouth of the Missouri ; being bounded on the east by a chain of bluffs, which in some places are sandy and in others rocky, and which vary from 50 to 200 feet in height. ' This bottom is about 80 miles in length, and comprises an area of about 450 square miles, or 288,000 square acres. On the margin of the river is a strip of heavy timber, with a rank undergrowth : this extends from a half to two miles in width, and from thence to the bluffs is generally prairie. No soil can ex- ceed this in fertility, many parts of it having been under cultivation for more than a century without the least apparent deterioration. The only objection that can be offered to this tract, is its unhealthiness. This arises from the circumstance of the lands directly on the margin of the river being higher than those under the bluffs where the water, after leaving the former, sub- sides, and forms ponds and lagoons, which during the summer stagnate and throw off noxious effluvia. These', however, might at a trifling expense be drained by lateral canals communicating with the rivers. The first settlement of this state was commenced upon the tract of land above described, and its uncommon fertility gave emigrants a favourable idea of the THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 1!) whole country. Cultivation has no doubt rendered this tract more salubrious than formerly : and the extension of agriculture, together with the construction of drains and canals, will make it one of the most eligible in the States. The old inhabitants advise the emigrants not to plant corn in the immediate vicinity of their dwellings, as its exuberant foliage prevents the sun from dispelling 'the dele- terious vapours. Coal exists in abundance on this alluvion, and the bluffs which bound it. It has been mined to some extent for several years past, and carried to St. Louis. The quantity hauled there in wagons in 1836 amounted to about 300,000 bushels. A rail-road is now making from the coal-mines to the Mississippi river opposite St. Louis, for the purpose of expediting the transportation of the mineral to that city. At the mine a new town is about to be laid out, called Pittsburg. Besides the American Bottom, there are other tracts which resemble it in its general character, but which are much less extensive. It would lead to a particularity beyond the limits of this sketch, to go into a de- tailed description of all the bodies of excellent land in Illinois. For not only here, but all over the Western Country, the lands seem to be distributed in bodies, either of rich or sterile, level or broken lands. The Military Bounty Tract, the country on Rock river, the Sangamon country, &c., are all familiarly spoken of for their beauty and fertility, and have each their advocates, who, swayed by various predi- lections, extol the advantages of thafcsectios Iff which they are attached. On the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, the Fox river, on the Kankakee, and the Embarras,' between the Great and Little VVabash, and on all the considerable streams of this state, there are large bodies of first-rate lands. On the Grand Prairie, the Mound Prai- rie, the prairie upon which the Marine Settlement is located, and that occupied by the society of Christians from New England*, are exceedingly rich tracts. The following description of the Military Bounty Lands, the Rock river country, and the region on the Sangamon river, will give some idea of the situation, natural fea- tures, productions, capacities for settlements, &c., of each district. MILITARY BOUNTY TR The region generally denominated the Military Bounty Tract, was surveyed during the years 1815 and 1816, and the greater part sijbseq'uciitly appropriated in bounties to the soldiers of the regular army, who served in the late war between the United States and Great Britain. It is situated between ilie rivers Mississippi and Illinois, and extends from their junction due .north by a nleridian line, denomi- nated the fourth^rincipal meridian, 169 miles, presenting an irregular curvilinear triangle, the acute angle of which is at the junction of these two rivers. From this point the tvVo rivers diverge, so as to make a distance of 90 miles between the extreme points of the northern boundary. Half-way between the extremes, the width is 64 miles. The base line running due east an$ Vlest, and commencing seven miles above Quincy on the Mississippi, and terminating at the Illinois, about four miles below Beardstown, intersects the fourth, principal meridian at right angles 73 miles above the junction of the' Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and is 52 miles long. The whole tract, according to the public surveys, contains 207 entire townships, of six miles square, and 61 fractional townships, containing together 5,360,000 acres, of which 3,500,000 have been appropriated in military bounties. The residue consists partly of fractional sections, bordering on the rivers, partly of fractional quarter-sections, bordering on the township lines, containing more or less than 160 acres, and partly of lands that were returned by the public surveyors as unfit for cultivation ; but there are also large reservations not coming within the above exception, being the overplus of lands after satisfying the military claims, subject to entry and purchase as other congress lands. this tract of country lies between 38 54', and 41 40 7 of north latitude, and 13 west longitude from Washington City, and is bounded on the north-west for 255 miles by the Mississippi river, and for about the same distance on the south-east by the Illinois. Thus do these two great rivers, in their diverging course, with Rock river approximating from the north, form a spacious peninsula, furnishing a border 20 GENERAL VIEW OF to the bounty land^ by a sheet of navigable waters for steamboats more than 500 miles in extent-Jeaving no part of the tract more than 45 miles, and the greater part not exceeding,-^ mi:es from steamboat navigation. The water 'communication now about to be completed between the- Mississippi and the lakes, by means.ot'the Illinois and Chicago canal, must eventually greatly increase the value of the bounty lands, by affording a choice of markets for their products, either at Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, New-York, Montreal, or Quebec, by way of the Illinois, canal and the lakes, or by the natural channels of the rivers at St. Louis and NewsQrleans. In the interior of the tract, and traversing it in various directions, are several rivers and creeks of les$onsequence, in a commercial point of view, than those great water-courses which form its boundary lines, but nevertheless of great utility in other respects to the settlements in their vicinity. Of these, Spoon, Henderson, Edwards, and Pope's rivers, and Crooked, Kickapoo or Red Bud, Copperas, Otter, M'Kee's, M'Craney's, Hadley's, Mill, and Bear creeks, are the most considerable. There are also many other smaller streams, generally tributaries to those already mentioned, affording sufficient power for mills and other machinery. Considerable bodies of timber are to be found on the margins of all these streams, with but few exceptions, the lands of which are generally broken, and the soil not so productive as that of the adjacent prairies. And it may be remarked in general, in relation to the bluffs of the Mississippi and Illinois, as well as those upon the smaller riven^ that they exhibit a surface too rough to be cultivated, and a soil too thin for successful tillage. The hills, or bluffs as they are called in this country, which are everywhere to be seen on the margins of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, are generally neither very high nor precipitous, and very rarely approach the water's edge. The bottoms between the river and bluffs are generally alluvial, and expand from one to. five miles in \vklth. Two-thirds of these bottom lands are subject to occasional inundation from high water; and when this happens, the river is seen gradually to rise for several successive days, until the channel within the banks is no longer, capable of containing- the. Immense accumulation of waters from above, at which time th^y burst over the banks in all directions, extending them- selves from bluff" to bi: if in- all the terrific grandeur of a mighty river. Again they gradually recede^ until they are confined within the ordinary channel. When these inundations pcciur as late as the months of June and July, a sickly season, arising from the noxious rapfturs engendered by a decay of vegetation, may be ex- pected in these and^contifpeus parts of the country ; but if early, and the bottoms become dry before' the hot season commences, no difference in the health of the inhabitants is expected to' ensue on that account. Of the military tract, fcbout two-thirds may be set down as prairie land, and the remaining one-third as timber land. The detached groves, or those which are found occasionally as islands in the prairies, and those at the heads or sources of the streams, generally pr^luce the finest timber, with a soil mostly of good quality, and not unfrequently very rich. The soil on the prairies is good, and a large por- tion of it may be considered as first-rate, having either a black vegetable mould, or a dark sandy loam, from 15 to 30 inches deep, generally bedded on a stiff yellow clay. Many of the prairies are of convenient dimensions for farming operations, others too large at present, and again we find many only large enough for a single farm. The emigrant, in travelling over this delightful region in the spring and summer months, will generally see timber either before him or to the right or left, within a few miles, but he will occasionally, after descending one of our beautiful slopes to the verdant valley beneath, through which the gentle rivulet is meandering its course with its flowery border, get as it were out of the sight of land, while his vision is bounded only by the blue horizon above, and not a tree can be discovered as far as the eye can reach. Again, when he approaches the summit of the oppo- site slope, his vision is relieved with the green forests upon his right and left, and a cluster of beautiful island groves immediately in the advance, with their varied shrubbery in full bloom, scattering its fragrance for many a mile around : the prai- rie, in the mean time, being covered with a smooth green coat of grass, and innu- THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 21 merable flowers of every variety and hue, which blossom and decay in succession, from the first opening of spring until the severe frosts of winter. The bounty lands extend from north to south over about tw^and a half degrees of latitude, the medium of which exceeds forty degrees north, and afford a climate not uncongenial to the constitution of men from the northern and middle states. The climate seems also to be well adapted to the constitution of emigrants from Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, who, in the general, enjoy, as. good health as those from the more northern states. It is a fact, however, which' ought not to be disguised, that a large portion of the lands on the margins of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, as well as those upon the banks of the smaller streams, including such also as border upon the large, flat, wet prairies, may be reckoned among the situations most unfavourable to health. The stagnant waters which sometimes remain after the overflowings of these rivers, not unfrequently produce pestilential vapours, proceeding from putrescent vegetable substances, which very often engen- der malignant fevers and agues, and prove destructive to the health and vigour of the newly settled emigrant and his family. Habitations should, therefore, at the commencement of a settlement be as far removed as convenient, from stagnant waters, and low, rich, alluvial grounds, which are thickly shaded by forest trees, and located on more open and elevated ground, where air and water can be enjoyed in their native purity. Lands of this description, which, in a state of nature, prove most injurious to health, when drained, opened to the sun, and cleared, of the trees and rank weeds, which generally grow upon them, have often become salubrious places of habitation. But the new comer should be aware before he -is acclimated, that it is a dangerous experiment to attempt the improvement. But of this quality, there is a small part only of the whole tract, most of the residue furnishing situa- tions as healthful as any part of the Western Country, old Kentucky not excepted. Taking all the Bounty Tract together, aift& fhere is no region of country in the west more eligibly situated for all the purposes of agriculture and commerce. The lands everywhere, with but few exceptions, are of the best quality, and in -a man- ner surrounded by a sheet of navigable' waters; and the country exhibits a climate of great variety for the space occupied ; whereby its productions are varied, and the means of traffic greatly increased and facilitated. Labels. -of excellent quality may yet be had at the government price of $1.25 per acce, irr desirable parts of the country, so that means of wealth, or at least of a omiiortMlile- competence, are still within the reach of the poor as well as the opulent. Wh:it motives of advance- ment are here held out to the industrious and skilful cultivator of the soil what prospects of wealth to the industrious mechanic and enterpfizing merchant what a wide field of speculation is not in fact here presented .tp the view of the whole people of the west ! In this region there are but few springs ; but water may be plentifully obtained anywhere on the smooth prairies, by digging from fifteen to forty feet below the surface. The well water is pure and salutary, and generally preferred to the spring water. The surface of the ground everywhere in this country is remarka- bly free from stones, except on the rivers, creeks, and branches, in which many good quarries are found both of lime and sandstone. With the exception of stone- coal, there are no mines on the Military Tract. Some specimens of iron, lead, and copper ore have occasionally been picked up, but not in sufficient quantities to justify the belief that any discoveries will be made worthy of pursuit. The agricultural productions of this part of Illinois are Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, hemp, flax, &c. The tame grasses, such as timothy, red clover, red top or herd's grass, and blue grass, are also now cultivated to some extent, and so far succeed well. The principal articles produced for exportation consist of horses, beef cattle, milch cows, live hogs, barrelled beef and pork, bacon, lard, hides, butter, Indian corn, wheat, and flour. Some of the backwoodsmen, also, still continue to carry on a considerable traffic with the merchants, in deer- skins and furs, such as otter, muskrat, and raccoon, and in honey and beeswax. Some farmers have been frequently known to make more money in this way, than from the product of their farms. The disposition of so much of this fine country for military rewards, has very 22 GENERAL VIEW OF much retarded its settlement Most of the titles have long since departed from the soldiers for whose benefit the donations were made. Many thousand quarter sec- tions have been sold by the state for taxes, and are past redemption. Much of it is in the hands of non-residents, who hold it at prices too exorbitant to command sale. Some have doubted the legality of these sales at auction for taxes; but able lawyers, and those who have investigated the business, have expressed the opinion that " tax titles" are valid. Within the last two years the Military Tract has received a great accession to its population. A large quantity of these military lands are now owned by a company, who have a land-office opened at Quincy, and offer tracts at from three to ten dollars per acre. About three-fifths of the quarter sections have been appropriated as military bounties. The remainder is to be dis- posed of in the same manner as other public lands. South of the base line, which passes across the, tract through Schuyler and Adams counties, the public lands have been offerect-tfor sale. North of that line there is much excellent land yet for sale. A scientific gentleman, who has recently examined the central parts of the Military Bounty Tract, has given the following as the geological structure of the upland prairies in that region. That the same general structure prevails through- out the entire peninsula (between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers)," and all the central and northern parts of the state, is most probable. 1st. Vegetable mould, formed by thje decomposition of grass upon the original clay soil, 8 to 30 inches : 2d. Pure yellow clay, 3 to 8 feet : 3d. Gravelly clay, mixed with pebbles, 4 to 10 feet : 4th. Limestone rock, 2 to 12 feet : 5th. Shale, covering a stratum ef bituminous coal generally 4 > 5 feet thick: 6th. Soapstone: then sandstone. The bed of limestone seems JQ be universal in this region, it having been disco- vered in all the wells that have been dug, and in all the banks of water-courses of any magnitude. An opinion is entertained by some persons at the east, that the prairies here are of a light, spongy nature; without solidity or firmness. The notion has probably been gathered from the boggy prairies of Ohio. But no land of this sort, we are assured, is to be found ib.the Military Tract, if we except the marshes upon the margins of rivers. The substratum being clay,-the surface is as firm and dry as any of the limestone lands of Pennsylvania or Maryland, and in many respects is of a similar character to thf -best in Frederick county, in the latter state. ROCK RIVER COUNTRY. That portion 'of Illinois^situated in the northern part of the state, watered by Rock river arid its branche"S,'is known by the appellation of the Rock River Country. It is a fertile agricultural region, combining all the advantages of a rich and fruit- ful soil, a healthy and temperate climate, a fine navigable river, and clear perennial streams, affording excellent mill-seats, together with many of the most useful and important minerals. Rock river rises in Wisconsin Territory, about midway between Lake Michigan and the Wisconsin river. Jts course in Illinois is nearly 180 miles in extent It receives its most important tributary, the Pekatonica, from the lead-mine region of Wisconsin Territory, a few miles below the northern boundary of the state. The Rock River Country may be considered as embracing not only the parts which border immediately upon that stream, but all those portions of the surrounding ter- ritory that may contribute directly to the developement and employment of the resources of the Rock river valley. * In this view may be included the mineral wealth and agricultural advantages of the Pekatonica and its branches, the products of which must eventually find their way to market on the bosom of Rock river ; but also the mineral region around Galena and Dubuque7*which will, sooner or later, be connected by close links of interest and necessity with the inexhaustible beds of coal and general manufac- turing advantages in the neighbourhood of the mouth of Rock river. Under the same general head we may also include the fine agricultural country on the west bank of the Mississippi, extending from the Indian reservation on the Iowa to the THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 23 waters of the Wabepisipimecon, which will look to the east bank of the Mississippi and the town located near the mouth of Rock river for its market. The bottom-lands of these streams, most usually about a mile and a half wide, cannot be surpassed in fertility. Besides other causes which have combined for centuries to produce the same result, the wash of the bluffs enriches the plain below by its deposit, to such an extent that the depth of soil in places is almost incredible. Like the great American Bottom below the mouth of the Illinois river, which has been cultivated for more than a hundred years, the fertility-of most of the Rock river and Upper Mississippi bottoms is indestructible. On Such a soil, under proper cultivation, 100 bushels of corn and 40 bushels of wheat to the acre could be raised with facility. With the most careless kind of culture, where the farmers do not think of applying the hoe after planting, and ruii the plough through but twice, the average corn crop is about 50 or 60 bushels per acre. The soil on the brow of the bluffs, as might be expected from the unceasing washing of ages, is thin and unproductive ; but when you ascend to the elevated table-land which is generally characteristic of the bluffs after you leave the breaks, gullies formed by springs and drains on the edge of the bluffs, you will find, most usually, a soil of the richest kind high and dry, and fanned, in the warmest days of summer, by breezes of the most refreshing character. These breezes, however, are converted into pretty cold winds in winter. The greatest objection made to the Rock river country is the alleged scarcity of timber. What is termed the " grand prairie," commencing in the lower part of Illinois and reaching to Lake Superior, touches Rock river in several places, and some of its wide-stretching arms partially separated from the parent prairie by occasional groves, cross that stream. These extensive jare^idows form an obstacle at this time to the dense settlement of those portions where the predominance of prairie over timber is too great; but the time will come, and the day is not far dis- tant, when emigrants will rush to the large prairies with almost as much eagerness as they now avoid them. But without reference to the prospective settlement of the prairies, the existence of these large meadows in the neighbourhood can form no reasonable objection to the settlement of such portions #s are timbered. Of these there are thousands of situations in*the Rock river country? where plenty of timber in proximity to prairies will give settlers the advantage^ of timber and prairie united; and if the argument be a good one that the large prairies .cannot be- settled without recourse to the woodlands, that very fact should form a strong inducement for the early settlement of the more favoured portions. But reflecting and experienced men" say that no apprehensions need be felt about the supply of timber for the wants of the country, and that so far as Rock Island county is concerned, it has a greater proportion of timber than the counties in its vicinity. The portion of country south and south-east of Rock river is comparatively deficient in timber, except where the waters of Green river, Edwards, and Hen- derson, carry belts of it along their various windings. Up Rock river the timber is in many places of the finest character, and convenient of access to the river, down which it could be rafted with ease. The bluff which forms the principal portion of the strip of land between Rock river and the Mississippi, from Albany in Whiteside county down to near the mouth of the former stream, a distance of 35 miles, is, with one or two slight ex- ceptions, covered plentifully with good timber. This woodland, although broken in many places by gullies which carry off water to the prairie bottoms, is in gene- ral excellent wheat land. On the west bank of the Mississippi, for about ten miles above Rock Island, and twenty or thirty below, the bluff falls gently into bottoms of about a mile wide frequently intersected with spurs and groves of timber ; and altogether forming a succession of farm-sites as beautiful as the eye ever saw or the heart could desire. Immediately back of these sloping bottoms, the bluff is covered with the dense foliage of stately timber, forming a rich bordering for the picture of scenic loveli- ness below. This skirt of timber varies from one to two miles in width. Back of it, the timber is scattered into little patches of foliage, dotting the interminable GENERAL VIEW OF prairies as they sweep off in beautiful and ocean-like undulations, westward to the waters of the Iowa. The timber of this region comprises the usual variety of the latitude white and black oak, ash, hickory, elm, lynn, cherry, white and black walnut, maple, sugar tree, &c. In provision for building materials, nature has been bountiful to the Rock River Country. Clay for brick, limestone of the finest quality, and freestone, can be found in almost any neighbourhood. The products of this region are the same as those of the adjoining districts, and are raised with the same facility as in the most favoured parts of the state. A cor- respondent writes, " I have not seen in any place this season, crops of wheat, corn, and oats to surpass, and but few to equal, what I saw near Stephenson, the seat of justice of Rock Island county. The size to which esculent roots have grown there is almost incredible." Besides the agricultural advantages of this region of country, it must for ever be connected with, and interested in the mineral regions above it. The extent of the lead region will perhaps never be determined. The mines are considered inex- haustible, and each succeeding year developes new treasures, inviting the hand of enterprize, and exciting the eager appetite of discovery. The mines mostly wrought at this time, are in the vicinity of Dubuque, Galena, and Mineral Po.nt on the Pekatonica. Taking Rock river on one side of the Mis- sissippi, and the Iowa on the other, for the southern limits of the mineral region (although it is believed to 'extend much farther south), north of these streams, for perhaps hundreds of mijes. west, reaching to Lake Michigan on the east, and a thousand miles to the north, ,yutil you' reach the ocean-like shores and pure waters of Lake Superior, you- have an immense territory, already known to possess mines of lead, iron, copper, saltpetre, '<\, the value of which will ever be beyond calculation. Lead and copper ore have been found upon other tributaries of Rock river besides the Pekatonica. Upon' the latteB,'. mines of the richest character are wrought with industry and success. Copper ore has been raised already from the mines on the Pekatonica, to tne extent of about 200,000 pounds. Lead has been found by the Indians in several places west of the Mississippi, not tar from Rock Island. Near the Wabepfeipimecon, which empties* into the Mississippi about 30 miles above that island, copper and- iron ore, saltgetre, epsom salts, and a fine spe- cies of variegated alabaster, have lately been founa. * On the shores of Lake Pepin, up the Mississippi, near the Falls of St. Anthony,, iron ore exists in such masses that the lake may almost literally be called " iron-bourld" Iron ore and stone-coal are found in several placed along the Upper Rapids of the Mississippi. The latter article, of a good quality, pervades the Rock river bluffs extensively, and will, before long, become a very important article of trade with the lead-mines, where the country is destitute of it. The recent improvement in smelting furnaces, and the contemplated introduction of steam-engines to drain the mines on the plan of the miners of Cornwall, England, which must take place before long, will cause the consumption of an immense quantity of stone-coal. They now send to St. Louis for it, and freight it up stream 500 miles. It will not be many years before the business of smelting will be done near the mouth of Rock river for nearly all the lead regions above, from the circumstance that the mineral can be much easier floated down to the fuel, than the fuel can be freighted up to the mineral. This will throw into the lately located seat of justice of Rock Island county an immense trade, which is not generally looked upon as being alienable from the immediate neighbourhood of the mines. The time will come when the facility with which lead can be obtained, will cause it indirectly to enter into the consumption of the country in a thousand differ- ent shapes now not thought of; and the demand becoming comparatively limitless, will cause every hill and valley where there are signs of "mineral" to be explored: and infinite developements of the resources of the country, now entering only into the dreams of the visionary, will greet the acute eye of enterprize. When we reflect that for a century and a half the gold-mines of the southern states lay hid- den from a comparatively dense population, it should rather be a matter of astonish- ment that so much has already been discovered by the sparse settlements of the lead rejrion. THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 25 There can be no doubt of this region being eminently healthy. The country is supplied bountifully with water from good springs, and the air is second only to mountain air in purity. It is even thought that the neighbourhood of Rock Island will one day be the resort of rich invalids, and the man of leisure from the south, on account of its double charm of salubrity of atmosphere, and picturesqueness of scenery. The existence of a copious white sulphur spring near Rock Island, of medical virtues equal perhaps to the waters of any of the celebrated springs in the United States, gives strength to the idea. The navigation of Rock river is obstructed principally by the rapids, 3^ miles from its mouth ; upon which, however, there is never less than about 18 inches water, which is more than the Ohio river affords at its lowest stages, in places. Several enterprizing individuals have it in contemplation to build a steamboat ex- pressly for navigating Rock river, which may be done for a considerable portion ot the year. A circumstance which the recent survey and settlement of the country on the Upper Rock river has but lately brought to view, may and will, if taken advantage of, no doubt, have an important bearing on the prosperity of the Rock River Country. It is ascertained that the distance from the city of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan to the navigable waters of Rock river, is only about 50 miles, and over a country well calculated for making either a canal or a rail-road. The improvement of this region by the construction of one or both of, the above public works would open a medium of communication from the Mississippi to the Lakes, and atibrd an outlet to the northern markets that would be of incalculable; benefit to the upper part of Illinois, and add another link to the mighty chain that is binding together the ex- tremities of our widely-extended republic. With the present possession and pro ilrol of advantages like all these, it does not require sanguine calculations to qpteriffme the future condition of this country. Easy access to market will fllways insure- to the farmer the rewards of industry ; and a rich agricultural community ever promotes the steadiest and purest prosperity to all other classes. Mechanics are/always demanded by the wants of an improving country; and the lack of competition in a new country, guaranties to such as emigrate the best of grices and the best of pay. The boundless resources of the great west spread fut their harvest for the sickle of the young and the enterprizing. "The harvest! y plenty, but the labourers few." He that would carve out his own fortune at the expense of temporary sac- rifices, in preference to frittering away his existence in the slavish occupancy of an overstrained competition, should turn his eyes and his footsteps westward. SANGAMON COUNTRY. The country traversed by the Sangamon river and its branches is a region sel- dom equalled in fertility. It is high and undulating, well watered with creeks and springs, and is beautifully interspersed with timber and prairie, the former of which consists of those descriptions which grow only on the richest soil, being principally locust, black walnut, hickory, maple, &c. The prairies frequently contain fine groves of timber : these are generally ele- vated above the surrounding country, and are most advantageous situations for set- tlement. The inhabitants reside chiefly in the margin of the timber, extending their plantations to any distance in the prairie. This desirable tract was settled with such rapidity, that it contained 5000 inhabi- tants before a single section had been sold ; and farms of considerable size, even of a hundred acres of cultivated land, had been made. It is now divided into several counties, containing a population of at least 40,000. The first white in- habitants settled here in 1819, and the first sale of public land was in November 1823. At the present time, the borders of the prairie fire covered with hundreds of smiling farms, and the interior is animated with thousands of domestic animals; the rough and unseemly cabin is giving place to comfortable framed or brick tene- ments; and plenty everywhere smiles upon the labours of the husbandman. The objection often made by those unacquainted with a prairie country against D 3 26 GENERAL VIEW OF the great extent of the prairies and a want of sufficient timber in the Sangamon and other districts in Illinois, offers no serious inconvenience for the present ; as timber in sufficient quantities has been found without difficulty, to meet all the de- mands of the population. With regard to the prairies, many persons are beginning to understand the superiority of that description of land for agricultural purposes ; and the day is not far distant when, no doubt, it will be generally preferred to all others. Late scientific examinations, as well as the practical results of settlement and cultivation, have determined the fact that the prairies are richer as you approach their middles, and in some measure in proportion to the distance from timber ; and that the carbonate of lime, so rich a nourisher of grasses and grains, is found in the soil or' the prairies to an extent of from 20 to 42 per cent. In timber lands it is found in a much smaller proportion, and in many cases does not exist at all. This fertilizing property, which renders the prairie lands so desirable, in appealing to 'the esteem of the farmer, has only to struggle against his ide.as of convenience to timber. His apprehensions will be broken down by degrees. Coal, which exists in the bluffs of the rivers and streams in almost every part of the state, will be his fuel, and he will grow the hedge-thorn and the black locust for his fencing. There is also a certainty of the gradual self-introduction of timber of the ordinary growths, where the fires are kept out of the prairies. In the southern part of the state, which has been settled for. 15 or 20 years, and where they once had the same apprehensions about the prospective scarcity of timber which is now felt at the north, they now have a^g-peater abundance of timber than they had 20 years ago, notwithstanding all t!i,e consumption of a comparatively dense population ; and tim- ber has sprung up and 'grown large enough for farming purposes, where at the time of settlement were extensive an 1 monotonous prairies. Above ail countries, this is the land of flowers. In the season every prairie is an immense flower-garden. In :the -early- stages of -spring rises a generation of flowers, whose prevalent .tint is peachblow. " 'Ehe'next is a deeper red. Then suc- ceeds the yellow; and to, the latest period of autumn, the prairies 'exhibit a brilliant golden hue. The Sangamon country is one of the finest stock districts in the Western states, the summer range for cattle- is inexhaustible, and the amount of excellent hay that may be made evwr season from the rich prairies almost without limit. Horses, cattle, sheep, and nogs, can be raised here with but little trouble and ex- pense, compared with the eastern states. The mildness of the climate has not unfrequently relieved the owners from all care and expense of feeding them through the whole year ; but it is generally necessary to feed from the commencement of December until the latter part of March. When cattle are fed and attended to in the best manner by provident farmers, the expense is less by one half, than winter- ing the same species of stock in the eastern states. The shortness and moderation of the winter seasons, and the abundant forage which may as yet be gathered from the wild prairies, render the raising of stock both cheap and easy. The grass, when cut from the upland prairies and well cured, makes excellent hay ; and cattle will keep in good order the whole winter on this food alone. It has also been frequently remarked, that both horses and cattle fatten quite as fast in the spring and summer, on the wild grass of the prai- ries, as upon the tame pastures of the east. And the richness and flavour of the beef thus fattened, has been much esteemed at St. Louis and New-Orleans, and generally reckoned of the finest quality. This region is also admirably adapted for the cultivation of the sugar beet root, which besides its great value in the manufacture of the beet sugar, is about to be- come a most important article in the feeding of cattle. The following account of what has been accomplished in this way by a single individual, is extracted from a western paper of late date. " Jx>t Pugh, Esq. of Cincinnati, has cultivated most successfully the sugar beet, on his farm near that city. Last year he raised 50 tons of beets to the acre, and his crop is much better the present season. The manager of the farm says, that it requires but little more labour to raisa 50 tons of beets than fifty bushels of corn, while the former is THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 27 quite as good for horses, much better for cattle, and rather better for stock hogs. He also asserts, that sucking calves preferred beets, when properly prepared, to milk. Although cattle and hogs will eat beets in a raw state, still they are much better when boiled. The apparatus and fixtures used by Mr. Pugh for boiling or rather steaming, food for 300 hogs and 40 or 50 cows, with other stock, cost about $150, and consumes a quarter of a cord of wood per day." The above will show that a new item of national wealth is about to be introdu- ced into the United States. The culture of the beet root has produced important results in France. It is well known that land in those districts where its growth has become general has increased 'in value from 50 to 150 per cent. ; and the clear annual income per acre, alter paying all expenses, ranges from 35 to 40 dollars. The profits would be equally great in this country ; for, although the price of la- bour is cheaper in France, the difference would no doubt be amply compensated by the superior fertility of the Illinois prairies, and the circumstance of dispensing with manure, which the great depth and richness of the soil of the Sangamon and other districts in this state will render unnecessary for a long period. A very con- siderable diminution of the annual profits in Europe, consists in the expense of manuring the land so as to make it sufficiently rich to produce a remunerating crop. The prodigious impulse which the. prosperity of a country may receive from the introduction of a single new plant, is illustrated by the following historical tact. In an early part of the reign of George the First, the culture of the turnip was limited in England to as few gardenstLs that of the beet is now with us, and used almost exclusively for culinary purposes. That monarch, in one of his visits to his Efectorate of Hanover, was attended by his Secretary of State, Lord Town- send; whilst residing there, this nobleman w^s struck by the appearance of ex- tensive fields-flevoted to the culture of turnips as food for cattle and sheep. Im- pressed with the belief that this method might, be i;ttrm. the time of its discovery by La Salle, Mr. Schoolcraft first reached the source %f .the Mississippi, in the little lake Itasca, on | a high table-land, 1500 feet abis^e. the .Gulf of Mexico, and 3160 miles from its ' mouth by the windings of its chanmeK Its source is in, about 47, and its mouth in 29 north latitude ; and it consequently traverses 18 degrees of latitude. This great river is in some respectsPpiifr noblest in the world, draining a larger valley, and irrigating a more fertile region, .and having, probably, a longer course, than any other stream. It commences in many branches, that rise, for the most part, in wild rice lakes; but ;it ra/erses no great distance before it becomes a broad stream. > Having acquired, in a course^ following its meanders, of three hundred miles, a width of half a mile, and having formed its distinctive character, it precipitates its waters down the Falls of St. Afcthony. Thence it glides alternately through beautiful meadows and deep forests, swelling in advancing march with the tribute of a hundred streams. In its progress it receives a tributary, which of itself has a course of more than a thousand leagues. Thence it rolls its accumulated, turbid, and sweeping mass of waters through continued forests, only broken here and there by the axe, in lonely grandeur to the sea. No thinking mind can contemplate this mighty and resistless wave sweeping its proud course from point to point, curving round its bends through the dark forests, without a feeling of sublimity. The hundred shores laved by its waters the long course of its tributaries, some of which already flow through the abodes of cultiva- tion, and others pursue an immense course without a solitary dwelling of civilized man on their banks the numerous tribes of savages that now roam over its bor- ders the affecting and imperishable traces of generations that are gone, leaving no other memorials of their existence or materials for their history, than their tombs that rise at frequent intervals along its banks the dim, but glorious antici- pations of the future, these are subjects of contemplation that cannot but associate themselves with the view of this river. With the common propensity of travellers to exaggerate, the Falls of St. Antho- ny, until very recently, have been much overrated. Instead of the extravagant ! estimates of the first French writers, or the fall of fifty feet assigned to them by THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 2!) more modern authorities, the real fall of the Mississippi here is between sixteen and seventeen feet of perpendicular descent. Though it has not the slightest claim to compare with that of Niagara in grandeur, it furnishes an impressive and beautiful spectacle in the loneliness of the desert. The adjoining scenery is of the most striking and romantic character ; and, as the traveller listens to the solemn roar of the falls, as it sinks into feeble echoes in the forests, a thrilling story is told him of the love and despair of a young Dacotah or Sioux Indian woman, who, goaded by jealousy towards her husband, who had taken another wife, placed her young children in a canoe, and, chanting the remembrances of love and broken vows, precipitated herself and her infants down the falls. Indians are always romancers, if not poets. Their traditions say, that these ill-fated beings so per- ished, that no trace of them was seen ; but they suppose that her spirit wanders still near this spot, and that she is seen on sunny mornings, carrying her babes in the accustomed manner bound to her bosom, and still mourning the inconstancy of her husband. Below this point it is bounded by limestone bluffs, from 100 to 400 feet high, and first begins to exhibit islands, drift-wood, and sand-bars; its current is slightly broken by the Rock river and Des Moines rapids, which, however, present no con- siderable obstruction to navigation ; and 843 miles from the falls its waters are augmented by the immense stream of the Missouri from the west : the latter has, indeed, the longer course, brings down a greater bulk of water, and gives its qwn character to the united current; yet it loses its name in the inferior stream. Above their junction, the Mississippi is a clear, placid stream, one mile and a half in width ; below, it is turbid, and becomes narrower, deeper, and more rapid. Between the Missouri and the sea, a distance of 1220 miles, it receives its prin- cipal tributaries, the Ohio from the east, 'and the Arkansas and Red river from the west; and immediately below the mouth; of the latter, gives off, in times of flood, a portion of its superfluous waters by,$je'cfotlet ef the Atchafalaya. It is on this lower part of its course, where it should, pronerly speaking, bear the name of the Missouri, that it often tears away the islands' and projecting points, and at the season of high water, plunges great masses pf me banks, with all their trees, into its current. In many places it deposits imnfense heaps of drift-wood upon its mud- bars, which become as dangerous to the navigator as shoals and rocks at sea. Below the Atchafalaya, it discharges a portion of its waters by the Lafourche and Iberville ; but the great bulk flows on in trte main channel, which here has a south-easterly course, and, passing through the ftatlrapt .yf New-Orleans, reaches the sea at the end of a long projecting, tonft* of mud, deposited by the river. Near the Gulf of Mexico, it divides into several channels, here called passes, with bars at their mouths of from 12 to 16 feet of water. The water is white and tur- bid, and colours those of the Gulf for the distance of several leagues. The river begins to rise in the early part of March, and continues to increase irregularly to the middle of June, generally overflowing its banks to a greater or less extent, although for some years these have not been inundated. Above the Missouri, the flooded bottoms are from five to eight miles wide, but below that point, they expand, by the recession of the river hills from the channel, to a breadth of from 40 to 50 miles. From the mouth of the Ohio, the whole western bank does not offer a single spot eligible for the site of a considerable town, and hardly affords a route for a road secure from overflow ; on the eastern side, there are seve- ral points where the hills approach the river, and afford good town-sites ; but from Memphis to Vicksburg, 365 miles, the whole tract consists of low grounds, subject to be inundated to the depth of several feet; and below Baton Rouge, where the line of upland wholly leaves the river, and passes off to the east, there is no place practicable for settlement beyond the river border, which is higher than the marshy tract in its rear. The Mississippi is obstructed by planters, sawyers, and wooden islands, which are frequently the cause of injury, and even destruction, to the boats which navi- gate it Planters are large bodies of trees firmly fixed by their roots in the bottom of the river, in a perpendicular manner, and appearing no more than about one foot above the surface of the water, when at its medium height. So firmly are 3* 30 GENERAL VIEW OF they rooted, that the largest boats running against them will not move them ; but, on the contrary, they materially injure the boats. Sawyera are likewise large bodies of trees, fixed less perpendicularly in the river, and rather of a less size, yielding to the pressure of the current, disappearing and appearing at intervals, and having a motion similar to the saw of a saw-miil, from which they have taken their name. These obstructions to the navigation have been partially removed by the enterprizing captain Shreve, and his snag-boat, in the employment of the gen- eral government; and a great portion of the trees that form them have been cut away from its banks. Wooden islands are places, where, by some cause or other, large quantities of drift-wood have been arrested and matted together in different parts of the river. Formerly, all these various impediments were the cause of heavy losses to the merchant, and danger to the traveller; but since the introduc- tion of steamboats, and the improvement of the channel .to which we have just al- luded, accidents of this nature are not of such frequent occurrence. The Mississippi and its mighty tributaries, which form so striking a natural fea- ture of this region, give to the mode of travelling and transportion in general, a peculiar cast, and have created a peculiar class pf men, called boatmen. Craft of all descriptions are found on these w^igr;-;. There are the rude, shapeless masses, that denote the infancy of riavi option, 1KI ^AHBpwen'ul and magnificent steamboat which marks its perfection; lui ; ^all t!ie intermediate forms between these extremes. The most inartifia^if of all water-craft is the ark, or Kentucky flat, a huge frame of square tirnberp v .^ith a roof. It is in shape a parallelogram, and lies upon the water like a log; it hardty feels the oar, and trusts for motion mainly to the current. It .is 15 feet wide, from 50 to 80 feet long, and carries from 200 to 400 barrels. These arks are often filled with the goods and families of emigrants, and carry even the carriages and domestic animals. They are also used for shops of various kinds of goods, which are sold at the different towns; and some of them are fitted ups the workshops of artificers. Sometimes, also, they are used as museums of wax-figureS^and other raree-shows, or for travelling libraries. There are also keel-boats an'd barges, which are light and well built; skiffs, that will carry from two persons to five tons; ."dug-outs," or pirogues, made of hollow- ed logs, and other vessels, for which language has no name, ,aittl the sea no par- allel. There are a few small boats, that are moved by a crarikiurned by a single man: these are on the principle of steamboat paddles. Since the*ise of steamboats, numbers of the other craft have disappeared, and the number of river boatmen has been diminished by many thousands. The first steamboat on these waters was built at Pittsburgh, in 1811 ; since that time, in a period of 25 years, about 600 have been built at different places, some of which are from 400 to 500 tons bur- then; but the greater number are from 90 to 150, 200, and 300 tons; there are at present not far from 300 steamboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries, making an aggregate of about 60,000 tons. The Mississippi is at all times navigable, except when obstructed by ice, by steamboats drawing three feet water, as tar up as Prairie du Chien; and frequently they run up to the Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of 800 miles above St. Louis. There are only two permanent obstructions to the easy navigation of this river, except at very low water, throughout this whole distance; and they occur opposite to different points in Illinois. The first is the Des Moines rapids, beginning a few miles above the outlet of the river of that name, and extending up about 14 miles, to a point nearly opposite the town of Commerce. In this distance there is a fall of 25 feet ; but the current is never too rapid for boats to stern it, and there is sel- dom less than three feet of depth in the channel. When the water gets very low, it is the practice to unload the steamboats, pass them light over the rapids, and take the freight over in keel-boats of less draught. These boats, when ascending, are towed up along the western shore by horses moving along the natural beach. This rapid is a source of great annoyance, expense, and delay ; and yet it is susceptible of being so easily improved, as to make it matter of surprise that it has not already been done. The second obstruction is the Rock Island rapids, very similar in character 10 those below. Thoy commence at Rock Island, just above the mouth of Rock river, THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 31 and extend eighteen miles up the Mississippi. The navigation of these rapids is about to be improved by the general government, tor which purpose an appropria- tion was made at the last session of Congress. The principal tributaries of the Mississippi within the state of Illinois, are Rock, Illinois, Kaskaskia, and Big Muddy rivers. About one hundred miles below the northern boundary of the state, and in 41 30' north latitude, Rock river enters the Mississippi. It is a beautitul limpid stream, with a course of near 400 miles, and is celebrated for the purity of its waters, the excellence of its fish, and the fertility of the lands on its banks. At a distance 'of from fifty to seventy miles lower down, Edwards, Pope's, and Henderson's rivers enter: these flow through fertile prairie- lands in the northern part of the Military Bounty Tract, and, though unavailable for the purposes of navigation, furnish fine mill-seats. In latitude 39 comes in the Illinois from the north a noble, broad, and deep stream, 400 yards wide at its^douth; having a course, including its head tributa- ries, of 450 miles, and being njfiugablc for a great distance. It is the most con- siderable tributary of the Mississippi above the Missouri. Nearly in 38, and almost 500 miles below the north line of the state, following' the windings of the Mississippi, the Kaskaskia river enters. It runs through a fertile and beautiful country, is 150 yards wide at the mouth, and has a course of nearly 300 miles in length. Upwards of forty miles lower down the stream of the Mississippi, the Big Muddy comes in from the north. It is a considerable river, flowing through 120 miles of country, and remarkable for having on -its shores fine coal-banks. At 37 north latitude, comes in the magnificent Ohio. It is by far the largest eastern tributary of the Mississippi. At the junction, and for 100 miles above, it is as wide as the parent stream. The importance of a good town-site at the union of these mighty streams, has for many years excited the attention of the eaterprizing. It is a feature in the rivers of the western country, with few exceptions, that at and near their junction the land is alluvion, of a recent formation, and, at the high annual floods, usually inundated to the depth of several feet. This is the case, particularly, at the mouth of the Ohio. For^velve miles along that river above its mouth, and a farther distance along th Mississippi, and across the point to Cash river, the country is subject to annual inundations. Had the Author of Nature formed here an elevated situation, nothing could have prevented this spot from becoming the central com- mercial emporium of the great western valley. .The immense trade of the Ohio and Mississippi, at some future day, will warrant.the expense of forming an artifi- cial site at this point for a commercial town. The termination of the great central rail-road through the state of Illinois will greatly facilitate this object, and, with the commerce of these great rivers, build up a splendid city. In due time, art, enterprize, and perseverance, will triumph over nature at this place, and a large commercial city will no doubt exist where now the waters of the Ohio and Missis- sippi occasionally spread. Rock River is one of the most clear and beautiful tributaries of the Mississippi. It has its source in Wisconsin Territory, a little to the north of latitude 43 30', immediately south-west of Winnebago lake, and about 130 miles, by the meanders of the stream, beyond the northern boundary of the state. Its general direction is south-west, and it enters the Mississippi not far from the commencement of the. Military Bounty Lands, after a course of about 300 miles. It is said to be naviga- ble for upwards of 200 miles; and receives in its course, about 17Q miles from its mouth, its most important tributary, the Pekatonica river; down wliich stream, one individual, some three or four seasons since, shipped nine flat-boats containing about 1,200,000 Ibs. of lead. A little above the mouth of this stream, in the Mississippi, is the beautiful island, called from the name of the river, on which is a military station of the United States, presenting one of the finest prospects on the whole range of the Mississippi. The country towards the head of Rock river is made up alternately of swamps and quagmires, ridges of sand and scrubby oaks, with tracts of rich, dry, undu- 32 GENERAL VIEW OF lating lands. The Terre Tremblant, or trembling lands, is in this region, and is so called from the shaking of the surface, while crossing over it. The militia of Illinois suffered much, in passing their horses through this country, in 1832, while pursuing the army of Black Hawk. Much of the country through which this river flows in Illinois is prairie. About the mouth of Turtle and Sycamore creeks are large bodies of timber. It generally passes along a channel of lime and sand- stone rock, and ti'as several rapids of some extent that injure the navigation at low water. The first is three or four miles above its mouth, the second, twelve or fif- teen miles below Dixonville : the next is just below the Pekatonica river. These will all furnish a great amount of water-power, applicable for manufacturing purposes. The country generally, along Rock river north to the boundary line, is among the most desirable in Illinois. It is beautifully undulating. The soil is rich and fertile ; but the timber is rather deficient. This, however, will not prevent it from becoming an extensive agricultural region. The Kaskaskia river is a considerable stream, and is navigable, in those portions of the year when the water is high, to Vandalia, 150 miles from its mouth ; and was ascended by a steamboat last spring to Carlyle, 100 miles from the Mississippi. It rises in Champaign county, and, after a south-west course of about 300 miles, enters the Mississippi, six miles below ifrevwn of Kaskaskia. Its banks, and those of its tributaries, are generally fertile, ^nd contain some rich and flourishing settlements. The country is mostly undulating, and is well adapted to the cultiva- tion of corn, wheat, rye, oats, and tobacco. Cotton is sometimes raised on its banks, in the lower part of its course. The Kaskaskia is about 150 yards wide at its mouth. The left bank is high, and affords a fine situation for a town ; but in many places the shores are low and subject to inundation, which is a fruitful source of disease. The legislature, in its system of internal improvements, appropriated $50,000 to improve the navigation of Kaskaskia river. The chief obstructions are logs and sand-banks, and short bends. The chief tributaries of the Kaskaskia are the Hur- ricane, Crooked, Prairie, Long, Silver, and Shoal creeks. Its lower course is known to the French people by the name of the Okau. The Big Muddy river (Riviere au Vase ou Vaseux), discovered and named b the French, is a considerable stream in the south-western part of the state. I rises in Jefferson county, between the waters of the Little Wabash and Kaskaskia rivers, and, after a south and south-western course of about 120 miles through Jef- ferson, Franklin, Jackson, and Union counties, flows into the Mississippi, about 25 miles below the Kaskaskia river, and 8 miles below the Grand Tower ; being fed by several considerable branches, the chief of which are, Little Muddy river, Beaucoup creek, and Middle Fork or Racoon creek. It is rendered beatable for 40 or 50 miles through a fine grazing and agricultural country. Its blufts gene- rally are abrupt The land along its borders and branches is undulating, and for most of its length well timbered. Valuable salines exist on its banks, and are worked about Brownsville, where there is an inexhaustible bed of bituminous coal. Native copper has been found on its banks, in detached masses. The Ohio river, which constitutes the southern boundary of the state of Illinois, commences at Pittsburg, where it is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela. This stream, from the beauty of the country on its banks, early obtained from the French traders the name of La Belle Riviere, or beautiful river. From its commencement it affords most delightful prospects; rivers, of romantic and beauti- ful character, come in almost at equal distances as lateral canals. Its bottoms are of extraordinary depth and fertility, generally high and dry, and for the most part healthy. Between Pittsburg and the mouth, it is diversified with 100 considerable islands. Some of these are of exquisite beauty, and afford most lovely situations for retired farms. The passages between them, and the sand-bars at their heads, are among the difficulties of the navigation of this river. The Ohio at Pittsburg is 600 yards wide, at Cincinnati a little more, and below the Cumberland its average breadth is 1000 yards. It is bounded in ita whole course by bluffs, sometimes towering sublimely from the shores of the river, and THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 33 sometimes receding two or three miles. The rapidity of its current is found, ac- cording to the different stages of the water, to vary between one and three miles. In the lowest stages of the water in autumn, a floating substance would probably not advance a mile an hour. It is subject to extreme elevations and depressions. The average range between high and low water, is fifty feet. Its lowest stage is in September, and its highest in March ; but it is subject to sudden and very con- siderable rises through the year. It has been known to rise twelve feet in a night. When these sudden elevations take place, at the breaking up of the ice, a scene of desolation sometimes occurs : boats, and every thing in its course, are carried away by the accumulated power of the ice and the waters The elevation of the river at Pittsburgh is 678 feet, and that of low water, at its confluence with the Mississippi, 283 feet in 949 miles, the length of the interme- diate channel making an average descent of a little over five inches in a mile. Since the Louisville and Portland canal has been completed, steamboats of small draft can descend at all times from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi. Flat and keel boats descend the river at all seasons, but in periods of low water with frequent groundings on the sand-bars, and the necessity of often unloading to get the boat off. From the rnouth of the Wabash to its confluence with the Mississippi, a distance of nearly 200 miles, the right bank of the Ohio forms the southern boundary of the state of Illinois. In this distance, its banks are generally low and subject to inun- dations ; but they are very fertile. These inundations, as on the Mississippi, are occasionally sources of disease, and in many cases impediments to improvement. There are, however, some elevated situations which afford good town-sites, and which must become places of conside- rable importance. It is much to be regretted, that at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi there is an extensive recently formed alluvion, which is annually inundated, and which cannot, without immense expense, be made an eligible town-site. At the mouth of the Wabash, the land is similarly situated. Below this, no stream of any considerable size empties into the Ohio within this state. The largest are Cash river, and Saline and Big Bay creeks. The Saline creek is the largest tributary of the Ohio within the limits of the state. It enters that river a few miles below Shawneetown, after a course of about 75 miles ; and is formed of the North, Middle, and South Forks. The salines, or salt springs, from which the stream takes its name, are in the vicinity of the town of Equality, and are sources of wealth to the country, furnishing large quantities of salt for home consumption. To Equality, 2*0 miles, from the Ohio, the Saline is navigable for steamboats of a small class. This stream and its branches water the counties of Gallatin, White, Hamilton, Franklin, and Johnson. The Wabash river rises in the northern part of Indiana, and running first a south-west and then a south course, empties into the Ohio nearly 200 miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. It is a beautiful stream about 600 miles in length, with but one considerable fall or rapid, which is near the junction of White river, below Vincennes. ]ji low water, it obstructs the navigation very considera- bly. An act was passed in 1819, to raise funds for the purpose of improving the navigation at this place, by means of a canal. For more than 200 miles, the Wa- bash forms the eastern boundary of the state. The