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Show 1836- 1837] Fogg's Far West 97 washed away that the settlers were forced to select a more elevated site. The Mississippi was at this time swelled to thirty feet above the highest water- mark before known; and the town of Kaskaskia and the whole American Bottom were inundated. Almost every description of minerals are to be found in the county, of which Ste. Genevieve is the seat of justice. But of all other species, iron ore is the most abundant. The celebrated Iron Mountain and the Pilot Knob are but forty miles distant. n Abundance of coal is found in the opposite bluffs in Illinois. About twelve miles from the village has been opened a quarry of beautiful white marble, in some respects thought not inferior to that of Carrara. There are also said to be immense caves of pure white sand, of dazzling lustre, quantities of which are transported to Pittsburg for the manufacture of flint glass. There are a number of beautiful fountains in the neighbourhood, one of which is said to be of surpassing loveliness. It is several [ 68] yards square, and rushes up from a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, enclosed upon three sides by masses of living rock, over which, in pensile gracefulness, repose the long glossy branches of the forest trees. The early French settlers manufactured salt a few miles from the village, at a saline formerly occupied by the aborigines, the remains of whose earthen kettles are yet found on the spot. About thirty years since a village of the Peoria Indians was situated where the French common field now stands ; w and from the ancient mounds found in the vicinity, 0 Pilot Knob is a conical- shaped hill, a mile in diameter, in Iron County, Missouri, seventy- five miles southwest of St. Louis, and is rich in iron ore. In the War of Secession it was the scene of a battle between General Ster ling Price and General Hugh B. Ewing ( September 26, 27, 1864). Iron Mountain is an isolated knob of the St. Francois Mountains in St. Francois County, eighty miles south of St. Louis. One of the richest and purest iron mines in the United States is found there.- ED. • The Peoria were one of the five principal tribes of the Illinois Confederation. |
