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Show 1836- 1837] Fogg's Far West 263 the right shore of the Missouri, not far above Florissant, is situated LA Charbonni& re, a name given to a celebrated coal- bank in a bluff about two hundred feet in altitude, and about twice as long. 1" The stratum of coal is about a dozen feet in thickness, and lies directly upon the margin of the river: the quantity in the bank is said to be immense, and it contains an unusual proportion of bitumen. Iron ore has also been discovered at this spot. The road over the Missouri Bottom was detestable, as never fails to be the case after a continued rain- storm, and my horse's leg sank to the middle in the black, unctuous loam almost at every step. Upon either side, like colonnades, rose up those [ 250] enormous shafts of living verdure which strike the solitary traveller upon these unfrequented bottoms with such awe and veneration; while the huge whirls of the writhing wild- vine hung dangling, like gigantic serpents, from the lofty columns around whose capitals they clung. On descending the bluffs to the bottom, the traveller crosses a bed of limestone, in which is said to exist a fissure perfectly fathomless. In a few moments, the boiling, turbid floods of the Missouri are beheld rolling majestically along at the feet, and to the stranger's eye, at first sight, always suggesting the idea of unusual agitation; but so have they rolled onward century after century, age after age. The wild and impetuous character of this river, together with the vast quantities of soil with which its •• Until after the middle of the nineteenth century, St. Louts County ranked among the coal- producing districts of Missouri. Today no coal is mined there save for the fire- clay industry or other immrdiatr local use. Dr. B. F. Shumard in his " Description of a Geological Section on the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Commerce," in Geological Survey of Missouri, First and Second Annual Reports ( Jefferson City, 1855), p. 176, describes La Chawbonniere mine; which appears to have been operated at that time. He reports the coal vein as being only about eighteen inches in thickness. On page 184 of the above report, an interesting map is given, showing the location of coal mines in St. Louis County.- ED. |