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Show 88 Early Western Travels [ Vol. * 6 useful; but for driving heavy millstones or a saw, the utility is more than problematical. In the vicinity of Cape Girardeau commences what is termed the " Tyowapity Bottom," a celebrated section of country extending along the Missouri side of the stream some thirty miles, and abounding with a peculiar species of potter's clay, unctuous in its nature, exceedingly pure and white, and plastic under the wheel.** This stratum of clay is said to vary from one foot to ten in depth, resting upon sandstone, and covered by limestone abounding in petrifactions. A manufactory is in operation at Cape Girardeau, in which this substance is the material employed. Near the northern extremity of this bottom the waters of the Muddy River enter the Mississippi from Illinois." This stream was discovered by the early French voyageurs, and from them received the name of Rivikre au Vase, or Vaseux. It is distinguished for the salines upon its banks, for its exhaustless beds of bituminous coal, for the fertility of the soil, and for a singularly- formed eminence among the bluffs of the Mississippi, a few miles from its mouth. Its name is " Fountain Bluff," derived from the circumstance that from its base gush out a number of limpid springs.* 4 It is said to measure eight miles [ 59] in circumference, and to have an altitude of several hundred feet Its western declivity looks down upon the river, and its northern side is a precipitous crag, while that • A superior quality of kaolin, or china day, is mined in large quantities in Cape Girardeau County. Marble ninety- nine per cent pure, is procured in abundance.- ED. • " Muddy River/ 9 usually called " Big Muddy," is the English translation of the French Rivihre au Vase, or Vaseux. Fonned by the union of two branches rising in Jefferson County, Illinois, it flows in a southwesterly direction and empties into the Mississippi about twenty- five miles above Cape Girardeau. It is one hundred and forty miles long.- ED. M Fountain Bluff is six miles above the mouth of the Big Muddy. Flagg's descriptions are in the main accurate.- ED. |
