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Show 1836- 1837] Fogg's F* r West 115 out the long low outline of " Blood Island " in the middle of the stream. 77 For several miles above the city, as we proceeded up the river, pleasant villas, with their white walls and cultivated grounds, were caught from time to time by the eye, glancing through the green foliage far in the interior. It was a glorious day. Silvery cloudlets were floating along the upper sky like spiritual creations, and a fresh breeze was rippling the waters: along the banks stood out the huge spectral Titans of the forest, heaving aloft their naked limbs like monuments of " time departed," while beneath reposed the humble hut and clearing of the settler. It was nearly midday, after leaving St. Louis, that we reached the embouchure of the Missouri. Twenty miles before attaining that point, the confluent streams flow along in two distinct^ currents upon either shore, the one white, clayey, and troubled, the other a deep blue. The river sweeps along, indeed, in two distinct streams past the city of St. Louis, upon either side of Blood Island, nor does it unite its heterogeneous floods for many miles below. At intervals, as the huge mass rolls itself [ 87] along, vast whirls and swells of turbid water burst out upon the surface, producing an aspect not unlike the sea in a gusty day, mottled by the shadows of scudding clouds. Charlevoix," the chronicler of the early French explorations in North America, " For a brief sketch of William H. Ashley see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume yn'i, p. 250, note 198. He purchased ( 1826 or 1827) eight acres on the present site of Broadway, between Biddlc and Bates streets, St Louis, where he built a handsome residence. Bloody Island, now the Third Ward of East St. Louis, was formed about 1800 by the current cutting its way through the neck in a bend of the river. For a long time it was not determined to what state it belonged, and being considered neutral ground many duels were fought there, notably those between Thomas H. Benton and Charles Lucas ( 18x7), United States District Attorney Thomas Rector and Joshua Barton ( 1823), and Thomas Biddle and Spencer Pettis ( 1830). The name was derived from these bloody associations.- ED. n For a sketch of Charlevoix, see NuttalTs Journal, in our volume xiii, p. 116, note 81.- ED. |