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Show 120 Early Western Travels [ Vol 26 carry the design into immediate execution. Two railroads are shortly to be constructed from Alton; one to Springfield, seventy miles distant, and the other to Mount Carmel on the Wabash. The stock of each has been mostly subscribed, and they cannot fail, when completed, to add much to the importance of the places. Alton is also a proposed terminus of two of the state railroads, and of the Cumberland Road. 88 At Alton terminates the " American Bottom," and here commences that singular series of green, grassy mounds, rounding off the steep summits of the cliffs as they rise from the water, which every traveller cannot but have noticed and admired. It was a calm, beautiful evening when we left the village; and, gliding beneath the magnificent bluffs, held our way up the stream, breaking in upon its tranquil surface, and rolling its waters upon either side in tumultuous waves to the shore. The rich purple of departing day was dying the western heavens; the light gauzy haze of twilight was unfolding itself like a veil over the forest- tops; " Maro's shepherd [ 92] star " was stealing timidly forth upon the brow of night; the flashing fireflies along the underbrush were beginning their splendid illuminations, and the mild melody of a flute and a few fine voices floating over the shadowy waters, lent the last touching to a scene of beauty. A little French village, with its broad galleries, and steep roofs, and venerable church, in a few miles appeared among the underbrush on the left. 84 Upon the opposite shore the • The plans mentioned here were probably being agitatrri when Flagg visited Alton in 1836. The act incorporating the first railroad in Illinois was approved January 17,1835; it provided for the construction of a road from Chicago to a point opposite Vincennes. By the internal improvement act of February 97, 1837, a road was authorized to be constructed from Alton to Terre Haute, by way of Shelby-ville, and another from Alton to Mount Carmel, by way of Salem, Marion County; but the act was repealed before the roads were completed. The Cumberland road was constructed only to VandaUa, Fayette County, though the internal improvement act contemplated its extension to St. Louis.- ED. M The French village is no doubt Portage des Sioux. In 1799 Francis Leseuer, a resident of St Charles, visited the place, which was then an Indian settlement. |