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Show 126 Early Western Travels [ Vol. 26 the old French chronicler, speaks thus of it:" " The banks of that river are as charming to the eye as useful to life; the meadows, fruit- trees, and forests afiFording everything that is necessary for men and beasts." It traverses the entire length of one of the most fertile regions in the Union, and irrigates, by its tributary streams, half the breadth. Its channel is sufficiently deep for steamers of the larger class; its current is uniform, and the obstacles to its navigation are few, and may be easily removed. The chief of these is a narrow bar just below the town of Beardstown," stretching like a wing- dam quite across to the western bank; and any boat which may pass this bar [ 98] can at all times reach the port of the Rapids. Its length is about three hundred miles, and its narrowest part, opposite Peru, is about eighty yards in width. By means of a canal, uniting its waters with those of Lake Michigan, the internal navigation of the whole country from New- York to New- Orleans is designed to be completed. 8* The banks of the Illinois are depressed and monotonous, liable at all seasons to inundation, and stretch away for miles to the bluffs in broad prairies, glimpses of whose lively emerald and silvery lakes, caught at intervals through the dark fringe of cypress skirting the stream, are very refreshing. The bottom lands upon either side, from one mile to five, are seldom elevated much above the ordinary surface of the stream, and are at every higher stage of water submerged to the depth of many feet, presenting the appearance of a stream rolling its tide through an ancient and n For a sketch of Tonty, see NuttalTs Journal, in our volume xiii, p. 117, note 85.- ED. M Beardstone, Cass County, Illinois, was laid out by Thomas Beard and Enoch Marsh ( 1827). During the Black Hawk War ( 1832), it was the principal supply base for the Illinois volunteers.- ED. * For an account of the Illinois Canal, see Flint's Letters, in our volume ix, p. 186, note 93.- ED. |