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Show 162 Early Western Travels [ Vol. a6 consists of an indefinite number of floats, which may be increased or diminished at pleasure, each of them fourteen feet'in breadth, and about four times that length, connected laterally together. After being sunk and suspended at the necessary depth in the water, the boat to be repaired is placed upon them, and they rise till her hull is completely exposed. As the spectator, standing upon the Mound, turns his eye to the south, a green grove lies before him and the smaller earth- heaps, over which are beheld the towers and roofs of the city rising in the distance; far beyond is spread out a smooth, rolling carpet of tree- tops, in the midst of which the gray limestone of the arsenal is dimly perceived. The extent between the northern suburbs of St. Louis and its southern extremity along the river curve is about six miles, and the city can be profitably extended about the same distance into the interior. The prospect in this direction is boundless for miles around, till the tree- tops blend with the western horizon. The face of the country is neither uniform nor broken, but undulates almost imperceptibly away, clothed in a dense forest of black- jack oak, interspersed with thickets of the wild- plum, the crab- apple, and the hazel. Thirty years ago, and this broad plain was a treeless, shrubless waste, [ 136] without a solitary farmhouse to break the monotony. But the annual fires were stopped; a young forest sprang into existence; and delightful villas and country seats are now gleaming from the dark foliage in all directions. To some of them are attached extensive grounds, adorned with groves, orchards, fish- ponds, and all the elegances of opulence and cultivated taste; while in the distance are beheld the glittering spires of the city rising above the trees. At one of these, a retired, beautiful spot, residence of Dr. F , I have passed many a pleasant hour. The sports- |
