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Show 98 COMMERCE VILLAGE----CAPE GIRARDEAU----TOWER ROCK. wards and then sidewards, and so got afloat again. Little villages were seldom seen on this part of the banks of the Mississippi; however, we came to the village of Commerce, on a rocky hill, and it is here that rows of hills of a very interesting appearance commence on the left or Missouri bank. Fragments of rock lie about, and the cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) immediately appears again. The forest seems to decrease in height in these calcareous rocks, especially the planes, which are more colossal in Indiana; and on the eminences in the forests, isolated groups of rocks are often seen, frequently of singular forms, like pulpits. Night setting in, we retired to our cabin to avoid the cold evening air, and lay to under cover of the bank. At this spot there was a single planter's dwelling upon the steep bank, which was fifty or sixty feet high. A large fire was kindled at the top, which brilliantly illuminated the high trunks of the forest, and warmed our crew by its intense heat. In the cleanly cottage of the peasant, which was well closed on all sides, we conversed with his wife, who told us that their house had been burnt down a short time before, and rebuilt; she said also that wild animals abound in this part of the country ; stags especially are numerous, but bears are rarely met with. On the 21st of March we reached Cape Girardeau, an ancient French settlement, now a large scattered village, which, as we were told, had of late much improved. Beds of limestone appeared on the bank, and heaps of it were piled up ; it contains many shells. After passing Devil's Island, we found in the river a sunk steam-boat, which was now quite broken up ; many of these vessels passed us. The spicewood was everywhere in flower in the forests on the bank, and it is said that its appearance indicates a fine soil. The pretty narrow-leaved willow, on the contrary, was still covered with its last year's dry leaves. We passed by the villages of Bainbridge and Harris-burg, and then came to that part of the river which is called Hanging-Dog-Bend, where the Mississippi is wide and beautiful. Various strata and ravines are observed in the wooded calcareous mountains; such a stratified rock, cleft perpendicularly, has the name of the Devil's Tea-table; other rocks resembled round towers standing close to each other, all crowned with wood, where the turkey buzzard resorted. The opposite or Illinois bank has very seldom any such rocks, and it is more cultivated close to the river. Flocks of ducks, probably Anas ritfitorques, were swimming on the water. The calcareous rocks, grey, bright yellow, bright blue, or yellowish red, were frequently very singularly formed, especially a little further up, the interesting Grand Tower, an isolated, cylindrical rock, from sixty to eighty feet in height, which we reached when it was splendidly illumined by the setting sun. (Vig. IX.) To the right, on the Illinois bank, opposite the Tower Rock, at the point or corner of the mountain projecting towards the Mississippi, three or four very strangely formed rocks are standing, full of clefts and ravines, the foremost of which is called the Devil's Bake-oven, and is covered at the summit with pines. The Grand Tower* stands * It is well known that the whole tract contains shell limestone. Mr. Lesueur has made important collections of this kind on the Tower Rock at Vicksburg, Natchez, and other places on the banks of the Mississippi, of part of which he has |