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Show KASKASKIA RIVER----ST. GENEVIEVE RIVER. 99 quite isolated on the left bank; and its summit is crowned with red cedars. Behind it there is another large rock, split into several perpendicular divisions, like towers, and the whole group forms, as it were, a most original portico. Some habitations were picturesquely situated against these rocks. A little above that narrow rocky portico of the river, the Obrazo Creek, in the State of Missouri, appears, where we took in fuel. The ravine of the stream was covered with fine tall timber, to which the kingfisher resorted. A couple of cottages were inhabited by negroes, and in front of them lay a piece of fertile land, where rows of cotton trees were planted. The high old elms were now in flower by the side of the stream, and the large red cedars, around the dwellings, were still partly laden with their black berries. The Mnium ciliare (Grev.; Bryum) was abundant in this neighbourhood. Above Hat Island, we lay to for the night on the Missouri bank. The morning of the 22nd of March was serene; the sight of the rising sun from the poop of the vessel was truly magnificent; as the flaming disk of the king of day rose above the woody banks of the Mississippi, the waves formed by the rapid course of the vessel glowed with the most resplendent colours; the wild geese and ducks, frightened by our Paragon, hastened away with rustling wings; the kingfisher was frequent on the shrubs. Near St. Mary River we ran aground, but were not long delayed by this accident. The cords of wood for the steam-boat were lying ready piled up on the bank, stating the price and the quantity. The village of Chester, in Illinois, where we took in wood, was quite a new settlement, consisting at present of but a few houses. Among the limestone and wood on the bank, we shot a beautiful lizard (Agama undulata, Daud.), which is said to attain a considerable size, especially on the river St. Peter. The buds of the red oak were very forward. At noon the weather was excessively warm, and on the river the thermometer was + IIP Reaumur. We saw the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, on the Illinois bank, six miles up which Kaskaskia is situated, one of the oldest French settlements on the Mississippi. The tribe of Kaskaskian Indians dwelt in these parts, and some remains of them still live near the settlement. We were told that there was at present only one man among them of the pure race. A wooded chain of hills runs along the Kaskaskia, in which large columns of smoke were rising, doubtless occasioned by the woods being on fire. Numbers of tortoises were basking at noon on the trunks of trees and stones in the river. They have hard shells, and most of them are not large ; though we often shot at them, we did not succeed in getting a single one. Wild geese were walking upon the sand-banks; we fired at them ; the first shot did not in the smallest degree discompose them; at the second, when the ball whizzed close by them, they flew away, but only to a short distance. At St. Genevieve Island, the river divides, and we steered to the west of the island. It is covered with lofty trees; the banks are abruptly broken; large trunks made descriptions and drawings. He has accurately stated the several strata, with the shells of animals and fishbones occurring in them. The shells are very friable when taken out of the rock-afterwards, and especially if washed in water, they are firmer. Mr. Lesueur has sent large collections of these things to France. ¦ |