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Show JEFFERSON CITY----COTE SANS DESSEIN. 473 culty proceed up the shallow river. Old Roubedoux, who was on board, brought news from St. Louis. He had purchased from the Fur Company, for 500 dollars, the trading house on the Black Snake Hills, from which we had just come. Having halted near the steam-boat at noon, with a temperature of 89°, we made a short excursion into the wood, where I procured the beautiful red adder, Coluber coccineus. The colour of its exquisitely marked body is a brownish vermilion, and, therefore, not so purely vermilion as the splendid coral adder of Brazil. The forest was so full of the caterpillars which have been already mentioned, that walking through it was most disagreeable. At five in the afternoon we passed Grand River, and lay-to for the night six miles further down, on the south bank, at a plantation, the friendly inmates of which, though very well disposed, could give us only a small supply of provisions. On the 23rd, in the neighbourhood of Little Arrow Rock, we saw some persons catching an immensely large white catfish, the weight of which must have been very great, but I was not able to stop and examine it. At this place we heard a strange noise under the boat, which my people affirmed was produced by the prickly fins of the fish called by them casburgot, or malacigan {Catastomus carpio, Les.), and by the Americans, buffalo-fish. It weighs from five to six pounds. Towards evening we passed Franklin, and stopped at Boonville. Two negro slaves, who were returning from the plantations, were very much astonished at the sight of my bears: one of them had a long tin speaking-trumpet, with which these men, when working in the forest, are called together. It may not be irrelevant to remark that all the negroes of these parts are slaves. Fine tall trees covered the hills on the bank, which my people ascended in order to purchase provisions in the scattered dwellings of the planters. On the 24th we passed the small town of Columbia, below the mouth of the Manitu stream, where a quantity of logs of wood, for the use of the steam-boats, was piled up on the bank. At noon the thermometer was at 90°. An uninterrupted forest, with beautiful scenery, adorned the canal during the entire extent of this day's voyage. Having passed the village of Maryanne, on the northern side, we reached Jefferson City at six in the afternoon. This place is still in its infancy and most of the habitations are scattered, while the ground between them is not yet levelled. It is covered with heaps of stones and high weeds ; and cows and pigs were roaming about at liberty. We could not obtain any provisions except salt pork, biscuits, and whisky. In the bookseller's shop, as it is termed, we only found a few school books. In the evening I proceeded to the plantation of a person named Ramsay, where a number of negroes congregated about our boat, from whom I was fortunate enough to purchase some poultry. These people were dressed in all sorts of left-off clothes, and forcibly reminded me of similar scenes in Brazil. At eight o'clock in the morning of the 25th, we passed Cote sans Dessein; and at noon, when the thermometer was at 88°, reached the little town of Portland, which was founded about two years since. Near the mouth of Gasconade River we met the Oto steam-boat. We stopped 3 p |