328 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a river." Another adds tliat "distance lends enchantment to the 

 view." 



Here we have both these together with the fancy, beauty and pic- 

 turesque ideal of landscape gardeners. From this latitude a sweeping- 

 view in all directions from thirty to sixty to seventy-five miles, includ- 

 ing the meanderings of the Missouri river, with its islands, inlets, pro- 

 montories and extended beautiful fertile valleys. An extent of many 

 miles may be seen heavily laden steamers, while passing near by is dis- 

 tinctly heard, not only the puifing engine, but the creaking machinery 

 and the merry songs of the cooks and hands, and the waving handker- 

 chiefs by the passengers. Those passing down stream glide gaily and 

 majestically like some great sea fowl wending its way to the distant 

 ocean. On either side of the river are to be seen trains on numerous 

 railways coming to view at intervals and again and agaii> disappearing 

 behind some clump of timber or bluff. Froni the valley the eye is 

 greeted by here and there an abrupt promontory and intervening gen- 

 tle swelling slopes, beyond which opens out extended prairies, dotted 

 over with farms and farm houses, at the same time a bird's-eye view is 

 to be had of half a score of towns ^nd cities. Thus we have presented 

 to view not only a vast extent of country, but one of the grandest per- 

 spective landscapes in America. 



Among the important features of this locality are the wilderness — ■ 

 a thickly wooded, diversified, picturesque wild — containing many speci- 

 mens of the flora of the country, in part including groves of large sugar, 

 maple, elm, ash linn, walnut, oak, cherry, mulberry, hickory, sycamore, 

 red-bud, cottonwood, hackberry and many others, with a thick growth 

 of underbrush of pawpaw, dogwood, etc., together with wild grape, ivy, 

 bittersweet, and other climbing vines. Yet some of the more magnifi- 

 cent and rare attractions are the gigantic bluffs, with a succession of 

 terraces, adapted to secluded drives, at different altitudes from the 

 riverside to the summit. Here are to be seen the rugged precipices 

 cropping out 'mid the overhanging trees and vines. Numerous springs 

 gush out and ripple down among the rocks till they pour over some 

 high ledge, furnishing perpetual shower baths. 



Further along may be seen great caverns environed with dense 

 masses of trees, brush and vines all conspiring to complete the wild 

 appearance of a den of a bandit. 



Continuous deep ledges of rocks at intervals project out among 

 the dense forests, with a background of dense, shady green. Eeced- 

 ing outward from these river scenes, the land is beautifully undulating 

 and alternating between native groves and green fields traversed by 

 small steams fed by never-failing springs of purest water. 



