NO. 2042. ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS— BUSHWELL. 643 



pancy in the vicinity of the Meramec, and the stone graves, the village 

 site, and the traces of work in the area adjacent to the salt spring 

 near the mouth of the Saline, should be attributed to the Illinois 

 tribes, whose principal villages were on the eastern side of the 

 Mississippi. 



Pere de Charlevoix arrived at Kaskaslda October 19, 1721. Wliile 

 there he wrote of the surrounding country, of the native tribes, and of 

 the French settlement and IMission, but he failed to mention the 

 existence of the salt spring a few miles above, on the opposite side of 

 the Mississippi. Nevertheless, there is Httle doubt of its having been 

 the source whence the early French colonists secured their supply of 

 salt, as it was at a later day, when it was written: ''The salines just 

 below St. Genevieve are productive. The inliabitants on both sides 

 of the Mississippi derive most of their supplies from them; and no 

 small proportion of the salt is boated up the Ohio. The salines on 

 the Merimak are also valuable: They supply in part the settlers on 

 the east side of the Mississippi." ^ 



On the map of Pierre van der Aa, dating from the early part of the 

 eighteenth century, the Saline Creek is correctly placed and bears 

 the name "la Saline." On the BeUin map of 1744 the "R a la Sahne" 

 is indicated, and on the north side, near its mouth, is "la Saline." 

 The area is more clearly and accurately delineated on the d'Anville 

 map of 1755. Here the name "Ste. Genevieve" is applied to the 

 settlement on the Mississippi north of the "Saline," which is accu- 

 rately placed a short distance from the left bankof the " R. a la Saline." 

 The Ross map of 1765, a section of which is reproduced in plate 50, 

 indicates the positions of the French and Indian villages. Ste. 

 Genevieve here bears the name of "Misere," and Saline Creek that of 

 " Salt pans River." Near the mouth of the river is shown the position 

 of "the Salt pans." It is quite probable that about tliis time the 

 making of salt by evaporating the waters of the spring became a 

 recognized industry, and tliis was evidently one of the places Bossu 

 had in mind when he wrote: "At the Illinois, the 15ih of May 1753 

 * * * The Illinois country is one of the finest in the world; it 

 supplies aU the lower parts of Louisiana with flower. Its commerce 

 consists in furs, lead and salt. There are many salt springs, that 

 attract the wild oxen, and the roe-bucks."^ A short time after the 

 peace of 1763 a British officer visited the settlements of Upper 

 Louisiana and left tliis brief reference to the saline: "Sainte Gene- 

 vieuve, or Msere. The first settlers of this village removed about 

 twenty-eight years ago from Cascasquias. * * * The situation 

 of the village is very convenient, being within one league of the salt 



1 Stoddard, Major Amos, Sketches * * * of Louisiana, Philadelphia, 1812, p. 401. 



2 Bossu, Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana (Eng. trans.), London, 

 1771, vol. 1, p. 127. 



