SOURCE OP ST. PETER S RIVER. 53 



we were travelling upon the bottom of some lake, whose 

 waters had, at a comparatively modern period, broken 

 their bounds and found their way to the ocean. It is true, 

 that in the present state of our geographical and geological 

 knowledge of the valley drained by the Mississippi, it is 

 impossible to assign any probable limits to this vast inter- 

 nal ocean ; we know too little of the true direction of the 

 different chains of mountains, which extend throughout 

 this section of our country, or of their respective heights, 

 to allow us to trace the limits of that powerful dam which 

 formerly kept the whole of our western country under 

 water ; nor can we attempt to show in what places and 

 from what causes the dam was forced, but the mere in- 

 spection of the high plains, which form the centre of the 

 state of Ohio, must satisfy us that they doubtless owe the 

 characters which they now present, to the recent sojourn 

 of water. The country is covered with a very heavy 

 growth of wood ; many of the trees are upwards of five 

 feet in diameter. These forests consist chiefly of oak, ash, 

 elm, hickory, sugar-maple, black-walnut, beach, tulip, wild- 

 cherry, &c. The cotton-wood tree, and the garden-coral 

 honeysuckle were first observed here in great abundance ; 

 the tulip or Liriodendron, is the tree which attains the 

 largest size. The soil, though good, is not of the first 

 quality, and it is generally observed that the dark black 

 soil, which predominates, is inferior in quality to a choco- 

 late-coloured one which is occasionally met with. The 

 average produce of the best crops of Indian corn amounts 

 to about fifty bushels per acre ; a good crop of wheat yields 

 about thirty bushels. The increase of population in this 

 district is far from being as rapid as it promised to be ; the 

 want of a market, the unhealthiness of all the marshy 



