TOPOGRAPHY. 113 



ever, of rather a large proportion of clay, and of rather a 

 level surface, it is not ready for the plough so early as some 

 lands further north. Augusta is a small village on Skunk 

 River, about eight or ten miles from I^urlington. New Lon- 

 don, Franklin, and other small villages, are scattered upon 

 the prairie, in this county. 



Louisa is a very small county on tiic river, next above 

 Des Moines. Wapello, on tlie Iowa River, is tlic capi- 

 tal. It has two or three other small villages, but is prin- 

 cipally remarkable for having formerly had an Indian town, 

 the residence of Black Hawk, within it, and the river 

 Iowa running through it. A part of the large island, called 

 by the Indians Mascotin (E^rairie Island), is in this coun- 

 ty. The word, by a natural metamorphosis, has been 

 called by the French Muscodin and Muscatine, and under 

 that change has given name to the slough or branch of the 

 river that divides it from the main, and to the county at its 

 upper end, adjoining Louisa. This island presents a singu- 

 lar feature in the topography of this part of the river. It is 

 nearly twenty miles from north to south, and about half of 

 that extent in the other direction, and is a bottom prairie, but 

 little elevated above the river, and nearly a mechanical level. 

 It is made by a small portion of the river which passes 

 around it, joining the main stream again, after a course of 

 twenty-five or thirty miles, a short distance above the Iowa 

 River mouth. The upper end of the island is about twenty- 

 five miles below the moulli of Rock River, and nearly the 

 same above the mouth of Iowa. 



Muscatine county, begimiing on the island, and extending 

 some sixteen or eighteen miles above it, is well watered, hav- 

 ing the Red Cedar traversing it from north to south, at ten or 

 twelve miles from the Missisippi, in nearly a parallel direc- 

 tion, and the Wapsinonoc Creek farther west, a tributary of 



