114 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



Cedar. This is a well settled county. North of the Iowa 

 River the soil loses some of its alumine, with which it was 

 rather surcharged in Des jMoines, and becomes more mellow 

 by an admixture of sand, which is probably silico-cretaceous. 

 The surface also becomes more undulating, and the union of 

 these two conditions overcomes a degree, more or less, of 

 latitude, and the season for begimiing cultivation is, there- 

 fore, about the same in this distance. Apart from this con- 

 sideration, I think the change is for the better in regard to 

 fertility, and that the tract of country between the Iowa and 

 the Maquoketa, or Makwaketa, is perhaps rather the best on 

 the river in this point. It is, however, inferior in another, 

 hardly of less importance to the farmer, that is, in the quantity 

 of timber. With this article the region now under our obser- 

 vation is rather scantily supphed. Bloomington is the county 

 seat of Muscatine county. There are a few^ small villages 

 beside, Moscow on the Cedar, and Salem and Wyoming on the 

 Missisippi. The City of Ellenborough, a mere embryo with a 

 sounding name and a most ample charter, has been projected, 

 and having a good site, may at some day exchange its em- 

 bryo for an actual existence. Bloomington is a place of 

 much business. It has one of the best positions, geograplu- 

 cally, in the territorv^, and is one of the most important 

 towns. Its population probably is nearly 1500. It has the 

 disadvantage of a bad site, both local and relative, it being 

 on a steep bluff, and in the immediate vicinity of Mascotin 

 Island and Slough above mentioned, which last is apt to be 

 a cause of disease. 



The region above Muscatine county, as far as Maquoketa 

 River, including Scott and Clinton counties, and part of 

 Jackson, is very scantily supphed with timber. It is highly 

 fertile, however, and a handsome country. The banks of the 

 river, on both sides, from Bloomington to the Wabesepinecon, 



