428 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



but it did'nt do well." And why don't you set an orchard? 

 "Well, I reckon may be I will some day — did set out a few 

 trees once, and they grew powerfully, but the cattle soon 

 destroyed 'em." And no wonder, for they were set in 

 "the big field," the eternal corn field. Fences are much 

 swept away, and probably the barns with them, for they 

 are not to be seen now, although the little old miserable 

 dwellings, like the owners, hang on. The land in many 

 places is much grown over with bushes, mostly crab- 

 apple, which abound by the million. The bottom is nine 

 miles wide, and is bounded on the east by a very high 

 clay bluff, that bears evident marks high up its face, that 

 here once run a mighty current. There are also many 

 mounds upon the bottom that show the same appearance, 

 and that the stream gradually wore down this immense 

 mass of clay to the present level. 



During the flood, the ferry was nine miles wide ; now 

 less than a ninth of that, which I crossed upon the 22d of 

 January, 1845, on a steam ferry boat, and upon a beauti- 

 ful sunny day as we need wish for in May. The two 

 boats at this ferry are almost constantly crowded with 

 produce and market wagons from 60 or 70 miles back 

 in Illinois, coming to St. Louis. The old part of this 

 city was built upon an abrupt rocky bank, and in addi- 

 tion to its outward wall, many of the old Spanish houses 

 were separately walled in like a strong fortification. 

 Some vestiges of these, and the old Spanish houses, still 

 remain, but are fast giving way to the spirit of improve- 

 ment, every where visible. But the town suffers one 

 monstrous inconvenience in the narrowness of the streets. 

 Some of the main business streets being barely wide 

 enough to allow two wagons to pass. It is a place of 

 immense businesss, constantly on the increase. The lead 

 and fur traders alone employing great capital, and a vast 

 agricultural country above, that draws its supplies 

 through this place, create a vast trade. 



The land around the city is not under good improve- 

 ment ; which is probably owing to the want of good title : 



