SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 429 



much of it being an old Spanish grant for a public com- 

 mon. All the land between the city and Jefferson Bar- 

 racks, and even below, is in the same condition, being 

 claimed as a common of the town of Carondalet, a little 

 miserable collection of old Spanish or older French 

 houses, a few miles below St. Louis, and is one of the 

 oldest French towns in the west. This common land 

 remains unsettled, and the timber having been cut off, 

 is now grown up to bushes; and in the vicinity of such 

 a city has a very unsightly appearance. Jefferson Bar- 

 racks, by the expenditure of a few wagon loads of Uncle 

 Sam's money, has been made a beautiful spot amid this 

 wilderness of Spanish spoliation and French frivolity, 

 both of which classes had rather live on frogs and to- 

 bacco, and spend their time in drinking and dancing, 

 than in growing rich by the cultivation of the earth. 



The old Spanish and French citizens in St. Louis, for 

 a long time successfully resisted the spirit of improve- 

 ment that pulls down to build up ; and the old grants of 

 land to this class of citizens, some of which are still un- 

 settled, have been a great detriment to the improvement 

 of this part of the State of Missouri. 



From St. Louis to the Merrimac river, 18 miles, the 

 road lies over a succession of clayey hills, and for 14 

 miles after leaving the city, scarcely any improvements, 

 and them but poor. Soon after crossing this stream, we 

 begin to enter the great mining district of Missouri, and 

 find ourselves climbing rocky mountain sides, picking 

 our way along some mountain stream that winds between 

 high precipices of perpendicular rock. Oh what a 

 change. What a contrast from the boundless and com- 

 paratively level prairie, where the eye found no limit but 

 the horizon, to this pent up prison of rocky grandeur. 



The prairie land behind me lies, 



That boundless realm of grass and hay. 



The mountain rocks before me rise, 

 With nought to cheer my toilsome way. 



