42 KANKAKEE. 



Spain and Italy. This first journey occupied three days, the 

 last day of September, and the first and second of October. 



Immediately after leaving Chicago we enter on the prairie, 

 which, near Lake Michigan, and for the first twenty miles, is 

 low and wet, better suited for pasture and dairying than the 

 cultivation of corn. The country then begins to rise, and in 

 the next twenty miles the surface becomes dry and undulating ; 

 the soil a black mould, varying in depth from twelve to thirty 

 inches, and resting on clay, or a mixture of clay and gravel. 

 From this point to the Kankakee Eiver, the first large stream 

 we cross, the prairie is a series of long and gentle undulations, 

 less abrupt than the chalk downs of England, but otherwise 

 resembling them in general form and sweep. The character 

 of the soil is very uniform, and the face of the wide open coun- 

 try is sparsely dotted with farm-houses. Where the prairie is 

 unbroken, it is covered with long coarse waving grass, from 

 three to four feet high ; and in the hollows the grass is so high 

 as to hide completely any cattle that may be grazing there. 

 Before reaching Kankakee we pass through a settlement of 

 800 French Canadians, which has been growing for the last 

 fifteen years. Each settler has about forty acres, and their 

 farms are laid out along parallel roads at right angles to- the 

 railway. They exhibit signs of careful cultivation, and the vil- 

 lage and church of the colony are prettily situated near the 

 woods on the river side. 



The town of Kankakee is finely situated on the river, fifty- 

 six miles south of Chicago. Though there was not a house here- 

 five years ago, the population already numbers 3,500, with 

 very good streets and shops, the centre of a rich agricultural 

 district affording a sufficient traffic for a special daily 

 train in and out from Chicago. The land behind it is a fertile, 

 black, sandy loam, lying on limestone, excellent for oats and 

 potatoes, and productive of rich grass. 



