LA SALLE COAL-FIELD. 51 



igated by steamboats for many years, and furnishes a cheap 

 water communication for the interchange of products anywhere 

 along the line of the Mississippi, from St. Paul's to New Or- 

 leans. My object in stopping here was to inspect the coal-lands, 

 of which La Salle is the great centre. Taking waggon at Ot- 

 tawa, we crossed the river and drove some ten miles across the 

 prairie, through a good country all occupied till we reached 

 the bed of another stream, called the Big Vermilion, where the 

 coal makes its appearance on the surface. Here, from the 

 strata on the river side, we entered a shaft which penetrates a 

 seam of coal nine feet thick, so situated that it drains itself. 

 Near this, some thin seams of cannel coal have been found. 

 All this part of the country is underlaid with coal, which may 

 be mined with the greatest ease. The surface is fine, rolling, 

 fertile prairie ; and there is abundance of limestone everywhere. 

 The La Salle coal-field, as at present worked, produces about 

 1000 tons of coals a week, and is capable of any required ex- 

 tension. 



Eeturning to Ottawa, I visited a manufactory for making 

 starch from Indian corn. It is situated advantageously in a 

 good country for purchasing the corn, and with every advan- 

 tage of abundant water-power, and canal and railway commu- 

 nication. Three kinds of products are manufactured, one of fine 

 starch, one of ordinary starch, and one for making puddings. Two 

 pounds weight of corn yield one of starch. The corn costs a 

 farthing, and the starch sells at the factory for 3d. a pound, so 

 that this business should leave a good profit. There is a similar 

 work at Oswego, in the State of New York, which has proved very 

 profitable to its owners. The article made there has found its 

 way to England, is now extensively used under the name ot 

 " Corn Food," and is by many considered more palatable and 

 nutritious than either arrow-root or sago. This use of Indian 



