114 MISSOURI. ST. LOUIS. 



of about 130,000. It was formerly called the "Mound" city, 

 from a great mound at the base of which it was first settled by 

 the Spaniards, and which is said by the Indians to have been 

 the burial place of their fathers for ages, by others to have 

 been formed by the Aztecs before the time of the Indians, 

 and not improbably formed by nature before either one or other. 

 Jonathan however has no respect for antiquity, and this famous 

 "mound" will soon be entirely cut away to fill up an embank- 

 ment on the river, and to enable certain streets to be laid out 

 in a straight line. About the half of it is already gone. In 

 another year probably not a vestige will remain of that which 

 gave the name at first to this city, which in all ages has been 

 a great landmark on the river, the sacred place of the Indians, 

 and which, with a little veneration and good taste, might have 

 been left to form a great feature of attraction and interest in 

 this splendid city. 



St. Louis is a fine old town for America, situated on rising 

 ground, and covering a large extent of surface, with hand- 

 some streets, stores, shops, squares, hotels, and churches. The 

 quays along the river are literally crowded with steamers, lying 

 abreast of each other in tiers three and four deep. This is a 

 slave State, the domestics are nearly all blacks, the property of 

 their masters. 



The richest part of the country is along the banks of the 

 river Missouri. Tobacco is chiefly cultivated there. The south- 

 ern part of the State is rocky and wooded. Very little of 

 it has been taken up by settlers, and any quantity may be 

 purchased at little more than 6d. an acre. But it is not agri- 

 cultural land, is very inaccessible, and Europeans are not fond 

 of settling in a slave State. 



There is a famous deposit of iron in this State, called the 

 Iron Mountain, which we were anxious to see. There is a rail- 

 way to it, eighty miles in length from St. Louis. The line runs 



