50 Expedition to the 



that had been cultivated, without manure, one hundred years 

 in succession, and which, when we saw it, (in August 1816) 

 was covered with a very luxuriant growth of corn. 



The town of Kaskaskia, the villages of Prairie de Roches, 

 Kahokia, Prarie Dupont, Harrisonville, and Fort Chartres, 

 are situate in this tract. Some of them are in a flourishing 

 condition. Fort Chartres, which was built by the French 

 government, at the expense of one million and an half of 

 dollars, stood near the bank of the river, about twenty miles 

 from Kaskaskia. Not long after they were erected, a part of 

 the works were undermined by the washing of the river, 

 since which time the whole has been suffered to remain in 

 ruins, which are now one fourth of a mile distant from the 

 river.* 



The country west of the Mississippi, opposite the Ameri- 

 can bottom, is of a very differenc character. The highlands 

 approach the river, presenting abrupt declivities, prominent 

 points, and in many places perpendicular precipices from one 

 to two hundred feet high, frowning over the brink of the 

 river. One of the most remarkable of these is known by the 

 name of the Cornice rosk. It bounds a narrow arm of the 

 river, which has generally sufficient water to admit the pas- 

 sage of boats. The rock extends nearly in a straight line, 

 having a front of about four hundred yards, the brow of the 

 precipice at some points impending over the channel through 

 which boats pass. The rock rises above, to the height of 

 fifty or sixty feet, smoothly rounded by the attrition of the 

 water, which never rising to the upper part of the precipice, 

 leaves that to project in the form of a cornice. Though the 

 lands on the west side of the Mississippi are less fertile than 

 those of the American bottom, they are of great value, and 

 have long been objects of scandalous speculation. 



•It is stated by Mr. Schultz that 'Fort Chartres, which was originally 

 built one fourth of a mile from the river, was undermined in 1808. 



Page 37. Vol. 2. 



