Rocky Mountains. 323 



Cape Girardeau, formerly the seat of justice, for a county 

 of the same name, is one of the oldest settl- ments in Upper 

 Louisiana, having been for a long time the residence of a 

 Spanish intendant or governor. Occupying the first conside- 

 rable elevation on the western bank of the Mississippi, above 

 the mouth of the Ohio, and affording a convenient landing 

 place for boats, it promises to become a place of some little 

 importance, as it must be the depot of a considerable dis- 

 trict of country, extending from the commencement of the 

 Great Swamp, on the southeast, to the upper branches of the 

 St. Francis. The advantages of its situation must be con- 

 sidered greater, than those of the settlements of Tyawapa- 

 tia and New Madrid, which are not sufficiently elevated. It is 

 near the commencement of the hilly country extending up the 

 Mississippi, to the confluence of the Missouri, northwest to 

 the Gasconade and Osage rivers, and southwest to the pro- 

 vince of Texas. Two or three miles below Cape Girardeau 

 the cypress swamps commence, extending with little inter- 

 ruption far to the south. 



The town comprises at this time about twenty log cabins, 

 several of them in ruins, a log jail, no longer occupit-d, a 

 large unfinished brick building, falling rapidly to decay, and 

 a small one, finished and occupied. It stands on the slope 

 and part of the summit of a broad hill, rising about one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet above the Mississippi, and having a deep 

 primary soil, resting on horizontal strata of compact and 

 sparry limestone. Near the place where boats usually land, 

 is a point of white rock, jutting into the Mississippi, and at 

 a very low stage of water, producing a perceptible ripple. 

 It is a white sparry limestone, abounding in remains of 

 Encrini, and other marine animals. If traced some dis- 

 tance, it will be found to alternate with the common blue 

 compact limestone, most frequently seen in secondary dis- 

 tricts. Though the stratifications of this sparry limestone 

 are horizontal, the rock is little divided by seams and fissures, 



