OD, 297 



This route would cut the mine district centrally, and afford the 

 upper tributaries <>t* the IVkatohka and Paver Rivet ai feeders. 

 S h a communication would open the way to a northern mar- 

 ket, anil merchandise might be supplied by the way of (ir« < n 

 B v. when the low state of water m the Mississippi prevents the 

 •it oi boats. It would, at all times, obviate the tedious voy- 

 M.ds ordered from the Atlantic cities have to per- 

 form throng!) the straits of Florida and Gulf of Mexico. A rail- 

 road could be laid upon this route with equal, perhaps superior 

 advantages. These things may seem too much like making ar- 

 rangements for the next generation. lint we cannot fix bounds 

 to the efforts of our spreading population, and spirit of enter- 

 prise. Nor, after what we have seen in the way of internal im- 

 provement, in our own day and generation, should we deem any 

 thing too hard to be accomplished. 



I set out from Galena in a light wagon, drawn by two horses, 

 about ten o'clock in the morning (August 17th), accompanied 

 by Mr. U. It had rained the night and morning of the day 

 previous, which rendered the streets and roads quite muddy. A 

 marly soil, easily penetrated by rain, was, however, as suscepti- 

 ble to the influence of the sun, and in a much shorter period than 

 would be imagined, the surface became dry. Although a hi 

 and continued shower had thoroughly drenched the ground, and 

 covered it with superlluous water, but very little effects of it were 

 to be seen at this time. We ascended into the open plain coun- 

 try, which appears fan tm ry direction around the town, and 

 directed our course to Gratiot's Grove. In this distance, which on 

 our programme of the route, was put down at fifteen miles, a 

 lively idea of the formation and character of the country is given. 

 The eye is feasted with the boundlessness of its range. Grass 

 and flow, rs spread before and beside the traveller, and on look- 

 back, they fill up the vista behind him. He soon finds him- 

 self in the midst of a sylvan scene Groves fringe the tops of 

 the B tut elevations, and clusters of trees — more rarely, 



open forests — are occasionally presented. The trees appear to 

 be almost exclusively of the species of white oak and roughbark 

 hickory. Among the flowers, the plant called rosin-weed at- 

 I attention by : I Utile, and it is accompanied, as 



