40 
VIEWS OF LOUISIANA. • 
Jy narrow strips fifty or an hundred yards wide. The settle- 
merits from the mouth of the Ohio to Natchez are chiefly on this 
side; on the eastern, there are scarcely any improvements ex¬ 
cept on the upland. 
Above the mouth of the Ohio to the Missouri, the valley is 
not more than half the width it possesses below, and the high 
land, or bluffs, generally on the western side, but of different 
character; instead of high clay banks they are faced with lime- 
stone, in places rising in precipices to two or three hundred 
feet in height. This perhaps constitutes one half of the west* 
ern bank. The proportion of land subject to inundation on 
either side is inconsiderable, nor are there many out-lets, but 
there are still large lakes scattered through the hottom, which 
was formerly the bed of the river. 
It lias been suggested by some, that there was formerly an 
out-let from Lake Mitchigan, to the Mississippi by the Illinois. 
This is supported by the well known facts, that the water of 
nearly all the lakes drained by the St. Lawrence, has sunk seve* 
ral feet, and the evident marks in the present channel of the IL 
linois, of having once contained a stream of much greater mag¬ 
nitude. This opinion might be strengthened by another fact with* 
in my own observation. The bluff which encloses the alluvion on 
the eastern side, at present distant several miles from the river* 
appears in places, in bare precipices of limestone rock, similar to 
that immediately on the river, and what is singular, bears evi¬ 
dent marks of attrition by the waters, to the height of at least 
ten feet above the highest floods. The same thing may be also 
observed on the western side. Possibly the river may have been 
once six or seven miles wide at this place, and included be* 
tween the bluffs. Or there may have been a lake, which by 
the operation of various causes may hav© been drained. This 
idea suggested itself to me from the examination of a remark* 
able place on the Mississippi, eight or ten miles above the vil¬ 
lage of Cape Girardeau, called the Grand Tower, which, though 
scarcely known, may be justly considered one of the greatest cu* 
riosities of the river. At this place the bluffs on the western side 
are close to the river; and on the eastern, a narrow bottom lies 
between it and the bluffs; the hills on both sides at this point, seem 
