VIEWS OF LOUISIANA. 
m 
& sloping lawn of many miles.* The whole, forming prospects, 
the most romantic and picturesque. 
North of the Maramek there are fewer rugged hills; the 
land is waving. Towards the river, nearly to St. Louis, the 
country is not well watered, it is also thinly timbered, and the soil 
but indifferent. On Grave, and in the Bon Homme settlement, 
between the Maramek, and the Missouri, the land is good, and 
generally well adapted to cultivation. Between St. Louis and the 
Missouri, with but trifling exceptions, the lands are of a supe¬ 
rior quality; there are some beautiful spots, as the village of Flo¬ 
rissant, and the environs. No description can do justice to the 
beauty of this tract The Missouri bottoms, are covered with 
heavy timber, and by many are preferred to those of the Missis¬ 
sippi or of the Ohio. 
The tract of country north of the Missouri, is less hilly, 
than that on the south, but there is a much greater propor¬ 
tion of prairie. It has a waving surface, varied by those dividing 
ridges of streams, which in Kentucky, are called knobs. These 
prairies, it is well known, are caused by repeated and desolating 
fires,t and the soil is extremely fertile. Such woods as remain 
* Near col. Hammond’s farm, there is a natural curiosity worth no¬ 
ticing. A hill, commanding a most extensive prospect, embracing a 
scope of fifteen or tWeftty miles, and in some directions mere, is Com¬ 
pletely surrounded by a precipice of the sort described. It is called 
Hock Fort, and might answer the purpose of fortification; it is nearly 
two hundred feet higher than any of the surrounding hill s, and on the top 
there is a level space of ten acres, overgrown with trees, the soil is good. ‘ 
The Platin, which winds at the base of the hill, and whose meandering 
course, can be traced by the sycamore and other trees peculiar to river 
Bottoms, render the prospect still more agreeable. The fort is acces¬ 
sible only by two narrow passes up the precipice or wall, and a fine 
fountain issues out from the rock. 
-}• The plains of Indiana and Illinois have been mostly produced by 
the same cause. They are very different from the savannas on the 
sea board, and the immense plains of the Upper Missouri, In the prai¬ 
ries of Indiana, I have been assured, that the Woods in places Itave been 
known to recede, and in others to increase. Within the recollection of 
the old inhabitants. In moist places, the woods are stilFstanding, the 
lire meeting here with obstruction. Trees, if planted in these prairies, 
would doubtless grow. In the islands, preserved by accidental causess 
