towns & Villages.—book it. 
*4 
*&me elegant manner: its bosom opened to the breezes of the 
river, the stream gladdened by the enlivening scene of business 
and pleasure, compact rows of elegant and tasteful dwellings* 
looking with pride on the broad wave that passes ! 
From the opposite bank, St. Louis, notwithstanding, appears 
to great advantage. In a disjoined and scattered manner it ex¬ 
tends along the river a mile and an half, and we form the idea of 
a large and elegant town. Two or three large and costly build¬ 
ings (though not in the modern taste) contribute in producing 
this effect. On closer examination, the town seems to be com¬ 
posed of an equal proportion of stone walls, houses, and fruit 
trees : but the illusion still continues. 
On ascending the second bank, which is about forty feet above 
the lhvel of the plain, we have the town below us, and a view of 
the Mississippi in each direction, and of the fine country through 
which it passes. When the curtain of wood which conceals the 
American bottom shall have been withdrawn, or a vista formed 
by opening farms to the river, there will be a delightful pros¬ 
pect into that rich and elegant tract. The bottom at this place 
is not less than eight miles wide, and finely diversified with prai¬ 
rie and woodland. 
There is a line of works on this second bank, erected for de¬ 
fence against the Indians, consisting of several circular towersj 
twenty feet in diameter, and fifteen in height, a small stockaded 
fort, and a stone breast work. These are at present entirely un¬ 
occupied and waste, excepting the fort, in one of the buildings of 
which, the courts are held, while another is used as a prison.—=>. 
Some distance from the termination of this line, up the river,, 
there are a number of Indian mounds, and remains of antiquity; 
which, while they are ornamental to the town, prove, that in for¬ 
mer times, those places had also bpen chosen as the site, per¬ 
haps, of a populous city. 
Looking to the west, a most charming country spreads itself 
before us. It is neither very level nor hilly, but of an agreeable 
waving surface, and rising for several miles with an ascent al¬ 
most imperceptible. Except a small belt to the north, there 
are no trees ; the rest is covered with shrubby oak, intermixed 
