Kaskaskias River enters on the east side thirty miles above, and the town of Kaskaskia is situated six miles up it in a beautiful plain. At present many of the buildings are standing vacant, and the place has a dreary and forsaken appearance. It was settled more than one hundred years ago by emigrants from Lower Canada. Sixty miles farther up is the village of Kahokia, situated at the mouth of a river of the same name. It is a considerable and pleasant place, and courts of justice are held there for that part of the Indiana territory. Seventeen miles above on the west side is the Messauri, and twenty miles above the Messauri on the east or right hand side the Illinois river enters. Up the Illinois are coal mines, and salt ponds, a stone called fliche, from which the Indians make their flints and arrow points; and on the high banks of the river, one hundred and ninety miles up, are red and white cedar and pine trees; and it is said that an alum hill is on a branch emptying into it, called Mine River, about two hundred and twenty miles up. Mulberry trees are there large and numerous; Indigo has been raised with success, and tobacco, hemp, and flax can be cultivated with little labor. The sugar maple grows to great perfection. Fruit trees of all kinds succeed admirably, and dying and medicinal plants every where abound. About one hundred and sixty miles above the Illinois, Riviere à la Roche empties itself into the Mississippi, on the same side as the Illinois. Farther up, two hundred and ten miles, Riviere à la Mene enters, and is navigable for fifty miles. Quiconson River is one hundred and twenty miles above,-navigable near two hundred miles. Black River empties in further up, one hundred and fifty miles, and is navigable one hundred miles. Buffalo River flows in sixty-five miles above,-navigable near one hundred miles. Sotaux River is fifteen miles above,— navigable eighty miles. St. Croix River, with numerous lakes, sixty miles; these are navigable nearly two hundred miles. The above rivers all enter the Mississippi on the east or right hand side. From the mouth of St. Croix to the falls of St. Anthony is about ninety miles. These falls are in latitude 45 N. and from the mouth of the Mississippi are two thousand two hundred and eighty miles. Boats may pass over these falls in safety in high water, but when the water is low they are very dangerous. Above the falls are numerous small lakes which communicate with each other; and into a principal one on the N. W. side empties the Blue River, which is very considerable, and has been navigated by French traders three hundred miles up; so that, the Mississippi, in fact, loses its name at the falls of St. Anthony, and from thence northward takes the name of the Blue River. Admitting that the Mississippi still retains its name above the falls, it is said to take its source in the White Bear Lake, in lat. 48. 15. long. 23. 17. west. LETTER XXXV. Louisiana-its history-progress through the country-Cape Farida-Hopple Creek - St. Louis St. Genevieve Lead-Mines. St. Louis, Upper Louisiana, ON landing on the Louisiana or West side of the Mississippi for the first time, I felt a very proud and pleasing emotion. I had successfully explored a vast extent of country, and I then arrived in one to me more perfectly new than any other, and consequently more interesting. The country East and West of the |