Niangua river empties into Osage 120 miles from its mouth. Many of the head waters of the Osage fork of Gasconade river rise in and run through the county of Pulaski, thus watering the county, and furnishing some mill-sites of value. The great lower Niangua spring is of itself a good mill-stream, near where it rises, and has been taken possession of by an iron-company, with the view of employing its power in the manufacture of iron. The ore is said to be only half a mile from the water-power. It is understood that the county abounds in iron ore. The upper Niangua spring is of equal value as a mill-stream. The compiler has examined a specimen of white marble brought from the vicinity of Niangua spring. This specimen was beautifully variegated with crimson veins. The quarry is supposed to be sufficient to adorn all the cities in the union. This marble is near to the Osage, and might be transported by water to any part of the union. If the marble of the quarry, from which was obtained the specimen referred to, will admit a good polish, it will prove equal in value to any in the world. Limestone and sandstone are found in Pulaski. The products of the county are corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco. The timbered land in Pulaski is about equal in quantity to the prairie, and the kinds of timber are good, consisting of oak, linn, sycamore, walnut, hackberry, elm, and locust. There is found near to the Osage river, in various places, rock resembling the French buhr in appearance. This stone has been quarried, and transported a great distance for milling purposes. Many who have used millstones from these have pronounced them good, and the demand for them is increasing. One of the best quarries of this description is in Pulaski county. The far-famed and the ill-famed cOUNTERFEIT bank of Niangua was located in Pulaski. This was a stupendous parent institution of crime, where genius lent its skill to mischief. This villanous band furnished paper so well executed as to pass extensively among indifferent judges of bank notes almost as well as the emissions from Philadelphia. "The ra-al Biddles" were not more esteemed by the country people. The band of counterfeiters included a president, cashier, and clerks, and a grave board of directors, who declared large dividends, and reserved an ample contingent fund. Their operations were dis

covered and the band was broken up by the disclosures of a woman, to whom their secrets had been confided. This woman claimed to be a stockholder, in right of her deceased husband. He had been a director, and after his death she had made a fruitless claim to a share of the profits. With the extreme violence of female passion, Mistress Missouri Anne Amanda Jemima › Skidmore sharpened her finger-nails afresh, and declared a war of extermination against the counterfeiters. She reduced her madness to method, and waited on the cashier of the office of discount and deposite in St. Louis. At this institution she proposed to make a special deposite of all her griefs; believing that the interest of those who honestly dealt in the genuine paper would induce them to aid suffering innocence, when warring against spurious dealers, who had violated that law which provides for "honour among thieves." This mysterious visit enabled her to hold secret communion with the United States district judge. His honour turned over the fair suiter to General Jones, the marshal, who determined that deeds were more efficient than words, and he arrested the whole band at the den where the office of the parent institution was kept. The particulars of this hazardous and praiseworthy transaction are derived from an authentic source, and set down accordingly. It had been arranged that the lady should proceed alone on her journey, and meet the marshal and his confidential band of friends near the place of action, that the suspected persons might be identified. The disclosures of the female counterfeiter enabled the marshal to trace out the abode of crime; and he was quietly sitting in the cabin of one of the chief men of the band, inquiring of his unsuspecting wife where some good locations of new land could be made, when her husband, unarmed, rode up to the cabin door. At that moment the keen perceptions of the woman enabled her to detect some cause of suspicion, and she put her husband's gun into his hands. An incautious or indiscreet movement of some one of the marshal's party gave the alarm to the counterfeiter, and he dashed off at full speed. The marshal stepped out of the cabin to learn the cause of the bustle around the door, when the woman discharged another gun within a few feet of him. The

tears.

ball missed him, and the Amazon made an apology in a flood of She professed to entertain no disposition to kill, but was anxious to preserve her husband with any sacrifice. She was “right glad she had missed so perlite and handsome a gentleShe "wished the murderous gunsmiths were all dead,

man."

and the powder-makers blown sky-high."

RALLS COUNTY is bounded in the following manner: "Beginning in the Mississippi river, east of the termination of the line between townships fifty-six and fifty-seven; thence west to the first sectional line east of the range line between ranges seven and eight; thence south to the township line between townships fifty and fifty-one; thence east to the line between ranges four and five west; thence on a direct line to the southwest corner of section sixteen, township fifty-four, range five west; thence on a direct line to a point in the Mississippi, opposite to the line between townships fifty-five and fifty-six; and thence to the beginning."

About three fourths of this county, in a state of nature, was covered with timber; but each farmer who settled in timber has found means to make his little prairie. Very little of the land of Ralls can be called bad, and most of it is excellent. The most valuable mill-streams are the branches of Salt river, and Spencer's Creek furnishes much water-power. These are the principal water-courses of the county, and on them are several good mill-sites unimproved. The county is well watered with durable springs, which furnish abundance of good limestone water. The minerals of the county are iron and sulphur; and in the western part of the county stone coal is very abundant, and easily obtained. Limestone quarries are found in every part of the county. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, tobacco, and hemp are the principal products of the farms of Ralls.

The domestic animals, and such as are raised more or less for market, are horses, mules, neat cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats. There are five towns in this county, viz. :

NEW LONDON, the seat of justice, contains a brick courthouse, five stores, four grocery-stores, and one tavern; a church, a clerk's office, and a jail-which is of little use.

SAVERTON, situated on the Mississippi river, nine miles from New London, is the only steamboat-landing in the county. It has three stores, and considerable forwarding business is done there. HURDSBURGH, on the state road leading from Palmyra to St. Louis, has one store, a postoffice, and tavern.

CINCINNATI, a town on the north bank of Salt river, has two stores, a postoffice, and tavern.

NEWPORT, five miles above Cincinnati, on the same side of Salt river, has one store and a postoffice. There are three sawmills on Salt river; two on Spencer's Creek, and one on Turkey Creek; four grist-mills, and two steam grist and saw mills, two wool-carding factories, and an oil-mill in New London. There is a Catholic chapel in Cincinnati, and another in the western part of the county. A college is being erected in the western part of Ralls. Common schools are well supported and constantly kept up. There are six or eight buildings in the county which are used as places of public worship, for all denominations, and Christian charity is cherished everywhere in Ralls.

RANDOLPH COUNTY is bounded as follows: " Beginning at the northeast corner of Howard county; thence with the boundary of Howard to the middle of range sixteen; thence north to the line dividing townships fifty-five and fifty-six; thence east to the line dividing ranges twelve and thirteen; thence south to the line of Boone county, and with said line to the beginning."

Randolph is one of the richest and best farming counties in the state; containing a large proportion of good soil. The prairies are not so large as to remove good tracts of arable land to an inconvenient distance from timber; but there are some tracts of timbered land and wet prairie that will not for some years be entered. These tracts will be taken up after the first-rate land is all entered. Probably two thirds of the county is first-rate land. The east fork of Chariton runs through Randolph, and furnishes many good mill-sites. Silver Creek is a branch of this stream, and there is a good mill on it. There are two other water-mills in the county, and all three of these mills are within six miles of Huntsville. The timber of Randolph is good, and consists of oak of the various kinds, hickory, linn, black and white walnut,

ash, and hackberry. There is likewise some cherry in the county. Limestone abounds in Randolph, and stone coal is found near to Huntsville of such quality that the blacksmiths make use of it, in common work, in their shops. They do not, however, attempt to weld steel with it without coking.

HUNTSVILLE, the seat of justice of Randolph, is near the centre of the county. This town is flourishing, and contains a good brick courthouse, seven stores, &c. There is no church in the place; but public worship by all denominations is held in the courthouse, and in the schoolhouses of the town and county. This is a fashion throughout Missouri; and it seems rational to occupy one house for various purposes in a new country. While the people are building up their fortunes, and erecting private houses at the same time, there should be indulgence given until they shall be better able to build temples suited in magnificence to the great BEING to whom these will be dedicated. The territory north of Randolph is at present attached to the county; but out of this, and the district annexed to Chariton, there will be at the next session of the general assembly a new county erected and organized.

Randolph is one of the great stock-raising counties; and the stock of horses in this and some of the neighbouring counties will shortly run a length or two ahead, if they do not distance, "the wild horse's wilder sire!"

RAY COUNTY. The boundaries of Ray are thus described in the Revised Statutes of Missouri :-"Beginning in the Missouri river opposite the termination of the line between ranges twentyfive and twenty-six; thence north to the division line between townships fifty-three and fifty-four; thence west to the division line between ranges twenty-nine and thirty; thence south to the Missouri river, and down the same to the beginning."

Ray county has escaped the attention which land-hunters have bestowed upon many other counties of Missouri, by the unfavourable impression made on travellers in passing through the county from Jack's ferry, a bottom route that has once overflowed, to Old Bluffton, the late seat of justice for the county, and thence to Clay county by the lower road. The best part of the