celerity to any point on these navigable rivers. When unemployed, the reserve of the western army is accustomed to fall back to this salubrious and attractive position; and here, in a provision country of great abundance, the troops are subsisted at inconsiderable expense.

In addition to the troops that are usually stationed at Jefferson barracks, the protection of Missouri is essayed by the garrison of Fort Leavenworth, on the western border of the state, and the post at Desmoines, beyond the northern boundary. The military roads to be constructed, to communicate with these posts and Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas, will add to the security of the frontiers. The auxiliary rifles, in the hands of citizen soldiers of Missouri, will supply any defect in the system of defence caused by the parsimony, the cupidity, or the party conflicts of the federal government.

SALINE COUNTY. The boundaries of this county are described in the Revised Statutes of Missouri as follows:-"Beginning in the centre of the main channel of Missouri river, where the range line dividing ranges twenty-three and twenty-four crosses said river at the northeast corner of Lafayette county; thence due south with said range line to the northwest corner of section nineteen, township forty-eight; thence due east with said section line to the county line dividing Cooper and Saline counties; thence north with said county line to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the beginning."

Saline county is situated on the right bank of Missouri. The very appropriate name given this county indicates truly its resources in salt water. The springs are numerous; the water is strong and pure, and flows out of the earth in volumes of astonishing capacity. The Big Springs, the property of Colonel Smith, have raised, and will perpetuate, the sound of the grinding. These have been worked with success; and an attempt was here made to crystallize salt by solar evaporation. The insufficient amount of timber in this vicinity for the construction of reservoirs or vats, rendered the enterprise of Mr. Jones, the projector, fruitless. Unfortunately, his means were unequal to

the laudable undertaking which his zeal and industry led him into. The benefits promised by this mode of salt-making were not confined to the extra quantity ensured in the product of the springs, but infinite improvement in the quality would be the result of crystallizing by solar evaporation. There is a fine coalbank near to these springs; and the soil around them seems to intimate that the salts of the earth, from its inmost recesses, had been poured out to fertilize this prairie region. The springs of Mr. Harris, and those of Mr. Trigg, on the Black Water, are extensively and profitably worked. Mr. Lancford has constructed a furnace at one of the springs of Gen. T. A. Smith ; where he has likewise the advantage of coal near at hand. There is no portion of Saline where it can be truly said that "the salt has lost its savour." The best coal-banks in Saline that have been opened are ample bituminous veins, one of which is fifteen feet in thickness. It is believed that there is likewise anthracite coal in this county. The extraordinary quantity of fuel in the bowels of the earth will supply, to a considerable extent, the deficiency in timber on the surface. This partial defect is far less inconvenient than was apprehended in the early settlement of the country. With suitable economy in the operation of fencing, much may be done with a limited amount of timber. There are likewise several modes of hedging and ditching, that can be substituted for heavy draughts on their timber, which the farmers of Saline are anxious to preserve. They have also a custom of preserving and cherishing with care the clumps of brush, and even the patches of hazel, with which their finest rolling prairies abound; and these are objects of as great solicitude as the sacred groves or the foliage of Academus was in Athens. When the prairie fires for a season or two are kept out of the hazel-patches, forest-trees spring up in considerable variety; and in the ploughed fields cottonwood is observed to shoot up with a most rapid growth. Not content with the precautions which have been generally adopted for the preservation, and to encourage the growth of timber, some successful experiments have been made in forest-planting in Saline. Gen. Thomas A. Smith, who has a prairie farm of such ample extent that a British peer would

covet it as an estate suited to his rank, has growing around him a young forest that he has planted, of black locust, chestnut, white pine, cedar, arbor vite, cottonwood, and catalpa, all exhibiting the most thrifty and vigorous growth. The experiment thus made at considerable expense, by a gentleman of fortune, must secure for him the grateful acknowledgments of those who are sufficiently liberal and intelligent to appreciate his motives. It is truly gratifying to observe one of our countrymen, after having spent the prime of life in the service of the republic, in war and peace, in his retirement still performing unobtrusively the part of a public benefactor. In contemplating this excellent trait of character, its effect is as cheering as are the sunny spots that break upon the cloud-enveloped traveller in his dreary pilgrimage.

In the county of Saline there are found, at convenient intervals, limestone and sandstone, which are obtained with light labour at the quarries. The strongly-marked indication of iron ore in various places near the mill-sites on Black Water, a branch of Lamine, present prospectively advantages which are truly enviable. Many thousand pounds of lead mineral have been raised on the farm of Mr. William Scott; by which experiment all doubts of the existence of lead in quantities in Saline are removed. This is a rare instance of a country abounding in a variety of minerals, and soil unsurpassed for fertility in the same region of country, and within the radius of twenty or thirty miles. The mill-streams, likewise, of Saline, the Black Water, the Salt Fork, and Camp Creek, a branch of the latter, afford good sites for mills and ample power for country work, and for manufacturing grain on an extensive scale, during the whole year. While the prairie lands of Saline are well adapted to grain and grasses, all other agricultural products of this parallel of latitude furnish the husbandman satisfactory and large remuneration for ordinary diligence and labour. The multifarious advantages which Nature has placed within reach of an inhabitant of Saline therefore enable him to dig for wealth deeply and profoundly, or skim the surface with assurance of riches there. When tired of mining, manufacturing, or ploughing, he may resort to a pastoral life; and

while tending his flocks and herds, indulge his poetic taste in day-dreams and in visions, aided by scenery more picturesque than the fabled topography of Eden or Elysium. As there are in Saline no considerable towns, it is presumed the independent and happy cultivators of the soil will, for some time, console themselves with the cheerful reflection that they have no great cause of complaint, since it is acknowledged that God made the country, and man made the towns.

JONESBOROUGH, however, is at present the place where their courts are held. This town or hamlet is situate about eight miles from the river, on the left bank of Salt Fork, at an old mill, and an excellent site for a better one.

ARROW ROCK, on the left bank of the Missouri, is on a high river-bluff, at a good landing, and where a valuable ferry has been long established. The natural points of attraction in Saline are the pinnacles and Petit Osage plains. The former are a range of river-bluffs, rising abruptly, at the termination of a wide and highly fertile prairie, celebrated for its beauty, and designated by the latter appellative. This plain may be about six miles square, a large tract of which is set in blue grass, which is rapidly taking place of the natural grasses of the prairie. Petit Osage plains have been for many years places of resort, to secure the enjoyments of its scenery and the luxury of the native strawberry. The large herds of cattle, horses, and mules that range upon these plains, and the undulating prairies of Saline, may sometimes be seen scattered abroad, disdaining landmarks, luxuriating in the rank herbage of the uncultivated pastures, and occasionally careering onward in the ancient buffalo-trails, to indulge in the various mineral waters, made places of fashionable resort by quadruped caprice. There exist conflicting opinions as to the cause of the immeasurable prairies, over which the vision wanders and tires, and in the midst of which the traveller despairs of ever putting a period to his toil. It has been urged that there the moisture of the earth is insufficient to sustain the growth of forest-trees, and that the prairie fires are the consequence, and not the cause, of the bald, bleak hills of these natural meadows. It is possible that the first inroads that were made

in the natural forests were caused by the whirlwind or hurricane, and followed up by the electric flame, that swept over, in successive years, the ruined trunk and branches that lay sapless and decaying, until, finally, a grassy covering appeared where the forest had perished. This suggestion is sustained by the experience and observations of many who have watched, with each successive year, the natural changes and rapid transition from timber to prairie, and from prairie to timber, that, in various situations, have been going forward. It appears, then, that he who is in the possession of prairie land may change it to forest by curbing the elements, and restraining the flame that is borne on the winds, in humble imitation of him who bottled up thunder.

ARROW ROCK. This place, already alluded to, is one of those eligible points on the Missouri that must, at no remote period, become a town of infinite importance. The country for which this is now the landing is extensive and extremely rich. The name which this place now bears is that by which it was designated by the early settlers. It had, however, been changed to New Philadelphia. The absurdity of this appellative was perceived, and by an act of the legislature its simple and truly appropriate name was restored. It was from the rocks here that the Indians procured their arrow-points. It is desirable to prevail on those leaders in deliberative bodies and town meetings to discontinue the practice of giving the same name to a score of places in the same geographical division of country or government. It is attended with as much inconvenience in a community as would be experienced in a family if the name of John were given to two or three brethren of the same household. The Washingtons, Franklins, and Jeffersons are absolutely worn threadbare. The object in giving a name to a person, or place, is to be able to distinguish the person or thing named from another; but identity is unsettled by the injudicious practice of the age in fixing appellatives.

Elk are occasionally found in Saline, high up the Black Water, and deer are so abundant, that when the prairies are not adorned with them, they may be found in every hazel thicket and all the clumps of copsewood. The salines here furnish attractions for