noe, above which it was quite dry on the 16th of August, though its length is said to be seventy miles. Sagamond river, running a south-easterly course, enters 135 miles from the Mississippi, where it is 100 yards wide; and is navigable for small boats, or canoes, upwards of 180 miles. Demiquian river, which enters on the west side twenty-eight miles above the mouth of the former, and 165 above the Mississippi, runs a south-southeasterly course. It is fifty yards wide at its mouth, from which it is navigable 120 miles. Sesemequian river falls in on the west side thirty miles above the entrance of the former, and 180 miles from the mouth of the Illinois. It is forty yards in width, and is boatable sixty miles. Delamarche river, * which enters on the same side nine miles above the former, is thirty yards wide, and is boatable eight or nine miles. The Michillimackinac, which enters on the south-east side 195 miles from the Mississippi, is fifty yards wide, and is navigable for about ninety miles. At its mouth are thirty or forty little islands. Crow Meadows river, which rises near the head waters of the Vermillion branch of the Wabash, runs a north-west course, and falls in opposite to the meadows of the same name 240 miles from the Mississippi, and about thirty above Illinois lake. Near its mouth it is twenty yards wide, and it is navigable between fifteen and eighteen miles. Rainy Island river (riviere de la Pluie) enters on the south-east side 255 miles from the Mississippi; it

The magnitude and length of several of these streams are given differently in the Western Gazetteer.

is fifteen yards wide. At the distance of nine miles from its outlet the navigation is obstructed by rocks. Vermillion river, which also runs a north-west course, unites with the Illinois 267 miles from the Mississippi, and nearly opposite the south-west end of the Little Rocks. It is thirty yards wide; but its channel is so full of rocks, as not to be navigable. For river, which has its rise near the Rocky river of the Mississippi, pursues a north-eastern course of fifty miles, and afterwards takes a southern direction to its entrance, about thirty miles above the Little Rocks, which are sixty miles from the Forks. This river winds through extensive meadows, and is navigable 130 miles. Plein river, the northern head water of the Illinois, runs a course of about seventy miles to its junction with the eastern head water in latitude 41° 48′ north. Its branches interramify with those of Chicago river of Lake Michigan. Theakiki.-This branch which, on some maps, is called Huakita, rises about eight miles south of Fort St Joseph, and joins the former after a course of about 112 miles through a rich and level country.

The next river of this territory, in point of magnitude, is the Kaskaskias, which issues from the meadows to the south of lake Michigan, and falls into the Mississippi eighty-four miles south of the Illinois, after a south-south-westerly course of 200 miles, 130 of which from its mouth it is navigable for boats and small craft. It runs through a rich country abounding in extensive meadows covered with the richest pasture. For the space of five miles and a half to the Kaskaskias village,

high grounds, composed of limestone and sandstone, rising from 100 to 130 feet, run along the eastern side of this river, at a small distance from it, and then in. clining more towards the river, run nearly parallel with the eastern bank of the Mississippi, at the distance of from three to four miles. * The Kaskaskias receives two small streams from the west and northwest, called Water Cross and Lalande creeks, and from the east, Blind river, Big Hill creek, Beaver, Yellow creek, and Copper Mine creek. The La Vase river runs from the north-east through a rich level country, and empties itself into the Mississippi three miles below the Great Rock, and about fifty-five miles above the mouth of the Ohio. It is navigable for boats and small craft about sixty miles. † Stoney, or Rock river, which rises in the southern parts of the northwest territory, runs a south-west course of 220 miles to the Mississippi, which it joins below the line of boundary. At its entrance it is about 300 yards wide. Wood creek runs a short course in a south-west direction between the Kaskaskias and Illinois, and falls in opposite to the junction of the Missouri. The Little Wabash, a small branch of the Great Wabash, sixty yards wide, runs a south-south-easterly course, and falls in ten miles above the mouth of the Ohio. Other streams falling into the Wabash water the eastern parts of the territory. For river, which enters about fifty miles below Vincennes. The Embarras, which unites its current near this place. Mascontin, fifty yards

1

Hutchins, p. 35.

+ Do. p. 35.

wide. Tortue, a long crooked river; and Rejoicing river, 100 yards wide at its mouth. Below the mouth of the Wabash, other streams traverse this territory, and fall into the Ohio. The Saline, which falls in twenty-six miles below the Wabash, is navigable thirty miles from its mouth. Sandy creek and Cash river are also considerable streams. *

Extent of Navigable Waters.-Wabash, 240 miles. Ohio, 164. Mississippi, 620. Illinois, 320; its tributaries from the north-west, 550; from the south-east, 200. Kaskaskia and branches, 300. Tributaries of

the Wabash, 500. Minor rivers; such as La Vase, Marie, Cash, &c. 200. In all, 3094. A water communication between the Illinois and the Chicago, for the passage of boats in all seasons, could be opened at a trifling expence.

Minerals.-Copper ore is said to have been discovered on Mine river, which joins the Illinois, 120 miles from its mouth. It was in search of a copper mine that Patrick Kennedy, accompanied by several coureurs des bois, ascended, in 1773, to the head waters of the Illinois river. Millstones were formerly made by the French, of a rock which forms a rapid in the Illinois river, 270 miles from its mouth. Alum was found on a hill, near Mine river, according to the report of Mr Janiste, a French gentleman, who ascended with Patrick Kennedy. Gun-flints and arrow-heads are manufactured by the Indians, from stones found on a high hill, nearly opposite the island of Pierre, in

* Western Gazetteer, p 21.

the river Illinois, 100 miles from its mouth. Coal was observed extending half a mile along the high bank of the north-western side of the Illinois river, 276 miles from its outlet, 50 miles above Pioria Lake, and near the Little Rocks, which are 60 miles from the Forks. It is also found on the La Vase, or Muddy river. About five miles east of St Louis, a prairie, called the American Bottom, caught fire, and by the roots of a tree, the fire was communicated to a coal-mine, which burnt during several months, till it was extinguished by the incumbent earth. According to Hutchins, quarries of limestone, freestone, and marble, exist along the Mississippi, from between the Ohio and the Kaskaskia. White clay is found in the beds of the Illinois and Tortue. Salt ponds.-On the eastern side, half a mile below the coal mine above described, are two salt ponds, 100 yards in circumference, and several feet in depth, which furnish good salt to the natives; the waters are of a yellowish colour, and stagnant. The salt works, on the Saline river, (twenty-six miles below the mouth of the Wabash,) furnish annually between 200,000 and 300,000 bushels of salt, which is sold at the works, at from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel.

Forest Trees.-There is a great quantity and variety. Oak, blue and white, and other species. Cedar, red and white. Button wood, maple, ash, pine, walnut, cherry-tree, birch, plum-tree, paccan, white mulberry, sugar-maple, black locust, elm, bass-wood, beech, buck-eye, hackberry, sycamore, coffee-nut tree, white pine, spice-wood, sassafras, crab-apple, wild