deposit," though called by other writers loess. At Grand Tower, where the Mississippi has worn for itself this narrow gorge or pass through the rocks, the current rushes and roars and tumbles along at such a mill-flume rate, that the passage by boats either up or down stream, is difficult and dangerous.* And it was here that the river pirates had their stronghold in the early days of keel-boat traffic between St. Louis and New Orleans. They permitted no traders to pass this point without paying such tribute as they chose to levy; and upon the least show of resistance, they would rob, murder and plunder without remedy. If the human history of this place could be written, it would be full of blood-curdling incidents, and deeds of violence by rude and murderous men. The following table of elevations above tide water in the Gulf of Mexico will give a general idea of the heights reached by this southern upland region: Granby, Newton county, (farthest southwest).. Marshfield, in Webster county, 96 miles from the west line of the state.... Ohio City, opposite mouth of the Ohio river. New Madrid, 30 miles farther south. St. Louis directrix, (or register)... Base of Pilot Knob ... Top of Pilot Knob... 1,030 feet. It will thus be seen that the top of Pilot Knob, at the eastern end of our south border highlands, is only twenty-eight feet higher than Marshfield, near the western end. RIVERS AND WATER COURSES. The Mississippi river bounds the state on the east for a distance of more than 500 miles. The Missouri washes the western boundary of the state from the northwest corner southwardly, some 250 miles, to the mouth of the Kansas, whence it takes a course south of east, through the heart of the state to its junction with the Mississippi, a distance of nearly 400 miles, presenting a river front from these two majestic streams of 1,550 miles. Besides these mighty streams, are many smaller rivers, more or less navigable for steamboats and barges. On the south, or the right แ *A small work published at Davenport, Iowa, in 1856, describes this place as a gorge where the river has in some remote geological age burst through a limestone mountain ridge, making a dangerous rocky pass, and washing the cliff into strange, fantastic forms." And a western poet nearly 30 years ago, thus described the spot: 6 "Here Nature sports with Art in rocky towers, Abraded pillars to the corniced cliff; And through sharp angles, narrows, flume and gorge, The wildered waters, plunging, roar and foam Scylla and Charybdis of no mythic tale." bank of the Missouri, the Gasconade, Osage and La Mine are navigable; on the Osage, steamboats make regular trips as high as Warsaw, and barges and keel-boats may pass as high as the state line. On the left bank of the Missouri, the Platte, Chariton and Grand rivers are navigable for keel-boats and barges; and small steamers have made a few trips on their waters. The other important streams of the state are the Des Moines, Salt, Meramec, St. Francis and White rivers, all of which on rare occasions have been navigated by steamers. There are large numbers of smaller streams called rivers and creeks. There are places in all our streams, except the Mississippi and Missouri, where they might be dammed and made to drive the machinery of mills and factories. Rock beds to support dams and make them permanent are to be found in many localities on the Osage, Niangua, Pomme du Terre, Sac, Spring river, Big river, Castor, Bourbeuse, Gasconade, St. Francis, Current, White, Grand, La Mine, Meramec, etc. No country is better supplied with bold springs of pure water. Many of them are remarkable for their size and volume. There is, on the whole, no state in the Union better supplied with an abundance of wholesome, living water for stock and domestic uses; and it abounds in springs, splendidly situated for dairy business, with water at a uniform temperature below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no lakes in the state except a few small ones in the extreme southeastern counties. NOTABLE SPRINGS. Mineral Springs occur in every part of the state. There are excellent salt springs in Cooper, Saline, Howard and adjoining counties. Sulphur springs that have become known as places of summer resort, are: The Chouteau springs in Cooper county; Monagan springs in St. Clair county; Elk springs in Pike county; Cheltenham springs in St. Louis county. And Prof. Swallow says there are sulphur springs in half the counties of the state. Sweet springs, on Blackwater creek, are what are called chalybeate waters, containing some of the salts of iron; and there are a few others of this class. Petroleum or tar springs occur in Carroll, Ray, Randolph, Cass, Lafayette, Bates, Vernon, and other counties, and furnish a good lubricating oil in large quantities. In the south part of the State there are numerous fresh water springs of such great flowage as to be utilized for water power. One called Bryce's spring, on the Niangua river, which runs through Dallas, Hickory and Camden counties, discharges 10,927,872 cubic feet of water per day, drives a large flouring mill, and flows away a river 42 yards wide. This is the largest one, of these big springs. The temperature of its water is steadily at 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the flowage uniform throughout the year. SOILS AND THEIR PRODUCTS. As late as 1830 the greater part of Missouri was still marked on common school geography maps as part of the great American desert; and in 1820, even our own great statesman, Thomas H. Benton, had written: "After you get 40 or 50 miles from the Mississippi, arid plains set in and the country is uninhabitable except upon the borders of the rivers and creeks." But our present knowledge of Missouri's climate, soils and products show how widely mistaken our wisest people were on this subject in those early days. Prof. Swallow, Dean of the State Agricultural College at Columbia (State University), has given the soils of the state a classification adapted to the popular understanding, by using names that everybody can read and know what they mean, instead of technical scientific terms known only to a few who have had a college education. And as this history is designed for the masses of the people, and to a large extent for the farmers, we give a condensed statement of Prof. Swallow's classification. Those known as hackberry lands are first in fertility and productiveness. Upon these lands also grow elm, wild cherry, honey locust, hickory, white, black, burr and chestnut oaks, black and white walnut, mulberry, linden, ash, poplar, catalpa, sassafras and maple. The prairie soils of about the same quality, if not identical, are known as crow foot lands, so called from a species of weed found upon them, and these two soils generally join each other where the timber and prairie lands meet. Both rest upon a bed of fine silicious marls. They cover more than seven million acres of land. On this soil white oaks have been found twenty-nine feet in circumference and one hundred feet high; linden twenty-three feet in circumference and quite as lofty; the burr oak and sycamore grow still larger. Prairie grasses, on the crow foot lands, grow very rank and tall, and by the old settlers were said to entirely conceal herds of cattle from the view. The elm lands, are scarcely inferior to the hackberry lands, and possess very nearly the same growth of other timber. The soil has about the same properties, except that the sand is finer and the clay more abundant The same quality of soil appears in the prairie known as the resin-weed lands. Next in order are hickory lands, with a growth of white and shellbark hickory, black, scarlet and laurel oaks, sugar maple, persimmon and the haw, red-bud and crab-apple trees of smaller growth. In some portions of the state the tulip tree, beech and black gum grow on lands of the same quality. Large areas of prairie in the northeast and the southwest have soils of nearly the same quality, called mulatto soils. There is also a soil lying upon the red clays of southern Missouri similar to the above. These hickory lands and those described as assimilating to them, are highly. |