found lingering among us; and the visit of a solitary buffalo to his old haunts, or "stamping-grounds," only reminds us of the wealth and luxuries of the red man when sovereign of these sparsely-inhabited regions. The woodland and hazels are filled with rabbits; and the gray and fox squirrels might well be spared from the borders of the woodland plantations. The rackoon, ground hog, and opossum, furnish subjects for the field-sports of the slaves, who find equal delight in the chase and the feast, after a successful hunt. The bliss of a negro, on these festive occasions, is made perfect in the ample supply (always at command) of sweet potatoes and hommony. The black and prairie wolf, the natural enemies of the shepherd, are occasionally unwelcome visiters within the settlements, and sometimes try the bottom of our racers and the fortitude of the stag-hounds. The gray fox furnishes a fair equivalent, in field-sports, to bold riders, for the small amount of mischief he perpetrates. The gray and bald eagle naturally, and by prescriptive right, take pre-eminence in the feathered tribe, as much, perhaps, in consideration of their association with the stars of the republic, as by virtue of their size, great strength, and lofty flight. The raven, crow, and buzzard, and occasionally the magpie, thrust themselves into the society of the eagle, claiming carnivorous relationship, by virtue of having aided in tearing and in devouring parts and parcels of the same carcass. It is reasonable to infer that these feathered spoilers and flatterers, in imitation of bearded ones, send up to their mighty bald-headed president on the oaks above them as devout croakings as those they copy from. The magpie is only found in the northwest portion of Missouri, recently attached, or in the same parallel of latitude. This bird is as mischievous here as that one which sometimes takes a benefit, or figures on the stage.* The paroquet found in Missouri deserves notice, as peculiar in character and attractive in its plumage. This is a bird strongly resembling the green parrot in colour and form; and it is reported of them, that at night they repose within the

* On the Nodawa, a soldier had been several times robbed of his meat, when about to lay it on the coals. To punish the robber, he sat down near his camp fire with a slice of venison on his cap. A magpie swept it off with impunity, although the soldier held his hand within trapping distance of his intended victim

cavity of a hollow tree, hanging by their curved Roman nosebeaks. This report may require confirmation. The mockingbird makes its annual visit to the settled parts of Missouri, and, throughout the summer season, affords better music than the illtaught vocalists of the human family, whose wild screams and discordant notes have been known to scare away the music of a well-tuned instrument!

From St. Louis, the commercial emporium of Missouri, four great roads diverge-one, leading down the Mississippi, and parallel, in general direction, towards New Madrid, passes through the river counties. The second leads off and traverses the mineral region, in Washington county, to the iron mountain, towards the southwestern sections of the state, branching to the iron-works of Massie, and other settlements. The third great road leads through Franklin and Gasconade, on the right bank of Missouri, to Jefferson city, the seat of government; thence through Booneville to Independence, the seat of justice of the extreme frontier county. The fourth road is on the old Booneslick trace by St. Charles, continued through the tier of river counties on the left bank of Missouri, and branching from Fulton, the county-seat of Callaway, to Jefferson city. From Fulton it is extended through Fayette and Chariton to the frontier of the state, in Clay county. Between Columbia and New Franklin the road branches to the left, passing through the latter place to Arrow Rock ferry: this is the most usual route of travellers to the upper counties. From St. Charles a fifth great road diverges, passing by Troy, and in continuation through the tier of Mississippi river counties to the Desmoines. Froin Jefferson city, at the expense of the state, roads have been reviewed, and marked in various directions, leading to the extreme limits of the state, with a view of facilitating the approach of the people to the seat of government; but many of these routes having been found superfluous, or not needed for present use, have not been cut out or worked, but will be opened as the public convenience may call for increased channels of intercourse. The contemplated railroads, leading out from St. Louis, are located as follows, and one is begun at Marion city, to be extended to the Missouri river, in Howard county.

Extract from the proceedings of the Railroad Convention.

"St. Louis, Saturday, April 23, 1836. "The Convention met pursuant to adjournment.

"The president proceeded to appoint a committee, in accordance with the provisions of the last resolution adopted on yesterday, to memorialize Congress for land; and appointed the following gentlemen :-Messrs. ROLLINS, BATES, and GAMBLE.

"The following propositions, upon the subject of routes, &c., ordered on yesterday to be engrossed, were taken up, read, and agreed to.

"1st. It is now expedient to adopt measures for the construction of a railroad from St. Louis to Fayette, with the view of ultimately extending the road in that general direction, as far as public convenience and the exigences of trade may require.

"Also, a railroad from St. Louis, in a southwestern direction, to the valley of Bellevue, in Washington county, so as to traverse the rich mineral region in that part of the state, with a view to its indefinite extension in that direction, when and as far as public interest may require.

"And also, a branch from some convenient point on the lastmentioned road, to the Merrimac iron-works in Crawford county, with a view to its ultimate extension through Cooper county to a point on the Missouri river in Jackson county.

"2d. That the proposed railroad from St. Louis to Fayette ought to cross the Missouri river at the town of St. Charles, and through or within one mile of the several towns of Warrenton, Danville, Fulton, and Columbia, the said towns being points most acceptable to the people of the counties through which the road is proposed to pass."

When the interior trade from Missouri to New Mexico had increased to something like a regular and permanent operation, the government of the United States caused an appropriation to be made, and applied to the survey and marking of the road to Santa Fé. Colonel Benjamin H. Reeves of Howard, Major George C. Sibley of St. Charles, and T. Mathers, Esq. of Illi

nois, were the commissioners appointed by the president of the United States for this service, and Mr. Joseph C. Brown was selected to execute the survey. In the discharge of the duties of this trust, the route was selected and measured, and the distance from Independence to Santa Fé was ascertained to be 897 miles. Mounds were thrown up in the prairies on the route, and, in the skirts of timber through which the road passes, trees were conspicuously marked, to guide the caravans in their pilgrimages to the metallic shrines. But the road has long since been indelibly marked in the marches and counter-marches of traders, who find amusement and profit happily mingled in this peculiar commerce, on a sea of prairie.

It would be proper here to make some general observations on the character and the peculiarities of the Missouri river. Although the Mississippi has been likened to the Nile, there is not on the globe a stream bearing any clearly-defined resemblance to the Missouri. There is a tradition, that the name given to it, in some one of the Indian dialects, when rendered into English, is mad water; other Indian tribes term it, in their language, Nee-Shuga, or smoky water. Rushing, as this mighty stream does, over an almost interminable plain, with sufficient inclination to give it impetuosity, there is a uniformity in its current unlike any other river that drains the earth. As its turbid waters are whirling and eddying onward, with the speed of " the wild horse's wilder sire," its alluvial banks impose imperfect restraints on the accumulated mass of power. When the volume of water is insufficient to overleap the river-banks, prone to mischief as power always is, the current tears asunder the rich soil on its borders; and it is only the foundations of everlasting hills, like those on which St. Louis and Booneville stand, that can say to the mad water, "Hither shalt thou come, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed!" It is by the unceremonious chafing of the banks of the Missouri that the foresttrees are uprooted and planted anew in the channel, to tantalize the navigator, and awaken the utmost vigilance of the weatherworn pilot. This war between elements calls in the highwrought ingenuity of man as an auxiliary to remove the mis

chiefs of their licentious courses; and thus the earthquake power, successfully applied by Shreve, is brought in conflict with ancient destructive planters, and "the bane and antidote" are happily commingled.

To the suffering which our early steam navigators of the Mississippi endured from sawyers and planters, we may attribute the idea and the inventions of Captain Shreve, by which these dangerous obstructions are now removed. This ingenious riverfaring gentleman has successfully applied the power of steam in extracting snags from the channels of rivers, so that boats rarely suffer in any section of the Mississippi. The raft of the Red river has been, likewise, nearly cut away and removed under the direction of this gentleman. The operations of the snagboat, when conducted by an energetic and active crew, are among the wonders of modern ingenuity. If a snag is ever found with its head or point above water, the great steam leviathan, its artificial antagonist, approaches, and, having grappled, a chain-cable is fastened to the planter, and it is dragged from its ancient moorings, sawed asunder, and cast upon the waters to float as harmless as a broken reed. Occasionally less ceremony is observed in the destruction of the destroyer. The hard-headed snag-boat, with full head of steam, ascending the river, lifts the point of the sawyer above the bow of the boat, and, pressing for ward, snaps it asunder. If the first effort fail, the Herculean monster only falls back to respire a moment, and returning to the charge with additional pressure, overcomes the fruitless resistance. With all the obstructions and drawbacks of the mad water, it affords an invaluable channel of intercourse for the distance of near six hundred miles into the interior of the richest portion of the globe. To make out this distance, the additional tract between the northwest boundary of the state and the Missouri is taken in, and the certainty of this addition is now ascertained.

The efforts of early steam navigators on this river were so disastrous as to induce them for a period to abandon the enterprise; but, when the steam-engine had undergone some improvement, and boats of suitable construction had been provided