Caledonia is still a small village in Pulaski County, Illinois. Its post-office is Olmstead.—Ed.
[47] For account of the attempt at settlements at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 204, note 111.—Ed.
[48] For America see Ogden's Letters, our volume xix, p. 44, note 30, and Woods's English Prairie, our volume x, p. 327, note 77.
The scheme known as the "Internal Improvement Policy" was authorized over the governor's veto by the Illinois general assembly on February 27, 1837, in response to the popular clamor for its adoption. The object was to open the country for immigration and hasten its natural development by constructing railroads and canals as yet not needed commercially. Ten million two hundred thousand dollars were appropriated by the act, including two hundred thousand dollars to be given directly to the counties not favored. Surveys were made, and speculation was rife. Then followed a collapse, and six million five hundred thousand dollars were added to the state debt. The scheme was later referred to as the General Insanity Bill.—Ed.
[49] The English Island of 1836 is probably the Power's Island of today. It is three miles long, and forms a part of Scott County, Missouri, more than twenty miles above Cairo.—Ed.
[50] Herbert.—Flagg.
[51] For a sketch of Cape Girardeau, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 80, note 154.—Ed.
[52] A superior quality of kaolin, or china clay, is mined in large quantities in Cape Girardeau County. Marble ninety-nine per cent pure, is procured in abundance.—Ed.
[53] "Muddy River," usually called "Big Muddy," is the English translation of the French Rivière au Vase, or Vaseux. Formed by the union of two branches rising in Jefferson County, Illinois, it flows in a southwesterly direction and empties into the Mississippi about twenty-five miles above Cape Girardeau. It is one hundred and forty miles long.—Ed.
[54] Fountain Bluff is six miles above the mouth of the Big Muddy. Flagg's descriptions are in the main accurate.—Ed.