At night we had the pleasure of seeing a burning prairie for the first time.
Thursday, April 26.
Owing to a leakage in the canal the packet ran aground about two o’clock this morning, where we were detained four hours—until six. We arrived at La Salle about two o’clock in the afternoon.
The canal passes along down a valley one mile or more broad, with bluffs on each side. This valley has the appearance of having been, at some remote period of the past, the bed of a large river, and is thought by many to have once been the outlet and drainage of the Great Lakes, whose waters now form the great cataract of Niagara. I went out with my gun about one mile west of the city, where I found prairie chickens to be very numerous on the prairie. They are as large or larger than our New England partridge, which they very much resemble.
We left La Salle at 9 o’clock in the evening by the steamer Princeton for St. Louis, by way of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
Friday, April 27.
The weather is fine today. The Illinois River is a stream about one-half mile wide, with low, timbered bottom lands on each side, which at this time are considerably inundated, the river being quite high.
The scenery along the river presents a very dreary appearance at this time. It is neither beautiful nor grand. We saw a few wild turkeys along near the shore, which to us was something new.
Saturday, April 28.
At ten o’clock we entered the Mississippi River, and at eleven, passed the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi.