On the 23rd, in the neighbourhood of Little Arrow Rock,[104] we saw some persons catching an immensely large white catfish, the weight of which must have been very great, but I was not able to stop and examine it. At this place we heard a strange noise under the boat, which my people affirmed was produced by the prickly fins of the fish called by them casburgot, or malacigan (Catastomus carpio, Les.), and by the Americans, buffalo-fish. It weighs from five to six pounds. Towards evening we passed Franklin, and stopped at Boonville.[105] Two negro slaves, who were returning from the plantations, were very much astonished at the sight of my bears: one of them had a long tin speaking-trumpet, with which these men, when working in the forest, are called together. It may not be irrelevant to remark that all the negroes of these parts are slaves. Fine tall trees covered the hills on the bank, which my people ascended in order to purchase provisions in the scattered dwellings of the planters.
On the 24th we passed the small town of Columbia, below the mouth of the Manitu stream, where a quantity of logs of wood, for the use of the steam-boats, was piled up on the bank. At noon the thermometer was at 90°. An uninterrupted forest, with beautiful scenery, adorned the canal during the entire extent of this day's voyage. Having passed the village of Maryanne, on the northern side, we reached Jefferson City at six in the afternoon.[106] This place is still in its infancy and most of the habitations are scattered, while the ground between them is not yet levelled. It is covered with heaps of stones and high weeds; and cows and pigs were roaming about at liberty. We could not obtain any provisions except salt pork, biscuits, and whisky. In the bookseller's shop, as it is termed, we only found a few school books. In the evening I proceeded to the plantation of a person named Ramsay,[107] where a number of negroes congregated about our boat, from whom I was fortunate enough to purchase some poultry. These people were dressed in all sorts of left-off clothes, and forcibly reminded me of similar scenes in Brazil.
At eight o'clock in the morning of the 25th, we passed Côte sans Dessein; and at noon, when the thermometer was at 88°, reached the little town of Portland, which was founded about two years since. Near the mouth of Gasconade River we met the Oto steam-boat.[108] We stopped {474} for the night below the Rivière à Berger, and on the morning of the 26th lay-to at the settlement of a man named Porter, to which the name of Washington has been given, though at present it consists of only a few isolated dwellings: the inhabitants were very courteous and obliging.[109] The adjacent forest was animated by many interesting birds; and I here purchased a live young bear. Opposite to this place, four or five miles up the country, a Mr. Von Mertels, of Hanover, has settled; and here, a few years since, Dr. Duden resided, who has written on North America, and who is still much talked of in this country.[110] In the evening we reached St. Charles, to which great numbers of German emigrants now resort,[111] and lay-to at the settlement of Mr. Chauvin, who keeps an inn, and has set up a stage between this and St. Louis. Here we passed the night, but the rain was so heavy, that we were prevented leaving the house. The people spoke to us a great deal of the many persons who had fallen victims to the cholera the year before. There is a ferry at this place over the Missouri, in which the large wheel is set in motion by six horses.
On the 27th, after the rain had ceased, we went by land to St. Louis: the weather was warm and damp, and the brilliant humming-birds fluttered about the plants in the court-yard of the house. As the stage did not run to-day, I hired a long, open, farmer's wagon, with three horses, in order to reach the Mississippi as speedily as possible, while Dreidoppel was to go by water, with my collections, &c. We immediately entered the forest, where colossal trees, especially the sugar maple, oak, elm, &c., covered a hilly ground, overgrown with many interesting plants, about which the most beautiful butterflies peculiar to this country were hovering. From time to time we saw planters' dwellings all built of wood, covered with planks, and roofed with shingles, the chimneys being of brick. Among the many species of trees is the black oak, which is used for dyeing and tanning. A great quantity of the bark is sent to England. The forest extends many miles, and, becoming gradually thinner, is succeeded by the open prairie, which does not differ from the prairies of the west, especially of the upper Missouri. We stopped at an isolated inn to refresh our horses, and were still six or seven miles from St. Louis. The last part of the road lay through a wood of dark green oaks, in which I saw many circular pools of water, which undoubtedly owed their origin to the sinking of the earth, of which Mr. Say speaks, in the account of Major Long's expedition.[112] These pools are fifty or sixty paces in diameter, and are inhabited by numerous frogs, whose croaking is heard at a great distance. At noon we alighted at the Union Hotel in St. Louis, after an absence of above a year.
St. Louis was now healthy, and not suffering from the cholera, as we had expected; there had, however, been a couple of cases in a steamer from New Orleans. No change of consequence had taken place since our last visit. At the factory of the American Fur Company I found very agreeable letters from Europe. Here I saw Mr. Lamont, to whose amiable family we were introduced, but I greatly regretted the absence of General Clarke.[113] We received much {475} kindness in the house of Major O'Fallan, who is perfectly acquainted with the Missouri, and the aboriginal inhabitants. Here we saw a collection of Indian portraits and scenery by Mr. Catlin, a painter from New York, of which we were able to form an opinion after our recent travels in the country.[114] Major Dougherty, our friend and travelling companion, had the goodness to give us a night's lodging, and we were highly gratified by his conversation about the countries which we had just left, and with which he is well acquainted.
Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of St. Louis are the ancient Indian barrows, the traces of which I had hitherto in vain attempted to find on the whole course of the Missouri. In order to take a view of them, we crossed the Missouri in a steam-ferry, where there is room for the horses and carriage, and in the upper story of its pavilion, a light, airy chamber. On the opposite bank are a good many houses, inns, and shops, under the shade of lofty old trees. Fish, turtles, vegetables, and other provisions, are daily sent from this place to the market in the town. The surrounding country is level, sandy, and, in part, marshy; the road passes alternately through open meadows and copses to the skirts of an extensive verdant plain, or prairie, after we had crossed a wooden bridge thrown over the pretty stream called Kahokia Creek, the banks of which are picturesquely bordered with fine trees.[115] The colour of the water is dark brown, like many forest streams in Brazil, and forms a beautiful camera obscura. The open plain, which we now reached, was everywhere clothed with young grass, and in several spots with low bushes. As soon as we had passed the skirts of the forest on the Mississippi, a long row of very flat ancient Indian barrows came in sight, extending parallel with the river, and a second row, forming an angle with the first, in which some of the barrows are higher than others. Right in front of the angle formed by the two rows is the most considerable barrow of all, which does not appear at first sight, though it is at least sixty feet high. It is called Trappist's or Monk's Hill, because some French monks of the order of La Trappe formerly lived here.[116] I may remark by the way, that many settlers of French origin live in this part of the country.
We proceeded in the direction of the above hill, which is about six miles from the river; it is covered with greensward and a few old trees, and some new wooden buildings are erected on it. In the prairie stood a group of very tall poplars, under which a herd of cattle was reposing. Here we left our wagon, but the bull, who seemed to be lord and master, was at first much inclined to oppose our passage. Numerous birds of many species and beautiful butterflies were fluttering about in the ardent noontide sun. The Indian hills, or barrows, of which Say counted seventy-five, have a very striking appearance; they stand in a row, generally isolated, but sometimes two are side by side. Some of them still retain their conical form, while others are very much flattened. There are similar barrows near St. Louis on the other side of the Mississippi, most of which have, however, been destroyed by cultivation and building. The destination and the origin of these remarkable barrows and walls, which have been the subject of so much discussion, {476} are still involved in obscurity; while the government of the United States alone might have collected the necessary materials on the subject, if it had employed competent persons to excavate, carefully to examine, survey, and describe all the monuments of this kind that are scattered over the states of the Union.[117] Even at this time, it is not wholly too late to do much towards the accomplishment of so interesting an inquiry; not a moment should, however, be lost. Baron Alexander Von Humboldt has given an interesting essay on the subject in his valuable works; and several American writers have collected and published many particulars respecting these remains. Of some of them Warden has given ground plans and sketches, but no favourable result can be expected till the excavation is prosecuted in earnest.[118] Perhaps the flint knives resembling those of Mexico[119] might be found near St. Louis. These barrows have a close resemblance to the ancient German barrows which are everywhere found in our forests. A late traveller (Dr. De Wette) conjectures that the American barrows are not produced by art, but by nature, because there is no fosse round them from which the earth was taken; this notion is, however, very easily refuted, as the barrows and walls are arranged in regular figures and lines, and in like manner no fosse or excavation is to be seen round the barrows in the German forests. The earth was taken from the surface in the neighbourhood, but it was by no means necessary on that account to excavate a fosse. With regard to the regular position of the barrows of St. Louis, they have in this respect a close resemblance to the kurghans of the Russian steppes, which also lie in long regular lines. The very form, too, of both seems to be quite similar, if we except the stone images which are often seen on the kurghans. Pallas, in his "Tour through Southern Russia" (Vol. I. Vig. 1), gives a sketch of a row of barrows which perfectly resemble those of St. Louis.[120]
A pleasant westerly breeze which sprung up, was a great relief to us in the sultry heat, and continued till we returned to the shady forests on Kahokia Creek, which we reached at two o'clock. Numerous tortoises live in this stream. The banks of the Mississippi, near St. Louis, are likewise remarkable for various impressions of shells and zoophytes in the limestone; among them are the beautiful crinoides, which are found in great perfection close to the buildings of the town. Mr. Lesueur has collected and sent to France specimens of all these fossil remains, and every information on the subject is contained in his and other similar works. I neglected, while I was at St. Louis, to see the tame buffaloes which Mr. Pièrre Chouteau kept on his estate near the town, though I should have been very glad, for many reasons, to have seen these animals in a domestic state. I have been frequently told, in America, of hybrids of the buffalo (bison) and the tame race, but never saw any; and several naturalists, especially Mr. Thomas Say,[121] have {477} always affirmed that no instance ever occurred of hybrids, capable of propagating their kind, of that animal and the tame species. He declares that every case into which he examined turned out to be unproved. Mr. Gallatin has, indeed, lately spoken on the subject, and pronounced against Mr. Say's opinion. He calls the bison a mere variety of the common ox; but this may be easily refuted.[122] The bison is quite a different species from the ox, as is clear, not only from its outward form, high withers, short tail, the formation of the head, and the peculiarity of its long hair, but likewise from the osteology, the number of the ribs and vertebræ being different in the two animals.
There is another point on which I differ from Mr. Gallatin, namely, his denial of the great decrease in the number of buffaloes in general. For when we consider how far these animals have been driven up the country, and that, in these very parts, they are even less numerous than formerly, we have a fact which at once proves a great decrease, of which nobody in the interior of the country can entertain a doubt.
After staying about a week we took leave of our friends at St. Louis, and embarked on board the Metamore steam-boat, which left on the 3rd of June. Messrs. Chouteau, Lamont, General Pratte, and Ortley, accompanied me on board, where we bade each other farewell.[123] We glided rapidly down the Mississippi, and passed Chester before evening, but were soon obliged to lay-to, because we were apprehensive that the night would be dark.