But to return from a digression which has become unconscionably long. After a brisk gallop of a few hours through the delightful scenery of the Barrens, I found myself approaching the little town of Carlinville. As I drew nigh to the village, I found it absolutely reeling under the excitement of the "Grand Menagerie." From all points of the compass, men, women, and children, emerging from the forest, came pouring into the place, some upon horses, some in farm-wagons, and troops of others on foot, slipping and sliding along in a fashion most distressing to behold. The soil in this vicinity is a black loam of surpassing fertility; and, when saturated with moisture, it adheres to the sole with most pertinacious tenacity, more like to an amalgam of soot and soap-grease than to any other substance that has ever come under my cognizance. The inn {207} was thronged by neighbouring farmers, some canvassing the relative and individual merits of the _Zebedee_ and the _Portimous_; others sagely dwelling upon the mooted point of peril to be apprehended from the great _sarpent_--_Boy Contractor_; while little unwashen wights did run about and dangerously prophecy on the recent disappearance of the big elephant. Carlinville is a considerable village, situated on the margin of a pleasant prairie, on the north side of Macoupin Creek, and is the seat of justice for the county. The name _Macoupin_ is said to be of aboriginal derivation, and by the early French chroniclers was spelled and pronounced _Ma-qua-pin_, until its present uncomely combination of letters became legalized on the statute-book. The term, we are told by Charlevoix, the French _voyageur_, is the Indian name of an esculent with a broad corolla, found in many of the ponds and creeks of Illinois, especially along the course of the romantic stream bearing its name. The larger roots, eaten raw, were poisonous, and the natives were accustomed to dig ovens in the earth, into which, being walled up with flat stones and heated, was deposited the vegetable. After remaining for forty-eight hours in this situation, the deleterious qualities were found extracted, and the root being dried, was esteemed a luxury by the Indians. The region bordering upon Carlinville is amazingly fertile, and proportionally divided into prairie and timber--a circumstance by no means unworthy of notice. There has been a design of establishing {208} here a Theological Seminary, but the question of its site has been a point easier to discuss than to decide.[142] My tarry at the village was a brief one, though I became acquainted with a number of its worthy citizens; and in the log-office of a young limb of _legality_, obtained, as a special distinction, a glance at a forthcoming "Fourth-of-July" oration, fruitful in those sonorous periods and stereotyped patriotics indispensable on such occasions, and, at all hazard, made and provided for them. As I was leaving the village I was met by multitudes,