"Once more upon the Waters!"--"Uncle Sam's Tooth-pullers"--Mode of eradicating a Snag--River Suburbs of North St. Louis--Spanish Fortifications--The Waterworks--The Ancient Mounds--Country Seats--The Confluence--Charlevoix's Description--A Variance-- A View--The Upper Mississippi--Alton in distant View--The Penitentiary and Churches--"Pomp and Circumstance"--The City of Alton--Advantages--Objections--Improvements--Prospects-- Liberality--Railroads--Alton Bluffs--"Departing Day"--The Piasa Cliffs--Moonlight Scene 113 IX The _Coleur de Rose_--The Piasa--The Indian Legend--Caverns-- Human Remains--The Illinois--Characteristic Features--The Canal--The Banks and Bottoms--Poisonous Exhalations--Scenes on the Illinois--The "Military Bounty Tract"--_Cape au Gris_--Old French Village--River Villages--Pekin--"An Unco Sight"--Genius of the Bacchanal--A "Monkey Show"--Nomenclature of Towns--The Indian Names 122 X An Emigrant Farmer--An Enthusiast--Peoria--The Old Village and the New--Early History--Exile of the French--Fort Clarke--Indian Hostilities--The Modern Village--Site--Advantages--Prospects-- Lake _Pinatahwee_--Fish--The Bluffs and Prairie--A Military Spectacle--The "Helen Mar"--Horrors of Steam!--A Bivouac--The Dragoon Corps--Military {xii} Courtesy--"Starved Rock"--The Legend--Remains--Shells--Intrenchments--Music--The Moonlight Serenade--A Reminiscence 132 XI Delay--"A Horse!"--Early French Immigration in the West--The Villages of the Wilderness--St. Louis--Venerable Aspect--Site of the City--A French Village City--South St. Louis--The Old Chateaux--The Founding of the City--The Footprints in the Rock-- The First House--Name of City--Decease of the Founders--Early Annals--Administration of St. Ange--The Common Field--Cession and Recession--"_L'Annee du Grand Coup_"--"_L'Annee des Grandes Eaux_"--Keel-boat Commerce--The Robbers Culbert and Magilbray-- "_L'Annee des Bateaux_"--The First Steamboat at St. Louis-- Wonder of the Indians--Opposition to Improvement--Plan of St. Louis--A View--Spanish Fortifications--The Ancient Mounds-- Position--Number--Magnitude--Outlines--Arrangement--Character-- Neglect--Moral Interest--Origin--The Argument of Analogy 142 XII View from the "Big Mound" at St. Louis--The Sand-bar--The Remedy--The "Floating Dry-dock"--The Western Suburbs--Country Seats--Game--Lakes--Public Edifices--Catholic Religion-- "Cathedral of St. Luke"--Site--Dimensions--Peal of Bells-- Porch--The Interior--Columns--Window Transparencies--The Effect--The Sanctuary--Galleries--Altar-piece--Altar and Tabernacle--Chapels--Paintings--Lower Chapel--St. Louis University--Medical School--The Chapel--Paintings--Library-- Ponderous Volumes--Philosophical Apparatus--The Pupils 160 XIII