The whole plain spread out at the foot of the Mamelles bears abundant evidence of having once been submerged. The depth of the alluvion is upward of forty feet; and from that depth we are told that logs, leaves, coal, and a stratum of sand and pebbles bearing marks of the attrition of running waters, have been thrown up. Through the middle of the prairie pass several deep canals, apparently ancient channels of the rivers, and which now form the bed of a long irregular lake called _Marais Croche_; there is another lake of considerable extent called _Marais Temps Clair_.[170] This beautiful prairie once, then, formed a portion of that immense lake which at a remote period held possession of the American Bottom; and at the base of the graceful {18} Mamelles these giant rivers merrily mingled their waters, and then rolled onward to the gulf. That ages have since elapsed, the amazing depth of the alluvial and vegetable mould, and the ancient monuments reposing upon some portions of the surface, leave no room for doubt.[171] By heavy and continued deposites of alluvion, the vast peninsula gradually rose up from the waters; the Missouri was forced back to the bluff La Charbonnière, and the rival stream to the Piasa cliffs of Illinois. _St. Charles, Mo._ XXIV "Westward the star of empire holds its way." BERKELEY. "Travellers entering here behold around A large and spacious plain, on every side Strew'd with beauty, whose fair grassy ground, Mantled with green, and goodly beautified With all the ornaments of Flora's pride." "The flowers, the fair young flowers." "Ye are the stars of earth."