[163] Until after the middle of the nineteenth century, St. Louis County ranked among the coal-producing districts of Missouri. Today no coal is mined there save for the fire-clay industry or other immediate local use. Dr. B. F. Shumard in his "Description of a Geological Section on the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Commerce," in Geological Survey of Missouri, _First and Second Annual Reports_ (Jefferson City, 1855), p. 176, describes _La Charbonnière_ mine; which appears to have been operated at that time. He reports the coal vein as being only about eighteen inches in thickness. On page 184 of the above report, an interesting map is given, showing the location of coal mines in St. Louis County.--ED. [164] For an account of St. Charles, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 39, note 9. For the Mandan villages, see Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 344, and note 316, and volume xxiii, p. 234, note 192.--ED. [165] The following extract from a letter dated September, 1819, addressed by Mr. Austin to Mr. Schoolcraft, respecting the navigation of the Missouri, well portrays the impetuous character of that river. It shows, too, the great improvements in the steam-engine during the past twenty years. "I regret to state that the expedition up the Missouri to the Yellow Stone has in part failed. The steamboats destined for the Upper Missouri, after labouring against the current for a number of weeks, were obliged to give up the enterprise. Every exertion has been made to overcome the difficulty of navigating the Missouri with the power of steam; but all will not do. The current of that river, from the immense quantity of sand moving down with the water, is too powerful for any boat yet constructed. The loss either to the government or to the contractor will be very great. Small steamboats of fifty tons burden, with proper engines, would, I think, have done much better. Boats like those employed, of twenty to thirty feet beam, and six to eight feet draught of water, must have _uncommon_ power to be propelled up a river, every pint of whose water is equal in weight to a quart of Ohio water, and moves with a velocity hardly credible. The barges fixed to move with wheels, worked by men, have answered every expectation; but they will only do when troops are on board, and the men can be changed every hour."--FLAGG. [166] For a sketch of Franklin, Missouri, see Gregg's _Commerce of the Prairies_ in our volume xix, p. 188, note 33.--ED. [167] The first settlement was made at St. Charles in 1769. La Chasseur Blanchette located the site, and established here a military post. The first mill in St. Charles County is said to have been built by Jonathan Bryan on a small branch emptying into Femme Osage Creek (1801). Francis Duquette (1774-1816), a French Canadian who came to St. Charles just before the close of the century, erected a mill on the site of the old round fort.--ED.