[087] The cordelle was a rope, often several hundred yards long, by means of which men towed boats up rapid streams. When the current was especially strong, the end of the cordelle was attached to a tree and a windlass used.--ED. [088] In a section of forty feet perpendicular, of the alluvion of the Mississippi, near New Madrid, Mr. Shultz found seven hundred and ninety-eight layers, indicating an equal number of inundations, in the time of their deposition. Supposing these inundations to have happened yearly, we have an easy method of forming an estimate of the rapidity of the elevation of the bed of the Mississippi. These layers were found to vary in thickness, from one-fourth of an inch to three inches. See Shultz's _Travels_, vol. ii. p. 90.--JAMES. [089] Bellefontaine, or Fort Bellefontaine (old Fort Charles the Prince), was occupied by troops until 1826. See Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, v, pp. 392, 393, note 2. The site of the newer works mentioned in the text is now uncertain. An island opposite the mouth of Cold Water Creek was the camp of Lewis and Clark the first night after beginning the ascent of the Missouri (May 14, 1804).--ED. [090] Tilia Americana. The Podalyria alba, anemone virginiana, polygala incarnata (prairies) anagallis arvensis, lathyrus decaphyllus, ranunculus fluviatalis, carex multiflora, &c. were collected at Bellefontain. _Dr. Baldwin's MS. Notes._--JAMES. [091] The correct orthography of the word is Charbonnière, which means "carrying coals."--ED. [092] This was Benjamin O'Fallon, whose mother was the youngest sister of George Rogers and William Clark; his father, Dr. James O'Fallon, was a Revolutionary character and prominent Kentucky pioneer. A brother, John O'Fallon, was in the middle of the century, one of the most prominent citizens of St. Louis. John Dougherty was later for many years agent for the Oto, Pawnee, and Omaha tribes.--ED. [093] For St. Charles, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 9.--ED. [094] The vegetable productions at this place were, the populus deltoides, occupying the narrow margin of the river (not here preceded by the salix angustata, as is generally the case in recent alluvial grounds on the Ohio and Mississippi); the amorpha fruticosa,[A] and platanus occidentalis, next follow. The margin of the bluff produces the quercus rubra, juglans pubescens, carpinus Americana, (around the latter, we observed the celastrus scandens entwined and in fruit,) and on higher grounds, the laurus sassafras and juniperus Virginianus. Of herbaceous plants, the only one in flower was the rudbeckia fulgida. The higher parts of the hills were in many places thickly covered with species of elymus and andropogon, the summits being usually quite naked, and consisting of horizontal masses of ferruginous coloured sandstone. _Baldwin._--JAMES.