, and in the points of bluffs. Exhaustless
beds of this article exist in the bluffs of St. Clair county, bordering
on the American bottom, of which large quantities are transported to St.
Louis, for fuel. There is scarce a county in the State, but what can
furnish coal, in reasonable quantities. Large beds are said to exist,
near the Vermillion of the Illinois, and in the vicinity of the rapids
of the latter.

_Agatized Wood._ A petrified tree, of black walnut, was found in the bed
of the river Des Plaines, about forty rods above its junction with the
Kankakee, imbedded in a horizontal position, in a stratum of sandstone.
There is fifty-one and a half feet of the trunk visible,--eighteen
inches in diameter at its smallest end, and probably three feet at the
other end.

_Muriate of Soda_, or common salt. This is found in various parts of the
State, held in solution in the springs. The manufacture of salt by
boiling and evaporation is carried on in Gallatin county, twelve miles
west-north-west from Shawneetown; in Jackson county, near Brownsville;
and in Vermillion county, near Danville. The springs and land are owned
by the State, and the works leased.

A coarse freestone, much used in building, is dug from quarries near
Alton, on the Mississippi, where large bodies exist.

Scattered over the surface of our prairies, are large masses of rock, of
granitic formation, roundish in form, usually called by the people
"_lost rocks_." They will weigh from one thousand to ten or twelve
thousand pounds, and are entirely detached, and frequently are found
several miles-distant from any quarry. Nor has there ever been a quarry
of granite discovered in the State. These stones are denominated
_bowlders_ in mineralogy. They usually lie on the surface, or are
partially imbedded in the soil of our prairies, which is unquestionably
of diluvial formation. How they came here is a question of difficult
solution.

_Medicinal Waters_, are found in different parts of the State. These are
chiefly sulphur springs and chalybeate waters. There is said to be one
well in the southern part of the State strongly impregnated with the
sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts, from which considerable quantities
have been made for sale, by simply evaporating the water, in a kettle,
over a common fire.

There are several sulphur springs in Jefferson county, to which persons
resort for health.

_Vegetable Productions._ The principal trees and shrubs of