nd cold, and deposited a light
sediment of sulphur, along the little rills by which they found an
outlet into a rapid stream, which was tributary to the Mississippi.

Five miles beyond these springs, we reached the valley of the Merrimack,
just at nightfall; and notwithstanding the threatening atmosphere, and
the commencement of rain, before we descended to the stream, we
prevailed with the ferryman to go down and set us over, which we urged
with the view of reaching a house within less than a mile of the other
bank. He landed us at the right spot; but the darkness had now become so
intense that we could not keep the road, and groped our way along an old
wheel-track into the forest. It also came on to rain hard. We at last
stood still. We were lost in utter darkness, and exposed to a pelting
storm. After a while we heard a faint stroke of a cow bell. We listened
attentively; it was repeated at long intervals, but faintly, as if the
animal was housed. It gave us the direction, which was quite different
from the course we had followed. No obstacle, though there were many,
prevented us from reaching the house, where we arrived wet and hungry,
and half dead with fatigue.

The Merrimack, in whose valley we were thus entangled, is the prime
outlet of the various streams of the mine country, where Renault, and
Arnault, and other French explorers, expended their researches during
the exciting era of the celebrated illusory Mississippi scheme.

The next day we crossed an elevated arid tract for twelve miles to the
village of Carondalet, without encountering a house, or an acre of land
in cultivation. On this tract, which formed a sort of oak orchard, with
high grass, and was a range for wild deer, Jefferson Barracks have since
been located. Six miles further brought us to the town of St. Louis,
over an elevated brushy plain, in which the soil assumed a decidedly
fertile aspect. We arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon, and had
a pleasant evening to view its fine site, based as it is on solid
limestone rock, where no encroachment of the headlong Mississippi can
ever endanger its safety. I was delighted with the site, and its
capacity for expansion, and cannot conceive of one in America, situated
in the interior, which appears destined to rival it in population,
wealth, power, and resources. It is idle to talk of any city of Europe
or Asia, situated as this is, twelve hundred miles from the sea, which
can be named as its f