Excerpt from Prairie and Rocky Mountain Adventures, or Life in the West A separate section is devoted to the Mississippi River, opening with Schoolcraft's account Of its extreme source, and a description of the beautiful lakes near its origin, followed by the famous Indian legend of the Maiden's Rock; a delineation of St. Anthony's and Brown's Falls, and of the Lower Mississippi, with Audubon's pleasant sketch of the Virginia squatter upon its banks; a glance at the keel boatmen that navigated its waters in early times, with characteristic incidents; the earthquake in 1811, and destruction of New Madrid on the Mississippi. Missouri receives in this part of the work a large share of attention. Its first settlement by the French is described; its cession by France to Spain, with incidents in its early history; its retrocession by Spain to France, and its cession by the latter to the United States; its rapid increase in population and in the development of its great resources; its admission as a State In 1820; its mineral and other natural wealth, especially its mines of lead, iron, and copper; the mineral wonders of Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob; its fine farming lands, and mild and salubrious climate. The reader is next presented with sketches of the scenery in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys; the diversities of grand forests, hills, valleys, and plains, with glowing descriptions of the vast and magnificent prairies and their beautiful and varied Scenery an interesting account of the American bison, or buffalo, with Washington Irving's vivid de scription of a buffalo hunt; the burrowing owl graphically portrayed, and an entertaining Sketch of a visit to an Indian village by Audubon in an adventure on a western prairie. We pass next to a glance at Oregon and the fur trade in the N orth west. Here we find detailed the first discovery of the mouth of the great Columbia River, the Mississippi of the Pacific region the enter prise of John Jacob Astor, and the establishment, history, and progress of the Pacific Fur Company, and of the settlement at Astoria; the travels and researches of missionaries in the country around the mouth of the Columbia; the great natural curiosities along that river and its branches; a description of the Rocky Mountains and their wonders; the climate, the Indians, and the discovery of gold in Oregon, with travels, hunting, incidents, and adventures in that region in 1851. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.