Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/71

63 New York; a distance computed to be nearly four thousand miles. Perhaps there is not to be found an inland navigation of equal extent, in any part of the world. Another large branch of the Illinois rises near the river Saint Joseph, passing south of Lake Michigan, where a portage may be easily formed. It is called the Theakiki river.

The banks of the Illinois are generally high. The bed of the river being a white marble, or clay, or sand, the waters are remarkably clear. It abounds with beautiful islands, one of which is ten miles long; and adjoining or near to it, are many coal mines, salt ponds, and small lakes. It passes through one lake, two hundred and ten miles from its mouth, which is twenty miles in length, and three or four miles in breadth, called Illinois lake. The river, and waters communicating with it, are replenished with a variety of excellent fish. The large tract of country through which this river and its branches meander, is said not to be exceeded in beauty, levelness, richness, and fertility of soil, by any tract of land, of equal extent, in the United States. From the Illinois to the Wabash, excepting some little distance from the rivers, is almost one continued prairie, or natural meadow, intermixed with groves, or copses of wood, and some swamps and small lakes. These beautiful, and, to the eye of the beholder, unlimited fields, are covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and other vegetable productions, which afford fattening and plentiful grazing for