Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/72

64 innumerable herds of buffaloe, elk, and deer. All the variety of forest trees and shrubs, common to the western country, are found in some parts of the Indiana Territory; but different kinds abound more in some situations and soils than in others. There is also a great difference in the* size of the growth of the same kind of trees, in different soils. In the neighbourhood of the Illinois the crab-apple, plumb, and cherry trees grow in great plenty, yielding fruit in abundance. Here the grape vine flourishes admirably, producing large quantities of grapes, of which the inhabitants make a good red wine, for their own consumption. It is said in the year 1769, one hundred and ten hogsheads of well tasted and strong wine were made by the French settlers, from the grapes. The sugar-maple, and black and white mulberry grow in plenty.

The settlers on this river are almost entirely French people, who live principally in small villages. Where the land is cultivated, it yields large crops of almost every article they commit to the ground. It has been found that tobacco, indigo, hemp, and flax, can be raised here to much advantage.

Between the Illinois and the falls of Saint Anthony, a distance of about eight hundred and seventy miles, there are a large number of considerable streams, and some of them navigable rivers, which come from the eastward and discharge their waters into the Mississippi. The following