Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/299

 from each other by narrow slips of land about fifty paces wide each, and the other three by slips of one hundred and fifty paces. Their general direction from the river is S. S. W. and a point rounds the whole way from E. to S. E.—This is one of the most remarkable situations on the river.

Two miles lower we stopped at island No. 40, for the night, and moored by some willows at a sand beach, near a drift tree, the trunk of which was one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and from its thickness where broken towards the top, it must have been at least fifty feet more to the extremity of the branches, making in the whole the astonishing length of one hundred and seventy-five feet. Capt. Wells with two boats from Steubenville, passed and stopped a little below us.

The Musquitoes as usual plagued us all night, and hastened our departure at four o'clock in the morning. {266} Wells's boats were in company, and after floating six miles, we overtook two other boats from Steubenville under the direction of captain Bell.—The four boats had twelve hundred barrels of flour for the New Orleans market.

This accession to our company served to enliven a little the remainder of this dreary and solitary part of the river, the sameness of which had began to be irksome.

In a league more Bell's boats took the right hand channel round an archipelago of islands, while we kept to the left through Mansfield's channel, which is very narrow and meanders among several small islands and willow bars.

This archipelago which is designated by No. 41 in the Navigator, is three miles long. At the end of it we rejoined Bell's boats, and passed a settlement pleasantly situated on the right, which was the first habitation since Little Prairie (one hundred and thirty-two miles.) Here we observed a fine stock of horses, cows, and oxen, and half a mile farther we landed in the skiff at Mr. Foy's handsome settlement