Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/247

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 187 and helped to produce the prevailing high prices.* Nuttall in speaking of the country about Point Pleasant says the land "is of a supe- rior quality but flat and no high grades have made their appearance since we passed the Iron banks; no rock is anywhere to be seen. The Banks are deep and friable, islands and sand bars, at this stage of the river, con- nected with the land are almost innumerable. In the midst of so much plenty provided by nature the Canadian squatters are here, as elsewhere, in miserable circumstances; they raise no wheat and scarcely enough maize for their support; superfine flour sold here at $11.00 per barrel. The dresses of the men consist of blanket capeaus, buckskin pan- taloons and moccasins. "t Besides these occupations, some men still made their living by hunting and trapping. As more and more the forests disappeared and lands were cleared and settled, hunting became less and less profitable. There were always some men left to engage hunting as a business. They did not contribute greatly to the wealth of the state, but they, undoubtedly, added something to it. The day of the Indian was practically closed by the time of the admission of the state into the Union. During part of the period, how- ever, there was still money to be made by trading and trapping with the Indians. Furs were still brought and offered to the trader at very low prices, and so there were few men who were engaged very largely in this busi- ness of trading with the Indians. A number of men were engaged in the very important and necessary business of transpor- tation. It required great labor and expense to move the products of the country to market. + Nuttall Journal, p. 78. This was especially true of the lead and iron produced at the mines. It was true also of the goods sold by the merchant. These usually had to be transported for long dis- tances before reaching him. The river con- tinued to be the favorite route over which goods were carried when it was possible to use the river at all. This period of history saw the beginning of steamboat navigation. Its principal dependence was upon the keel- boat, but the keel-boat was destined to dis- appear before a better method of transpor- tation. In a former chapter we have examined the use of the river for transporting goods. Traf- fic on the river increased very i-apidly after the cession to the United States. The Amer- ican settlers very soon added largely to the exports. These exports, consisting of the various products of tlie country were sent usually by river to New Orleans and some- times to Pittsburgh on the Ohio river. The river was covered with fleets of keel-boats and travel was brisk; however, the long time re- quired for a trip from Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans and return was a very great handi- cap to trade. It is one of the remai'kable things in history that at this time, when there arose a very great necessity for improved methods of transportation, there should liave come into use the steamboat, which changed so greatly the traffic on the river. In 1807 Fulton had put in operation the first steam- boat the world had ever seen, the Clermont. Immediately upon the beginning of steam navigation, a suggestion was made to Fulton and his associates that the Clermont should be put in the Mississippi river trade. It was already known in the East that this trade was very extensive, and it seems that Fulton con- sidered the question of bringing the Clermont to the Mississippi. It is not knowTi how he
 * Life of Peck, p. 84.