The black walnut attains, in the Missouri bottoms, { 72} its greatest magnitude. Of one, which grew near Loutre Island, there had been made two hundred fence-rails, eleven feet in length, and from four to six inches in thickness. A cotton-tree, in the same neighbourhood, produced thirty thousand shingles, as we were informed by a credible witness.
[077] The name Pain Court (Short of Bread), and the similar appellations of Carondelet (_Vide Poche_--Empty Pocket), and of Ste. Geneviève (_Misère_--Poverty), are said to have originated in the good-natured raillery between the French of the several settlements. They probably point also to the want often experienced by a trading people who neglected agriculture. For further facts relative to the early history of St. Louis, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, note 134, and André Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, note 138.--ED.
[078] The lack of a good harbor at St. Louis has occasioned vast trouble and expense. The encroachment of the river on the Illinois side caused sand-bars to form along the city water front, and for many years it seemed likely that the town would eventually be left high and dry. Efforts at improvement were begun in 1833, ox-teams and plows being used to loosen the sand for high water to remove. Both city and federal governments have since made many improvements, the river at that point requiring almost continuous care.--ED.
[079] George Rapp, the founder of the Harmonites, was born in Würtemberg in 1770. The sect endeavored to revive the practices of the primitive Christian church, communism and celibacy being among its tenets. After founding Harmony, Pennsylvania, in 1803, and New Harmony, Indiana, in 1815, the community settled at Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Rapp died in 1847.--ED.
[081] Hamamelis virginica, and quercus nigra.--JAMES.
[082] Bradbury's _Travels_ are reprinted as volume v of our series. See preface of that volume for biographical sketch.--ED.
[083] What we have called base in the following statement is in reality the length of a line passing over the top of the mound, from the termination of the base each side.
The numbers refer to a draft. The heights are estimated, with the exception of two.