Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-01-07
Original CALI.
Written for the Bradford Reportcr.l
A STORY OF THE WEST.
BY BARRY BLAKE.

About twelve miles from Ottowny, the mo,
notonOuS valley of the Illinois river is broken
by the presence of solitary rock, nearly a
hundred feet in height, and embracing an area
d nearly half an acre Three of its sides pre-
sent perpendicular walls, while the fourth af-
tordS bat a precarious footpath, which if the
traveller be bold enough to take advantage of,
will conduct him TO the top of the rock. This
Undertaking having been safely accomplished,
all his toll and trouble will be amply repaid,
and his fatigue forgotten, in the contempla-
ton of landscape unrivaled in the prairie
State
Stretching away off in every direction, un-
t. vision wavers, and the eye grows dim in
tracing it, is a broad sea Of grass-the Grand
Pralre while from the eastern horizon, the
uednlering, tortuouS course Of the Illinois Ri
yer divides the landscape, and after having
washed the base of the rock, flows off i'll its
crooked channel, until at last river, prairie
aud landscape are blended in the western ho-
rzoa. But take hold of that friendly cypress
cone, and indulge in a calm look below. The
lEetung aud chafing of the waters beneath are
scarcely audible while scores of gulls and
0uzzardS are circling and screaming far be-
Meath you A sturdy growth of cottonwood
has dwindled down into respectable sized cur
raOt bushes and the river itself has apparent
!! narrowed into half its accustomed channel
How bold and saucy the birds have become
since your encroachment in their element !: a
0azzard has actually alighted within ten pa
ceS OF you instinctively you turn and grasp
loF detached fragment of the rock to hurl at
ln but it is not stone your eye now rests
upon, you approach and turn it over, and in
SANITY start back, as if you had disturbed a
Test OF rattlesnakeS. 1t is human skull all
grey and mildewed by long exposure ; and
soon You detect other fragments of human
SAeietonS, bleaching in exposure, or partially
1'anted vegetation. Visions of wholesale muir
Cef immediately spring up in your imagination,
aad you retreat to the verge of the rock, as
Il standing upon unhallowed ground. Is it
poSslble that some of the aboriginal tribes have
u'ed this rock as mammoth altar, upon which
70 =, immediate human victims or has some huge
wa OF species primeval with the maStodon
made 1t his eyrie, where he RECALLED his fedg-
lnSS upon human flesh But cease your
stculatlonS and the following story will inform
You:
A century and half ago, and the same
tock t upon which you now stand, and all the
U'oaa waste of prairie as far as the eye can
,aos0 and Ruch farther :; was the hunting
ffsJlHGs and tae home of a powerful tribe of
tuu'ans, the Illinois Their history for PROV
Sratagem and valor, was primeyai with
i've. rSe Oldest traditions in the West, While
%eIF camp-fres lit tp the southern extremity
o. Lake Michigan, tfey chased the wild mus
pis Dug aud buffalo far south Of the Sangamon
,to ,e'gr' = The Winnebaaoes of the north, and
Jug rotawattomes of TIN east, had each felt
p r.. succession the pain ofNtheir dispeasure
tau Sa' a. at last there came aange, which. In p
,no,9 f% otleL months termilateain the utter ex-
,s-ss -cton OF the tribe !; and when those scat
'''eu and noulderins bones bueath your feet