New-York daily tribune., 1859-05-25

low that Tho hlnuai Lrts are scLc"Las 'A'
by roads and cultivation, coming forward under Inc
fall-clown oaks, are interposed between the Pfai-
ries, the whole forming one Of the most beautiful
and inviting regions ever passed over. Ihey @H
me that the rolling prairies near 81. Joseph are
richer and finer than those saw: but they surely
need NOT bs With such soil and timber, the Ms
sssippi on one side, the Missouri on the other, and
a railroad connecting them, it must be that North
ern Missouri is destined 10 increase is population
speedily and rapidly. | am sure Beef can be made
there at less cost per pound than in any other re-
giOn ever visited.
st Joseph is a busy, growing town of some
IO, 600 inhabitants. ], is beautifully situated ON
bend of the Missouri, partly on the intervae (Which
the river is gouging out and carrying away, and
partlv on the Southwark slope Of the bluff, which
rises directly from the river bank at the north end
Of the town. Other towns on the Missouri may
have grander future; doubt that any has finer
location The river bank must be Piled or docked,
or in some way fortified against the boiling current,
which sets against the town site with fearful power
and effect.
believe this is further West than any other
point reached by railroad connecting eastward
with the Atlanie rorts' 1t all events, the travel,
and part Of the trade Of the vast Wilderness VA
tered BY the Upper Missouri and its tributaries,
seem to cepter here. At the City Hotel, Where
stopped kept by two New-Yorkers-J. ~ j. Hun
ter-from Auburn), some of the guests were of
and from Salt Lake; one, al Indian trader from the
head waters Of the Columbia, who came down the
Yellow Stone from the Rocky Mountains last ran
in canoe Army officers and suffers for the forts
far ND the Missouri and its tributaries are constant
" arriving and departing ] may never see ST.
Joseph again. but she Wll long he to me pleasant
recollection. Elwood, in Kansas, opposite, is
small place, which must grow with the country be-
hind it, The upriver trade is not for her
i TOOK passage for this place at : this morning
Oh the good steamer Platte Valley, Capt. Coursey,
and deficd the chill east wind and damp, cold
atmosphere, to take my first lesson in Missouri
| navigation. The distance by water is some forty
miles; by land considerably less; the river being
here AS everywhere crooked and capricious
regretted to note that il tends, if unchecked, TO
grow worse and worse; the swift current rapidly
forming a bank below every projecting point, and
thus setting the stream with eyerlncrcasing force
against the Welding, crumbling mold or silt OF the
! interyae which forms the opposite shore, which is
thus rapidly undermined and falls IN, to be NM
gled with and borne away BY the rcslstless Hood
The banks are almost always nearly perpendicular,
and are seldom more that two or three feet above
the surface of the water at Ms present high stage,
so that the work Of devastation is constantly going
on. The river is at once deep, swift and generally
parrow-hardy so wide in the average as the
Hudson below Albany though carrying the water
Of thirty HudsOns. II cannot be half mile wide
opposite this city. Its muddiness is beyond all
description; its color and consistency are those of
milk porridge; you could not discern an
egg in glass of it. fly hOatins III q
tea-cup Of this dubious fluid an eighth of an inch
below the surface would be quite invisible. With
its usually bold bluffs, two or three hundred feet
high, now opposing rocky barrier to its sweep,
now recedng to distance of two or three miles,
giving place to an ntervae, many feet deep, OF the
richest mold, usually covered by thrifty growth
of elm. cottonwood, &c. its deep, rapid boiling
eddying current, its drifting logs and trees, often
torn from its banks by its floods, the Missouri
stands alone among the rivers of the earth, unless
China can show its fellow.
have not yet learned to like it
-ATCliisoN gives me my first foothOld on Kan
sas II was long Border-RuAian nest, but has
shared the fortunes of many such in being mainly
bought out by Free-State men, who now rule and
for the most part own it. For the last year, its
growth has been quite rapid; of its four or five
hundred dwellings, think, twO-thirds have been
built within that period. The Missouri at this
point runs further to the West than elsewhere IN
Kansas: its citizens tell me that the great roads
westward 10 ltah, &c, from ST Joseph on the
| north and from Leayenworth on the south,
pass within few miles OF Atchison when
thrice as far from their respective starins-polnts.
| Hence the Salt Lake Mail, though made up al st.
Joseph, is brought bither BY steamboat and starts
| overland from this place; hence many trains are
made up here for Utah, Green River, Fort Hall,
and hear even for Santa Fi. have seen several
twelye.ox teams, drawing heayiy-loaded wagons,
start for salt Lake, &c, to-day; there are Others
csmped inst outside the corporate llults,
which have Just come in; while large num-
Der of wagons form corral enclosure or en-
csmpment) some two miles westward, little
further away, the tents and wagons of
parties ,f god-seekers. with faces set for Pixies
Peak, dot the prairie of them in charge of a
gra, head who is surely old enough 70 kIiow bet.
ter. Teamsirrs from salt Lake and teamsters
shout 10 start lounge Oh every corner; went out
three or four miles on The high prairie this after
noon. and the furihest thing could see was the
white canvass OF moving train. | have long been