The scenery on the upper Mississippi is reputed to be beautiful. So it
is. Yet all river scenery is generally monotonous. One gets tired of
looking at high rocky ridges quite as quickly as at more tame and
tranquil scenery. The bluffs on either side of the Mississippi, for
most of the way between Dunleith and St. Anthony's Falls, constitute
some of the most beautiful river scenery in the world. It is seldom
that they rise over two hundred feet from the water level, and their
height is quite uniform, so that from a distant point of view their
summit resembles a huge fortification. Nor, as a general thing, do
they present a bold or rocky front. The rise from the river is
gradual. Sometimes they rise to a sharp peak, towards the top of which
crops out in half circles heavy ridges of limestone. The ravines which
seem to divide them into separate elevations, are more thickly wooded,
and appear to have been grooved out by the rolling down of deep
waters. The most attractive feature of these bluffs or miniature
mountains, as they might be called is their smooth grassy surface,
thinly covered over with shade trees of various kinds. Whoever has
seen a large orchard on a hill side can imagine how the sides of these
bluffs look. At this season of the year the variegated foliage of the
trees gives them a brilliant appearance. It is quite rare to see a
bluff which rises gradually enough to admit of its being a good town
site. Hence it is that settlements on the banks of the river will
never be very numerous. Nature has here interposed against that
civilization which adorns the lower Mississippi. It appears to me that
all the available points for town sites on the river are taken up as
far as the bluffs extend; and some of these will require a great
amount of excavation before they can grow to importance.
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