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unclear Chapter XI 201 On leaving Odin? I saw the Prairie for the first time. It was a sea of rich level land, & was here every where under cultivation. Since I had left Washington unclear I had not till now seen cultivation & houses everywhere around me, as far as the eye cd reach. After a little time we came to undulating land where coal-mining was being carried on. There were several pits along side of the rail. The seam of coal I was told is seven feet thick. At ten oclk we reached East St Louis. Only a few days ago I had been among the Oranges, Bananas, & Sugar canes, & now I looked upon the mighty Mississippi solidly frozen from shore to shore, & saw multitudes of persons crossing & recrossing on the ice. So great is the range of climate in this vast country, & yet by the aid of steam so near to each other are the different climates. At St Louis the Mississippi is crossed by very powerful steam ferries, & a passage across the river has for this purpose unclear kept open & free from ice. The Bluff has been escarsed? to enable vehicles to get down to the water side. The crush & crowd? were very great, & to increase the difficulty of getting down, the face of the descent was at that time coated thickly with ice. I saw two loaded wagons capsize, & the coach I was in at one time began to slip, & we were only saved by the skill of the driver. The ferry boat took over more than a dozen coaches & wagons