p. 374

394
Iowa Co.

and distant about thirty miles; while to the north=west the high hills through which the Father of Waters breaks his sweeping way, close the view. Below us on the plain, is the little village of Belmont, with its bright painted dwellings; the brown lines in the broad green carpet, indicate the roads and tracks over the prairie, the grazing cattle are all [seen] scattered over the wide surface looking like sheep or dogs in size; while in the distance are seen travelling waggons of emigrants, and ox teams hauling lead, merchanse and lumber; the horseman and foot traveler are passing and repassing pleasure and traveling carriages are whisling rapidly over the sward, as if the country had been improved for a century past, instead of having been only five years reclaimed [reclaimed] from the savages. This picture is not exagerated; it fails of the original beauty, in the attempt to describe that scene which is worth a journey of a thousand miles to contemplate in the calm sunset of a summer day, as I have viewed it from the top of the Platte Mounds."

Besides the Platte Mounds the Western Blue Mound falls within this county.