Transcribe Steele, M. R. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1883-05-02)

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tier, it is about 30 miles W. of the Mississippi River, and about half as much S. of Minnesota. The city is built on the flats, slopes & bluffs of the Upper Iowa River, & of a small stream that runs into it, through the rural city. So we have bluffs or valley slopes, far & near, surrounding us as a protection from "blizzards." Everywhere the limestone is, more or less, exposed, presenting, in some narrow gorges, a strange aspect of ruin, where the yellow iron rust, on the decaying & separated layers, gives scanty footing for coarse grass. In some places a bend of the river has exposed the high, vertical wall, whose crevices show beautiful crystals of lime. All this is in the yellowish limestone, the

[along the left side of the page] There is a Norwegian college here. I have not yet [illegible] their cabinet.