Among the forest trees are oak of various species, white and black walnut, hickory, maple of different kinds, beech, poplar, ash of several kinds, birch, buckeye, cherry, chestnut, locust, elm, hackberry, sycamore, linden, with numerous others. Amongst the under growth are spice-bush, dogwood, ironwood, pawpaw, hornbeam, black-haw, thorn, wild plum, grape vines, &c. The plains and wet prairies produce wild grass.

The agricultural productions are such as are common to the Eastern and Middle States. Indian corn, as in other Western States, is a staple grain, raised with much ease, and in great abundance. More than 100 bushels are produced from an acre, on the rich alluvial soils of the bottom lands, though from 40 to 50 bushels per acre ought to be considered an average crop. The State generally has a fine soil for wheat, and flour is produced for exportation in great quantities. Rye, oats, buckwheat, barley, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, and all manner of garden vegetables, are cultivated to great perfection. No markets in the United States are more profusely and cheaply supplied with meat and vegetables than those of Cincinnati and other large towns in Ohio. Hemp is produced to some extent, and the choicest kinds of tobacco is raised and cured in some of the counties east of the Muskingum river. Fruits of all kinds are raised in great plenty, especially apples, which grow to a large size, and are finely flavored. The vine and the mulberry have been introduced, and with enterprise and industry, wine and silk might easily be added to its exports.

Animals.—Bears, wolves, and deer are still found in the forests and unsettled portions of the State. The domestic animals are similar to other States. Swine is one of the staple productions, and Cincinnati has been denominated the "pork market of the world." Other towns in the west, and in Ohio, are beginning to receive a share of this trade, especially along the lines of the Miami, and the Erie canals. 150,000 hogs have been slaughtered and prepared for market in one season in Cincinnati. About 75,000 is the present estimated number, from newspaper authority. Immense droves of fat cattle are sent every autumn from the Scioto valley and other parts of the State. They are driven to all the markets of the east and south.

Minerals.—The mineral deposits of Ohio, as yet discovered, consist principally in iron, salt, and bituminous coal, and are found chiefly along the south-eastern portion of the State. Let a line be drawn from the south-eastern part of Ashtabula county, in a south-western direction, by Northampton in Portage county, Wooster, Mount Vernon, Granville, Circleville, to Hillsborough, and thence south to the Ohio river in Brown county, and it would leave most of the salt, iron and coal on the eastern and south-eastern side.

Financial Statistics.—From the Auditor's Report to the Legislature now in session, (Jan. 1836,) the following items are extracted. The general revenue is obtained from moderate taxes on landed and personal property, and collected by the county treasurers,—from insurance, bank and bridge companies, from lawyers and physicians, &c.

Collected in 1835, by the several county treasurers, $150,080, (omitting fractions): paid by banks, bridges, and insurance companies, $26,060;—by lawyers, and physicians, $1,598;—other sources, $24,028,—making an aggregate of $201,766. The disbursements are,—amount of deficit for 1834, $16,622;—bills redeemed at the treasury for the year ending Nov. 1835, $182,005;—interest paid on school funds, $33,101, &c., amounting to $235,365—and showing a deficit in the revenue of $33,590.

CANAL FUNDS.

These appear to be separate accounts from the general receipts and disbursements.

Miami Canal.—The amount of money arising from the sales of Miami canal lands up to the 15th of Nov., 1835, is $310,178. This sum has been expended in the extension of the canal north of Dayton.

Ohio Canal.—The amount of taxes collected for canal purposes for the year 1835, including tolls, sales of canal lands, school lands, balance remaining in the treasury of last year, &c., is $509,322. Only $38,242 of the general revenue were appropriated to canal purposes, of which $35,507 went to pay interest on the school funds borrowed by the State.

The foreign debt is $4,400,000;—the legal interest of which is $260,000 per annum. The domestic debt of the State, arising from investing the different school funds, is $579,287;—the interest of which amounts to $34,757,—making an aggregate annual interest paid by the State on loans, $294,757. The canal tolls for the year 1835, amount to $242,357, and the receipts from the sale of Ohio canal lands, $64,549,—making an aggregate income to the canal fund of $306,906 per annum;—a sum more than sufficient to pay the interest on all loans for canal purposes.

Items of Expenditure.—Under this head the principal items of the expenditures of the State government are given.

Members, and officers of the General Assembly, per annum, $43,987 Officers of government, 20,828 Keeper of the Penitentiary, 1,909 For new Penitentiary buildings, 46,050 State printing, 12,243 Paper and Stationary for use of the State, 4,478 Certificates for wolf scalps, 2,824 Adjutant, and Quarter Master Generals, and Brigade Inspectors, 2,276 Treasurer's mileage on settlement with the Auditor of State, 1,027 Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 5,700 Periodical works, &c. 400 Postage on documents, 545 Reporter to Court in Bank, 300 Members and clerks of the Board of Equalization, and articles furnished, 1,960 Paymaster General,—Ohio Militia, 2,000

The extra session of the legislature on the boundary line, in June, 1835, was $6,823.

Land Taxes.—The amount of lands taxed, and the revenue arising therefrom, at several different periods, are herewith given, to show the progressive advance of the farming and other interests of the State.

Years. Acres. Taxes paid. 1809 9,924,033 $63,991.87 cts 1810 10,479,029 67,501.60 1811 12,134,777 170,546.74

From 1811 to 1816, the average increase of the taxes, paid by the several counties, was $59,351. From 1816 the State rose rapidly in the scale of prosperity and the value of property. In 1820, the number of acres returned as taxable, exceeded a fraction of 13 millions, while the aggregate of taxes, was $205,346.

The period of depression and embarrassment that followed throughout the west, prevented property from advancing in Ohio. In 1826, '27, '28, '29, '30, a material change in the amount of property taxable took place, from a few hundred thousands, to more than fifty millions. The total value of taxable property of the State for 1835, (exclusive of three counties from which returns had not been received,) amounts to the sum of ninety-four millions, four hundred and thirty-seven thousand, nine hundred and fifty-one dollars.

School Funds.—The amount of school funds loaned to the State, up to Nov. 15th, 1835, is—

Virginia Military land fund, $109,937 United States Military land fund, 90,126 Common School fund, 23,179 Athens University, 1,431 School section, No. 16, 453,000 Connecticut Western Reserve, 125,758 ———— Total, $803,432

The following tabular view of the acres of land, total amount of taxable property, and total amount of taxes paid for 1833, is taken from the Ohio Gazetteer. It should be noted that in all the Western States, lands purchased of the government of the United States, are exempted from taxation for five years after sale. It is supposed that such lands are not included in the table. I have also placed the population of each county for 1830, from the census of that year;—reminding the reader that great changes have since been made.

- - - Total Amount Population Acres of of taxable Total Amount Counties. 1830. land. property. of Taxes paid. - - - Adams 12,231 234,822 $832,565 $6,995.41 Allen 578 14,159 51,214 725.28 Ashtabula 14,584 449,742 1,347,900 13,524.97 Athens 9,787 365,348 481,579 5,820.90 Belmont 28,627 301,511 1,591,716 11,590.33 Brown 17,867 267,130 1,358,944 8,179.35 Butler 27,142 257,989 2,514,007 20,111.55 Carroll 185,942 529,575 6,876.92 Champaign 12,131 233,493 908,571 5,956.66 Clark 13,114 247,083 1,114,995 7,744.89 Clermont 20,466 280,679 1,542,627 15,645.31 Clinton 11,436 239,404 785,770 6,482.14 Columbiana 35,592 317,796 1,491,099 14,217.28 Coshocton 11,161 246,123 850,708 9,307.28 Crawford 4,791 79,582 217,675 3,630.09 Cuyahoga 10,373 292,252 1,401,591 18,122.96 Dark 6,204 107,730 260,259 3,312.81 Delaware 11,504 338,856 831,093 8,516.66 Fairfield 24,786 308,163 1,992,697 13,716.97 Fayette 8,182 234,432 544,539 6,428.98 Franklin 14,741 325,155 1,663,315 13,247.34 Gallia 9,733 205,727 427,962 4,826.55 Geauga 15,813 381,380 1,427,869 15,832.65 Greene 14,801 251,512 1,441,907 12,082.36 Guernsey 18,036 275,652 908,109 9,855.72 Hamilton 52,317 239,122 7,726,091 97,530.42 Hancock 813 9,302 50,929 421.70 Harden 210 125,607 118,425 1,291.43 Harrison 20,916 22,412 1,025,210 12,400.97 Highland 16,345 317,079 1,065,863 8,755.29 Hocking 4,008 92,332 215,272 1,919.29 Holmes 9,135 182,439 556,060 6,364.03 Huron 13,346 504,689 1,512,655 15,490.88 Jackson 5,941 57,874 197,932 2,239.69 Jefferson 22,489 230,145 1,855,064 13,149.44 Knox 17,085 313,823 1,252,294 13,329.41 Lawrence 5,367 56,862 241,782 2,280.80 Licking 20,869 393,205 2,101,495 17,370.83 Logan 6,440 203,509 519,622 3,925.65 Lorain 5,696 360,863 889,552 10,539.09 Madison 6,190 256,421 600,578 4,643.91 Marion 6,551 168,164 390,602 5,599.78 Medina 7,560 296,257 931,599 10,198.31 Meigs 6,158 229,004 380,172 5,111.58 Mercer 1,110 12,688 54,118 714.30 Miami 12,807 240,093 1,000,748 6,423.09 Monroe 8,768 95,520 280,572 3,666.61 Montgomery 24,362 267,349 2,293,419 14,649.12 Morgan 11,800 169,135 452,991 4,945.02 Muskingum 29,334 366,609 2,362,616 18,567.75 Perry 13,970 175,123 729,241 6,116.55 Pickaway 16,001 300,969 1,798,665 10,924.76 Pike 6,024 129,153 521,109 4,114.37 Portage 18,826 472,156 2,019,029 17,787.06 Preble 16,291 246,678 1,086,322 7,441.82 Richland 24,008 433,620 1,354,169 15,069.92 Ross 24,068 328,765 2,897,605 17,474.81 Sandusky 2,851 95,822 275,992 3,354.64 Scioto 8,740 105,539 963,882 7,926.93 Seneca 6,159 108,758 302,089 3,916.51 Stark 26,588 374,101 1,854,967 16,361.36 Shelby 3,671 66,863 194,468 1,961.26 Trumbull 26,123 556,011 1,807,792 16,635.58 Tuscarawas 14,298 237,337 902,778 8,955.75 Union 3,192 259,101 380,535 5,193.68 Warren 21,468 243,517 2,143,065 16,247.33 Washington 11,731 282,498 681,301 7,463.12 Wayne 23,333 382,254 1,451,996 14,584.77 Williams and } 1,089 17,797 90,066 1,351.02 others not incor. } Wood 1,102 17,981 127,862 1,572.22 - - - Total 937,903 17,133,481 78,019,526 730,010.75

OHIO STATISTICS—1836.

From the Annual Report of the Auditor of State, it appears there were returned on the General List for Taxation, 17,819,631 acres of land, under the new valuation, made under the law of 1833-4.

Lands, including buildings, valued at $58,166,821 Town Lots, including houses, mills, etc. 15,762,594 269,291 Horses, valued at $40 each, 10,491,640 455,487 Cattle, valued at $8 each, 4,043,896 Merchants' capital, and money at interest, 7,262,927 2,603 Pleasure Carriages, valued at 199,518 —————- Total amount of taxable property, $94,438,016

On the value of taxable property, the following taxes were levied:

State and Canal tax, $142,854.15 County and School tax, 396,505.80 Road tax, 66,482.16 Township tax, 102,991.65 Corporation, Jail, and Bridge tax, 51,276.89 Physicians' and Lawyers' tax, 3,144.19 School-House tax, 1,482.84 Delinquencies of former years, 13,044.37 —————- Total taxes, $777,782.07

No returns were made from the counties of Crawford, Hancock, Jefferson and Williams.

CANAL REVENUES.

The total amount of receipts for tolls, for the year ending on the 31st of October, 1835, was as follows:

OHIO CANAL.

Cleaveland, $72,718.72 Newark, $20,487.85 Akron, 6,362.90 Columbus, 4,605.37 Massillon, 13,585.78 Circleville, 9,651.44 Dover, 8,096.42 Chillicothe, 12,134.75 Roscoe, 14,555.83 Portsmouth, 23,118.78 115,319.45 $69,998.00 115,319.45 - Total, $185,317.45

MIAMI CANAL.

Dayton, 14,016.75 Middleton, 8,747.19 Hamilton, 3,664.88 Cincinnati, 25,803.77 ————— Total, 52,232.59 ————— Total tolls received on both canals, $237,550.04 Deduct contingent expenses on Ohio canal, $5,836.05 Do. on Miami canal, 2,954.68—8,790.73 —————— $228,759.31

Toll received on Lancaster Lat. Canal, 1,062.56 From water rents and sale of State Lots, 3,700.07 Arrearages paid of Tolls received in October, 1834, 7,835.26 —————- $242,357.20

POPULATION OF OHIO AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.

In Population. From Increase. 1790, about 3,000 1790 to 1800, 42,365 1800, " 45,365 1800 " 1810, 185,395 1810, " 230,760 1810 " 1820, 350,674 1820, " 581,434 1820 " 1830, 356,469 1830, " 937,903 1830 " 1835, 437,097 1835, estimated, 1,375,000

Rivers.—The streams which flow into the Ohio river, are the Mahoninga branch of the Beaver, Little Beaver, Muskingum, Hockhocking, Scioto, Little Miami, and Great Miami. Those which flow from the northward into lake Erie, are the Maumee, Portage, Sandusky, Huron, Cuyahoga, Grand, and Ashtabula. Hence the State is divided into two unequal inclined planes, the longest of which slopes towards the Ohio, and the shortest towards the lake. The head waters of the Muskingum, Scioto and Miami, interlock with those of the Cuyahoga, Sandusky, and Maumee, so as to render the construction of canals not only practicable, but comparatively easy. All the large streams are now navigable for boats during the spring season.

Internal Improvements.—These consist of canals, rail-roads, turnpike roads, and the National road, now under the supervision of, and owned by, the State. The canalling is managed by a Board of Commissioners. The State canals were projected about 1823, and, considering the youthful character of the State, its want of funds and other circumstances, they are, undoubtedly, the greatest works ever executed in America.

The Ohio and Erie Canal connects lake Erie with the Ohio river. It commences at Cleaveland, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, passes along that river and its tributaries, to the summit level, from thence to the waters of the Muskingum, and to the border of Muskingum county; from thence it strikes across the country past Newark, in Licking county, and strikes the Scioto, down the valley of which it proceeds to its mouth, at Portsmouth. The principal places on the canal are Akron, New Portage, Massillon, Bolivar, New Philadelphia, Coshocton, Newark, Bloomfield, Circleville, Chillicothe, Piketon, and Portsmouth. It was commenced on the 4th of July, 1825, and completed in 1832; and, together with the Miami canal to Dayton, cost about $5,500,000, and has greatly enriched the State and the people. Private property along its line has risen from five to ten fold.

LENGTH OF OHIO AND ERIE CANAL.

Miles. Main trunk from Cleaveland to Portsmouth, 310 Navigable feeder from main trunk to Columbus, 11 Navigable feeder from main trunk to Granville, 6 Muskingum side cut, from the Muskingum river at Dresden, 3 Navigable feeder from the Tuscarawas river, 3 Navigable feeder from the Walhonding river, 1 —- Total length of Ohio canal and branches, 334

The Miami Canal commences at Cincinnati, and, passing through the towns of Reading, Hamilton, Middletown, Franklin, and Miamisburg, terminates at Dayton, 65 miles. It has been navigated from Dayton to the head of Main street, Cincinnati, since the spring of 1829. An extension of the work is now in progress, to be carried along the vallies of St. Mary's and Au Glaise rivers, and unite with the Wabash and Erie canal, at Defiance; distance from Cincinnati about 190 miles.

An act passed the Ohio legislature in 1834, for continuing the Wabash and Erie canal, (now constructing in Indiana, by that State,) from the western boundary of Ohio, to the Maumee bay. Operations have been suspended by the boundary dispute with Michigan.

The Mahoning and Beaver Canal has already been noticed, under the head of Western Pennsylvania. It is proposed to carry it from Akron, on the Portage summit, along the valley of the Mahoning river, to Newcastle, on the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania canal. Distance in Ohio, 77 miles. The work is in progress.

The Sandy Creek and Little Beaver Canal is in progress by a chartered company. It commences near the town of Bolivar, on the Ohio and Erie canal, in Tuscarawas county, and passes along near the line of Stark and Carroll counties to the Little Beaver in Columbiana county, and from thence to the Ohio river.

The Mad River and Sandusky Rail-Road will extend from Dayton, on the Miami canal, to Sandusky, through Springfield, Urbanna, Bellefontaine, Upper Sandusky, Tiffin, and down the valley of the Sandusky river to lake Erie. The route is remarkably favorable for locomotive power. Length 153 miles; estimated cost, $11,000 per mile. The work was commenced in September, 1835.

The Erie and Ohio Rail-Road is intended to be constructed from Ashtabula on the lake, through Warren to Wellsville, on the Ohio river, a distance of 90 miles. Other rail-roads are in contemplation in this State, the most important of which is the Great Western Rail-Road, from Boston, by Worcester, Springfield, and Stockbridge, through New York, by Albany, Utica and Buffalo, along the summit ridge, dividing the northern from the southern waters, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, to intersect the Wabash and Erie canal at La Fayette, in Indiana. From thence provision is already made for it to pass to the eastern boundary of Illinois, from which, a company has been recently chartered to construct it across the State of Illinois by Danville, Shelbyville, Hillsborough, to Alton on the Mississippi. It must be some untoward circumstance that shall prevent this splendid work from being completed the whole length before 1850.

The project of a rail-road from Cincinnati, to Charleston in South Carolina, has been entered upon with great spirit in the South, and in all the States more directly concerned in the enterprise. It will, undoubtedly, be carried into effect.

The State of Ohio has incorporated a number of turnpike companies, some of which have gone into operation. The first is near the north-eastern corner of the State, from Pierpont, through Monroe and Salem townships to the mouth of Conneant creek, 16 miles long. The second is the Trumbull and Ashtabula turnpike, leading from Warren to Ashtabula, 48 miles. The third is from the town of Wooster, through Medina, to Cleaveland, 51 miles. The fourth is from Columbus to Sandusky, 106 miles, now in the course of construction. Another from Cincinnati, through Lebanon and Columbus, to Wooster, has been commenced on the McAdamized plan, but is not completed. A McAdam turnpike from Cincinnati to Chillicothe is in progress. The National road, constructed by the general government, and transferred to the State, passes from Wheeling, through Columbus to the Indiana line.

Manufactures.—The principal factory for woollen goods is at Steubenville. A number of cotton factories are in the towns along the Ohio river. Furnaces for smelting iron ore are in operation in the counties bordering on the Ohio, near the mouth of the Scioto. Glass is manufactured in several towns. Considerable salt is made on the Muskingum below Zanesville, on the Scioto, and on Yellow creek above Steubenville. About half a million of bushels were made in the State in 1830.

Cincinnati rivals Pittsburg in the number, variety and extent of its manufacturing operations.

In every town and village through the State, mechanics' shops are established for the manufacture of all articles of ordinary use.

Cities and Towns.—To enter upon minute descriptions, or even name all these, would much exceed the bounds of this work.

CINCINNATI is the great commercial emporium of the State. It is pleasantly situated on the right or northern bank of the Ohio river, about equidistant from Pittsburg and its mouth, in N. lat. 39 deg. 06', and W. lon. from Washington city 7 deg. 25'.

Directly fronting the city to the south, and on the opposite side of the Ohio river, are the flourishing manufacturing towns of Newport and Covington, which are separated by the Licking river, of Kentucky, which enters the Ohio directly opposite the Cincinnati landing.

The wharf arrangements are the most convenient, for lading and unlading goods at all stages of the water, to be found on our western rivers. The town site is beautifully situated on the first and second banks of the river—the former of which is above ordinary high water, and the latter gently rises sixty or seventy feet higher, and spreads out into a semicircular plain, surrounded with elevated bluffs.

Cincinnati was founded in 1789, but did not grow rapidly till about 1808. The progressive increase of population will appear from the following table:

1810, 2,320 1826, 16,230 1813, 4,000 1830, 26,515 1819, 10,000 1835, estimated, 31,000 1824, 12,016

Add the adjoining towns of Covington and Newport, whose interests are identified, and the aggregate population will equal 35,000; and, in all reasonable probability, in 1850, these towns, with Cincinnati, will number 100,000 active, educated, and enterprising citizens. In 1826, according to the Picture of Cincinnati, by B. Drake, Esq. and E. D. Mansfield, Esq., the manufacturing industry alone, according to an accurate statistical examination, amounted to 1,800,000 dollars. At that time there were not more than fifteen steam engines employed in manufactures in the city. At the close of 1835, there were more than fifty in successful operation, besides four or five in Newport and Covington. "More than 100 steam engines, about 240 cotton gins, upwards of 20 sugar-mills, and 22 steamboats—many of them of the largest size—have been built or manufactured in Cincinnati, during the year 1835."[10] Hence the productive industry of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport, for 1835, may be estimated at 5,000,000 of dollars. By a laborious investigation, at the close of 1826, by the same writer, the exports of that year were about 1,000,000 of dollars in value. A similar inquiry induced him to place the exports of 1832 at 4,000,000. The estimate for 1835, is 6,000,000.

To enumerate all the public and private edifices deserving notice, would extend this article to too great a length. The court house, four market houses, banks, college, Catholic Athenaeum, two medical colleges, Mechanics' Institute, two museums, hospital and Lunatics' Asylum, Woodward high school, ten or twelve large edifices for free schools, hotels, and between twenty-five and thirty houses for public worship, some of which are elegant, deserve notice. The type foundry and printing-press manufactory, is one of the most extensive in the United States. Here is machinery, lately invented, for casting printer's types, exceeding, perhaps, anything in the world. Printing, and the manufacture of books, are extensively carried on in this city. Here are six large bookstores, several binderies, twelve or fifteen printing-offices, from which are issued ten weekly, four triweekly, four daily, four monthly, and one quarterly publications. Two medical publications, of a highly respectable character, are issued. The Western Monthly Magazine is too well known to need special notice here. The Cincinnati Mirror is a respectable literary periodical. The Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Roman Catholics, and, perhaps, other sects, have each their weekly paper, respectable in size and character. During four months, in 1831, there were issued from the Cincinnati press, 86,000 volumes, of which 20,300 were original works. In the same period, the periodical press issued 243,200 printed sheets. The business has increased greatly since that time.

The "College of Professional Teachers," is an institution formed at the convention of teachers, held in this city, in October, 1832. Its objects are to unite the professional instructers of youth throughout the Western country in the cause in which they are engaged, and to elevate the character of the profession. Their meetings are held on the first Monday in October annually. Lectures are given, discussions held, reports made, and a respectable volume of transactions published annually. There is no doubt that much good will result to the cause of education in the West, from this annual convocation.

Law School.—An institution of this character has been organized, under the management of Hon. J. C. Wright, and other gentlemen of the bar.

Of Medical Schools there are two, at the heads of which are gentlemen of high character and attainments in their profession.

The Mechanics' Institute is designed for the diffusion of scientific knowledge among the mechanics and citizens generally, by means of popular lectures and mutual instruction. The Cincinnati Lyceum was formed for the purpose of useful instruction and entertainment, by means of popular lectures and debates. The Academic Institute is designed to aid the cause of education, and elevate the profession, amongst the teachers in Cincinnati. Its meetings are monthly. The Athenaeum is an institution under the management of Roman Catholic Priests. The college edifice is a splendid and permanent building, of great capacity. The Woodward High School was founded by the late William Woodward. The fund yields an income of about $2000 annually. It is conducted by four professors, and has about one hundred and twenty students. The corporation has established a system of free schools, designed to extend the benefits of primary education to all classes, and ten or twelve large edifices have been erected for the purpose. I regret the want of documents to give particulars of this liberal and praiseworthy enterprise, which reflects much honor upon the city and its honorable corporation. In 1833, there were twenty public schools for males and females, and two thousand pupils. Many excellent private schools and seminaries, some of deserved celebrity, are sustained by individual enterprise.

COLUMBUS, the political capital of the State, and nearly in the centre of the State, is a beautiful city, on the east bank of the Scioto river. In 1812, it was covered with a dense forest, when it was selected by the legislature for the permanent seat of government. The public buildings are a state house, a court house for the Supreme Court, a building for the public offices, a market house, &c., all of brick. The State penitentiary is here, for which a new substantial building is constructing, and an Asylum for the deaf and dumb, sustained by legislative aid.

Chillicothe, Cleaveland, Zanesville, Steubenville, Circleville and many others, are large and flourishing towns.

Education.—Charters for eight or ten colleges and collegiate institutions have been granted. Congress has granted 92,800 acres of public land to this State, for colleges and academies. One township, (23,040 acres,) and a very valuable one, has been given to the Miami University, at Oxford. Two townships of land, (46,080 acres,) though of inferior quality, have been given to the Ohio University. Academies have been established in most of the principal towns. A common school system has been established by the legislature. Each township has been divided into school districts. Taxes are levied to the amount of three fourths of a mill upon the dollar of taxable property in the State, which, with the interest accruing from the different school funds already noticed, are applied towards the expenses of tuition. Five school examiners are appointed in each county, by the Court of Common Pleas, who are to examine teachers. The governor, in his recent Message, speaks of the common school system as languishing in proportion to other improvements.

Form of Government.—The legislative authority is vested in a Senate and House of Representatives; both of which, collectively, are styled the General Assembly. The members of both branches are chosen by counties, or by districts composed of counties, according to population. The representatives are chosen annually; the senators biennially. The General Assembly has the sole power of enacting laws; the signature or assent of the governor not being necessary in any case whatever. The judiciary system comprises three grades of courts:—the Supreme Court, Courts of Common Pleas, and Justices' Courts. The justices of the peace are chosen triennially, by the people. The executive authority is vested in a governor, who is elected biennially, and must be thirty years of age, and have resided in the State at least four years. He is commander-in-chief of all the militia, and commissions all officers in the State, both civil and military. Each free, white, male citizen of the United States, of twenty-one years of age, and a resident of the State one year preceding an election, is entitled to a vote in all elections.

The following shows the professions, occupations, and nativity of the members of the legislature of Ohio, during the present winter, (1835-6,) and is about a proportionate estimate for other Western States:—

The members of the Ohio legislature, as to their occupations and professions, are:—farmers, 53; lawyers, 17; merchants, 13; doctors, 5; printers, 3; surveyors, 2; millers, 2; masons, 2; carpenters, 2; painter, 1; watch-maker, 1; blacksmith, 1; house joiner, 1.

Their nativity is as follows:—Ohio, 7; Pennsylvania, 30; Virginia, 22; New England States, 17; Maryland, 8; New York, 7; New Jersey, 4; Kentucky, 3; Delaware, 2; North Carolina, 1; Ireland, 5; England, 1; Germany, 1.

The youngest member in the Senate, is 33 years of age, and the oldest 56. In the House, the youngest 26; oldest 67. Under the Constitution, a senator must be 30; and a member of the House, 26.

Antiquities.—Much has been said about the antiquities of Ohio,—the fortifications, artificial mounds, and military works, supposed to indicate a race of civilized people, as the possessors of the country, anterior to the Indian nations. At Marietta, Circleville, Paint Creek, and some other places, are, doubtless, antiquities, that exhibited, upon their first discovery, strong marks of a military purpose. I have no doubt, however, that credulity and enthusiasm have greatly exaggerated many appearances in the West, and magnified them into works of vast enterprise and labor. Mounds of earth are found in every country on the globe, of all forms and sizes; and why should they not exist in the western valley? Mr. Flint states that he has seen a horse shoe dug up at the depth of thirty-five feet below the surface, with nails in it, and much eroded by rust. He mentions also a sword, which is said to be preserved as a curiosity, but which he had not seen, found enclosed in the wood of the roots of a tree, which could not have been less than five hundred years old! Those who delight especially in the marvellous, may consult the "Description of the Antiquities discovered in the State of Ohio, and other Western States, by Caleb Atwater, Esq."

History.—The first permanent settlement of Ohio, was made at Marietta, on the 7th day of April, 1788, by 47 persons from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. This was the nucleus around which has grown up the populous State of Ohio. Amongst the most active promoters of this colony, were those called then "The Ohio Company." The next settlement was that of Symmes' purchase, made at Columbia, six miles above Cincinnati, in Nov. 1789, by Major Stiles and twenty-five others, under the direction of Judge Symmes. A colony of French emigrants settled at Gallipolis in 1791. In 1796 settlements were made by New England emigrants at Cleaveland and Conneant, on the southern shore of lake Erie. The intermediate country gradually filled up by emigration from various parts of the United States. Some slight diversity exists, in different sections of the State, in manners, customs, and feelings, amongst the people, in accordance with the States or countries from which they or their fathers emigrated. These shades of character will become blended, and the next generation will be Ohians, or, to use their own native cognomen, Buckeyes.

In Sept., 1790, the first territorial legislature convened at Cincinnati. The governor having exercised his right of veto in relation to the removal of a county seat, an unhappy collision followed, and, upon framing the State Constitution, in Nov., 1802, the convention prevented the governor of the State from ever exercising the negative power upon acts of the legislature.

DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF SOME OF THE OLDEST COUNTIES.

Washington, July 27th, 1788 Hamilton, Jan. 2d, 1790 Adams, July 10th, 1797 Jefferson, July 29th, 1797 Ross, August 20th, 1798 Trumbull, July 10th, 1800 Clermont, December 6th, 1800 Belmont September 7th, 1801

These were all organized under the territorial government.

INDIANA.

Length 240, breadth 150 miles. Between 37 deg. 48' N. latitude, and 7 deg. 45' and 11 deg. W. longitude. Bounded north by the State of Michigan and lake Michigan, east by Ohio, south by the Ohio river, which separates it from Kentucky, and west by Illinois. It contains about 37,000 square miles, equal to 23,680,000 acres.

It is naturally subdivided into the hilly portion, bordering on the Ohio; the level, timbered portion, extending across the middle of the State; the Wabash country, on that river; and the northern portion bordering on the State of Michigan and the lake. The two last portions include nearly all the prairie country.

For civil purposes, this State has been divided into counties, and those subdivided into townships.

TABLE.

- - Bearing and Date of Square Population distance from COUNTIES. Formation. miles. 1830. SEATS OF JUSTICE. Indianopolis. - - Allen, 1823 720 1,000 Fort Wayne, Bartholomew, 1821 588 5,800 Columbus, Boon, 1830 400 622 Lebanon, Carroll, 1828 450 1,614 Delphi, Cass, 1829 460 1,154 Logansport, Clark, 1802 400 10,719 Charlestown, Clay, 1825 360 1,616 Bowling Green, Clinton, 1830 450 1,423 Frankfort, Crawford, 1818 350 3,184 Fredonia, Daviess, 1816 460 4,512 Washington, Dearborn, 1802 448 14,573 Lawrenceburgh, Decatur, 1821 400 5,854 Greensburgh, Delaware, 1827 400 2,372 Muncietown, Dubois, 1817 420 1,774 Jasper, Elkhart, 1830 576 935 Goshen, Fayette, 1818 200 9,112 Connersville, Floyd, 1819 200 6,363 New Albany, Fountain, 1825 400 7,644 Covington, Franklin, 1810 400 10,199 Brookville, Gibson, 1813 450 5,417 Princeton, Grant, 1831 415 Marion, Greene, 1821 540 4,250 Bloomfield, Hamilton, 1823 400 1,705 Noblesville, Hancock, 1828 340 1,569 Greenfield, Harrison, 1808 470 10,288 Corydon, Hendricks, 1823 420 3,967 Danville, Henry, 1821 440 6,498 Newcastle, Huntington, 1832 400 Jackson, 1815 500 4,894 Brownstown, Jefferson, 1809 400 11,465 Madison, Jennings, 1816 400 3,950 Vernon, Johnson, 1822 300 4,130 Franklin, Knox, 1802 540 6,557 Vincennes, La Porte, 1832 420 La Porte, Lagrange, 1832 380 Mongoquinon, Lawrence, 1818 460 9,237 Bedford, Madison, 1823 420 2,442 Andersontown, Marion, 1821 440 7,181 INDIANOPOLIS, Martin, 1818 340 2,010 Mount Pleasant, Miami, 1832 330 Miamisport, Monroe, 1818 560 6,578 Bloomington, Montgomery, 1822 500 7,376 Crawfordsville, Morgan, 1821 530 5,579 Martinsville, Orange, 1815 378 7,909 Paoli, Owen, 1818 380 4,060 Spencer, Parke, 1821 450 7,534 Rockville, Perry, 1814 400 3,378 Rome, Pike, 1816 430 2,464 Petersburgh, Posey, 1814 500 6,883 Mount Vernon, Putnam, 1821 490 8,195 Greencastle, Randolph, 1818 440 3,912 Winchester, Ripley, 1818 400 3,957 Versailles, Rush, 1821 400 9,918 Rushville, Scott, 1817 200 3,097 Lexington, Shelby, 1821 430 6,294 Shelbyville, Spencer, 1818 400 3,187 Rockport, St. Joseph, 1830 740 287 South Bend, Sullivan, 1816 430 4,696 Merom, Switzerland, 1814 300 7,111 Vevay, Tippecanoe, 1826 500 7,161 La Fayette, Union, 1821 224 7,957 Liberty, Vanderburgh, 1818 225 2,610 Evansville, Vermillion, 1823 280 5,706 Newport, Vigo, 1818 400 5,737 Terre Haute, Wabash, 1832 380 Warren, 1828 350 2,854 Williamsport, Warrick, 1813 412 2,973 Boonville, Washington, 1813 550 13,072 Salem, Wayne, 1810 420 23,344 Centerville,

The total population in 1830, was 341,582. The estimated population in the message of Gov. Noble to the legislature, December, 1835, was 600,000.

The counties in which the population has not been given in the foregoing table, have been formed since 1830. Probably other new counties, along the waters of the Wabash and Kankakee, have been formed recently, of which no intelligence has been had by the author. The counties in the northern portion of the State have increased the most in population since 1830.

For electing representatives to Congress, the State is divided into seven electoral districts.

For judicial purposes, it is divided into eight circuits, in each of which there is a circuit judge, who, together with two associates in each county, holds the circuit courts.

POPULATION AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.

Population. Increase. In 1800,(excluding Illinois,) 2,641 From 1800 to 1810, 21,879 " 1810, 24,520 " 1810 to 1820, 122,658 " 1820, 147,178 " 1820 to 1825, 74,822 " 1825, 222,000 " 1825 to 1830, 119,582 " 1830, 341,582 " 1830 to 1835, 119,582 " 1835,(estimate,) 600,000

In 1825, the number of voters was 36,977, and the number of paupers 217!

Face of the Country, &c.—The counties bordering on the Ohio river are hilly;—sometimes abrupt, precipitous, stony, occasionally degenerating into knobs and ravines. Commencing at the mouth of White river on the Wabash, and following up that stream on its east fork, and thence along the Muskakituck, through Jennings and Ripley counties to Lawrenceville, and you leave the rough and hilly portion of Indiana, to the right. Much of the country we have denominated hilly is rich, fertile land, even to the summits of the hills. On all the streams are strips of rich alluvion of exhaustless fertility. The interior, on the two White rivers and tributaries, is moderately undulating, tolerably rich soil, and much of it heavily timbered with oaks of various species, poplar, beech, sugar tree, walnuts, hickory, elm, and other varieties common to the West. There is much level, table land, between the streams. Along the Wabash, below Terre Haute, is an undulating surface, diversified with forest and prairie, with a soil of middling quality, interspersed with some very rich tracts. Along the Wabash and its tributaries above Terre Haute, the land in general is first rate,—a large proportion forest, interspersed with beautiful prairies. The timber consists of oaks of various species, poplar, ash, walnut, cherry, elm, sugar tree, buckeye, hickory, some beech, sassafras, lime, honey locust, with some cotton wood, sycamore, hackberry and mulberry on the bottom lands. The undergrowth is spice bush, hazel, plum, crab apple, hawthorn and vines. Along the northern part of the State are extensive prairies and tracts of barrens, with groves of various kinds of timber and skirts of burr oak. Towards lake Michigan, and along the Kankakee and St. Joseph rivers, are lakes, swamps and marshes.

Rivers.—The Ohio meanders along the southeastern and southern parts of the State for 350 miles. The east and west forks of White river, and their tributaries, water the interior counties for 100 miles in extent. They are both navigable streams for flat boats during the spring and autumn floods. The Wabash river has several heads, which interlock with the waters of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's, which form the Maumee of lake Erie. It runs a south-westwardly course across the State to Warren county,—thence southwardly to Vigo county, where it becomes the boundary between Indiana and Illinois, along which it meanders to the Ohio, which it enters 12 miles above Shawneetown. The St. Joseph of lake Michigan, already noticed under the State of Michigan, makes a curve into Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, forming what is called the South Bend. The Kankakee, which is the longest branch of Illinois river, rises in Indiana, near the South Bend. Some of its head waters interlock with those of Tippecanoe, a prominent tributary of the Wabash.

SKETCH OF EACH COUNTY.

The following sketch of each county,—its streams, surface, soil, and minerals,—has been made and collated with much labor, from an excellent Gazetteer of this State, published in 1833, by Douglass and Maguire of Indianopolis,—from personal observation of many of the older counties,—and from an extensive correspondence.

ALLEN.—Streams; St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, which form the Maumee of lake Erie, navigable for small keel boats,—and numerous creeks; generally heavily timbered; soil, clay,—sandy on the rivers.

BARTHOLOMEW.—Streams; Driftwood, Clifty, Flat Rock, and Salt Creeks,—all mill streams. Surface, level; soil, a rich loam, mixed with sand and gravel; the western part hilly, with clay soil. Minerals; limestone, coal, iron ore, red ochre.

BOON.—Watered by the tributaries of Raccoon and Sugar Creeks. Surface, level,—soil rich.

CARROLL.—Streams; Wabash river, Deer, Rock, and branches of Wildcat creeks. Considerable timber,—some prairies, of which Deer prairie is the largest and most beautiful. Considerable quantities of limestone on the surface; a remarkable spring near Delphi,—the water reddish.

CASS.—Streams are Wabash and Eel rivers, which unite at Logansport,—the head of steamboat navigation of the Wabash, and termination of the W. and E. canal. Surface, generally level, rolling towards the rivers with abrupt bluffs; soil, near the rivers, a mixture of loam and sand; at a distance from them, flat and clayey. Large proportion, forest land,—some prairies.

CLARK.—Silver and Fourteen Mile creeks furnish excellent mill sites. Ohio river on the south. Surface, rolling and hilly; soil, loam, mixed with sand. Minerals; limestone, gypsum, water lime, marble, salt, iron ore, copperas, alum.

CLAY.—Eel river and tributaries. Surface moderately undulating; soil various, chiefly clay and loam, and a mixture of sand, in places; timber predominates,—some prairies.

CLINTON.—Watered by the South, Middle, and Kilmore's Forks of Wildcat creek. Surface, moderately undulating, or level: Twelve Mile prairie extends from S. W. to N. E. 12 miles, and is three fourths of a mile wide. The remainder timbered land. Soil, a rich sandy loam, and exceedingly fertile.

CRAWFORD.—Waters; the Ohio and Blue rivers,—plenty of water power, and excellent springs. Surface, hilly and broken; in places, tolerably productive; in others, soil thin and rocky. A timbered region, and abundance of limestone.

DAVIESS.—Streams; Forks of White river, with its tributaries, Smother's, Prairie, Veal, Aikman's and Sugar creeks. Level bottoms on the rivers—sometimes inundated; undulating on the high grounds. Soil on the West Fork, sandy; much timber,—an extensive tract of sugar tree; some prairies. The county destitute of rock near the surface; plenty of lime and sandstone in the bed of West Fork of White river, at the rapids. Plenty of coal.

DEARBORN.—Watered by the Great Miami, Whitewater, Laughery, Hogan's and Tanner's creeks. Surface, hilly and broken, with rich, level, bottom lands, on the Miami. Soil, one fourth first rate, one fourth second rate,—remainder inferior. A timbered region.

DECATUR.—Flat Rock, Clifty, and Sand creeks, are all good mill streams. Surface, generally level,—some parts undulating; soil, loam, with a substratum of clay; well adapted to grain—timbered. Minerals; limestone, some iron ore and coal.

DELAWARE.—Streams; Missisinawa, and West Fork of White river; surface tolerably level; soil, loam, mixed with sand. Minerals; some limestone, and granite bowlders scattered over the surface.

DUBOIS.—Streams; East Fork of White river, Patoka and Anderson creeks. Surface rolling,—some parts hilly and broken,—some level tracts; soil rich and sandy loam near the streams. Minerals; sand rock and coal.

ELKHART.—Watered by St. Joseph of lake Michigan, Elkhart and tributaries. Surface, generally level,—a portion undulating; soil various, but generally rich; forest and prairie, both wet and dry.

FAYETTE.—Watered by the West Fork of Whitewater, and a small lake in the north. Surface, undulating; soil, on the high ground, clayey, and a mixture of sand,—on the bottom lands, a rich, sandy loam. Limestone found in masses and quarries.

FLOYD.—Watered by the Ohio river, Silver creek, and some head branches of Big and Little Indian creeks. Surface various,—a range of knobs,—east of these knobs, it is gently undulating; soil inferior. Minerals; shale, soft sandstone, limestone, freestone, iron ore, and some traces of coal. A boiling spring, from which is emitted an inflammable gas.

FOUNTAIN.—Watered by the Wabash river, and Coal and Shawnee creeks, with numerous mill sites. Surface, gently undulating; soil, a black loam, mixed with sand, and very rich. Minerals; coal, and some sandstone.

FRANKLIN.—Watered by the East and West Forks of Whitewater. Surface, on the eastern part level,—western, rolling; soil, in the central and northern parts, a black loam,—in the south-west, thin and clayey.

GIBSON.—Watered by the Wabash, White, and Patoka rivers. Surface, rolling and timbered; soil, generally a sandy loam, and productive.

GRANT.—Watered by the Missisinawa and tributaries. Surface level,—generally heavily timbered; soil, clay and loam on the table lands,—sandy on the river bottoms.

GREEN.—Watered by White and Eel rivers, and Richland creek; soil, on the rivers a rich loam,—on the bluffs, sandy,—east side, hilly,—west side, level. White river is navigable. Minerals; lime and sandstone, coal, and some iron ore.

HAMILTON.—The streams are White river, and Cicero, Coal, Stoney, and Fall creeks. Generally forest,—some few prairies; soil, in places, clay,—more generally, a sandy loam. Minerals; lime, and some soft sand rock.

HANCOCK.—Watered by Blue river, Sugar and Brandywine creeks, with excellent mill sites, and well supplied with springs. Surface, either level or gently undulating; soil, a rich loam, mixed with sand,—heavily timbered.

HARRISON.—Watered by Big and Little Indian, and Buck creeks, and Blue river. Surface various,—some parts hilly and broken,—some parts undulating,—some parts level; soil, in the low grounds, a rich loam,—on the high grounds, calcareous and gravelly. A large tract of "barrens" in the west. Minerals; a quarry and several caves of black flint, salt licks, limestone.

HENDRICKS.—The waters are White Lick, and branches of Eel river, with good mill sites. Surface, gently rolling, and timbered with the varieties of the Wabash country; soil, a mixture of clay, loam and sand.

HENRY.—Watered by Blue river, Flat Rock and Fall creeks. Surface, in some places, broken,—in most parts, level; soil, a mixture of sand with loam and clay. Plenty of springs and mill sites. Mostly timbered, but several tracts of prairie.

HUNTINGTON.—The streams are Salamania, Little river, and Wabash. Surface, on the rivers, level,—back, gently undulating; soil, loam and clay, with a slight mixture of sand. Several tracts of prairie, but generally forest land.

JACKSON.—Watered by Indian, Driftwood, White, Muscatatack, and Gum creeks. Surface, rolling and in places hilly; soil, clay and loam, mixed with sand. In the forks of the creeks, sand predominates. On the west and north-west, inclined to clay.

JEFFERSON.—Watered by the Ohio river, Indian, Kentucky and Big creeks. Surface various; along the river and creeks, low alluvion; soil, loam mixed with sand. The bottoms are bounded by precipitous bluffs, with towering cliffs of limestone. The table lands are undulating, and the soil inclined to clay. Timber various. Abounds with limestone, masses of freestone, and scattered granite bowlders.

JOHNSON.—Watered on the eastern side by Blue river, and Sugar and Young's creeks,—on the western side by Indian, Crooked, and Stott's creeks. Surface, gently undulating; soil, a rich, black, sandy loam; timbered. Minerals; masses of freestone, and scattered granite bowlders.

JENNINGS.—Watered by Graham's Fork, and the North Fork of the Muscatatack. Surface, in some parts level, some parts very hilly; soil, calcareous, rich and productive; timber of all varieties; abounds with limestone.

KNOX.—The Wabash on the west side,—White river south,—the West Fork of White river east,—and Maria and Duchain creeks, interior. Surface undulating; soil, somewhat various,—a rich loam in places,—sandy in other places;—some tracts of prairie, but timber predominates.

LAGRANGE.—Watered by Pigeon and Crooked rivers. Surface, gently rolling; northern part extensive prairies; southern portion chiefly forest; soil, loam and sand.

LA PORTE.—Watered by the Kankakee, Galena, and Trail creek, at the mouth of which is Michigan city, and a harbor for lake Michigan commerce. Surface, gently undulating; abounds with large, rich prairies, with groves of timber, and lakes of clear water interspersed; soil, a sandy loam, rich and productive.

LAWRENCE.—Watered by Salt, Indian, Guthrie's, Beaver, and Leatherwood creeks, and excellent springs. Surface, generally hilly,—some level lands;—soil, on the water courses, sandy,—back from the streams, loam and clay. Abounds with limestone.

MADISON.—The West Fork of White river is navigable. The other streams are Killbuck, Pipe, Lick and Fall creeks. Surface, generally level, with some broken land near the streams; timbered, with a wet prairie, 7 miles long and three fourths of a mile wide; soil, sand, mixed with clay and loam,—productive. Minerals; lime and freestone, marble that polishes well, and some traces of iron ore.

MARION.—West Fork of White river passes through it, on which is situated INDIANOPOLIS, the capital of the State. Fall creek is an excellent mill stream. Surface, chiefly level forest land; soil, a deep black loam, with a mixture of sand. Large granite bowlders are scattered over the surface.

MARTIN.—The East Fork of White river passes through it, and receives Lost river from the left, and Indian and Flint creeks from the right. Surface, on the east side of White river, broken and hilly; soil, clay and loam; on the west side, level, or gently undulating, with portions of barrens and prairie land; soil, clay and loam, mixed with sand. Minerals; coal in large quantities, lime, sand and freestone.

MIAMI.—The Wabash and Eel rivers pass through it, and the Missisinawa comes from the east, and enters the Wabash about the centre of the county. The Wabash and Erie canal passes through it. Surface, gently undulating and beautiful,—chiefly forest, and interspersed with small prairies; soil, the richest in the State, of loam, clay and sand intermixed.

MONROE.—Streams; Salt, Clear, Indian, Raccoon, Richland, and Bean-blossom creeks,—pure springs. Surface, hilly and undulating; soil, second rate. Minerals; limestone rock, salt licks, with manufactories of salt.

MONTGOMERY.—The heads of Shawnee and Coal creeks in the north-west,—Sugar creek in the centre,—and Big Raccoon on the southeastern part. Surface, gently undulating; the northern portion prairie, interspersed with groves, with a rich soil of black loam, mixed with sand,—the middle and southern portions timbered. Excellent quarries of rock in the middle,—granite bowlders in the northern parts.

MORGAN.—White river, which is navigable. The mill streams are White Lick, Sycamore, Highland, and Lamb's creeks on the west side, and Crooked, Stott's, Clear, and Indian creeks on the east side. Surface, generally rolling,—some parts hilly; soil, calcareous and clayey,—on the bottoms, a rich sandy loam. Minerals; limestone, and some iron ore.

ORANGE.—Streams; Lost river, French Lick, and Patoka. Surface, hilly and broken,—limestone rock,—springs of water, of which Half-moon and French Lick are curiosities. On the alluvial bottoms, the soil is loamy,—on the hills, calcareous, and inclined to clay. Excellent stones for grit, equal to the Turkey oil stones, are found in this county.

OWEN.—Watered by the West Fork of White river, with its tributaries, Raccoon, Indian, Mill, Rattlesnake, and Fish creeks. The falls of Eel river furnish the best water power in the State. Surface rolling; soil, in some places a dark loam,—in others clayey and calcareous. Minerals; immense bodies of lime rock, and some iron ore.

PARKE.—Watered by the Big and Little Raccoon, and Sugar creeks, (with excellent mill sites,) all of which enter the Wabash on its western side. Surface, generally level,—some beautiful prairies, but mostly forest land; soil, a loam mixed with sand and rich. Minerals; lime and sandstone, coal and iron ore.

PERRY.—Watered by the Ohio river, with Anderson's, Bear, Poison, and Oil creeks interior. Some level land, with a rich, sandy loam, on the streams,—all the high lands very broken; hilly, with a clayey, sterile soil. Minerals; immense bodies of limestone, grindstone quarries, iron ore and coal.

PIKE.—Has White river on the north, and Patoka creek through the centre. Surface all forest land and undulating; soil, eastern part clay and sand,—western, a rich, dark loam, mixed with sand,—some swampy land. Minerals, limestone and coal.

POSEY.—In the forks of the Ohio and Wabash, with Big, Mill, and McFadden's creeks interior, and good springs. Surface, rolling, and all forest land; soil, a sandy loam, and produces well. Minerals; sand, and limestone and coal.

PUTNAM.—Has Raccoon creek, and Eel river, with abundant water privileges, and fine springs. Surface, gently undulating; soil, in places calcareous and clayey,—in other places a rich loam; limestone.

RANDOLPH.—Watercourses, the West Fork of White river and Missisinawa and their tributaries, which furnish good mill sites. Surface, either level or gently undulating; soil, a rich loam,—in some places marshy; a small quantity of limestone, with granite bowlders.

RIPLEY.—Watered by Laughery and Graham's creek. Surface level, forest land; soil clay,—in some parts inclines to sand,—with limestone abundant.

RUSH.—The streams are Big and Little Blue rivers, Big and Little Flat Rock, with excellent water power. Surface, moderately rolling, and heavily timbered; soil, loam on clay, with a slight mixture of sand.

SCOTT.—Watered by tributaries of the Muscatatack. Surface rolling,—some flat lands inclining to marsh; soil, clay. Minerals; limestone, iron ore, salt, sulphur, and copperas.

SHELBY.—Watered by Big and Little Blue rivers, Brandywine, and Sugar creeks, with good mill sites,—all heads of the East Fork of White river. Surface, generally level with forest land; soil, clay mixed with loam.

SPENCER.—Ohio river, Anderson's, Little Pigeon, and Sandy creeks. Surface tolerably level, and forest land; soil, clay mixed with loam. Minerals; coal, and lime and sand rock.

ST. JOSEPH.—St. Joseph's river, Kankakee, and Bobango, with some small creeks. Extensive marshes on the Kankakee, and near the South Bend of the St. Joseph. These marshes are of vegetable formation. Surface, in some parts level,—in others gently undulating; soil, a loam,—in some places sand. The north-west part chiefly prairies and barrens, including the large and fertile prairies of Portage and Terre Coupe. The north-eastern, barrens,—the south-eastern, forest. Minerals are granite bowlders, and bog iron ore.

SULLIVAN.—Has the Wabash river on its western side, and Turman's, Busseron, and Turtle creeks interior. Surface rolling,—some prairies, but generally forest land,—some poor barrens; soil, loam and sand;—lime and sand rock and coal.

SWITZERLAND.—The Ohio east and south,—Indian, Plum, Bryant's, Turtle, and Grant's creeks interior. Surface various,—bottom lands level, and rich,—then a range of precipitous bluffs, with cliffs of limestone,—the table land rolling with a calcareous and clayey soil. At Vevay are extensive vineyards.

TIPPECANOE.—Watered by the Wabash river, and Wildcat, Wea, Burnett's, and Mill Branch creeks. The Wabash affords navigation, and the other streams excellent mill sites. Surface gently undulating, with extensive level tracts, and consists of one half prairie, one eighth barrens, and the remainder heavy forest land. The prairie soil is a rich, black loam,—the barrens cold, wet clay,—the forest a very rich loam and sand.

UNION.—Streams; the East Fork of White river and its tributaries, Hanna's, Richland, and Silver creeks, all of which furnish excellent mill sites. Surface, moderately rolling; soil, a dark loam.

VANDERBURGH.—Watered by the Ohio, and Great Pigeon creek. Surface, high, dry, rolling land, with good timber, and well watered; soil, clay and sand, of inferior quality. Minerals; lime and sandstone, salines, and a mineral spring.

VERMILLION.—A long, narrow county, between the Wabash river and the State of Illinois. The streams are Wabash, Big and Little Vermillion, and their tributaries. Surface high, rolling land, with abrupt bluffs near the streams; a good proportion of prairie and timber; soil, rich, sandy loam, and very productive. Minerals; freestone and limestone, and large coal banks.

VIGO.—The Wabash passes through it—navigable. The mill streams are Prairie, Honey, Otter, and Sugar creeks, but their waters fail in a dry season. Surface level, or gently undulating, with forest and prairies; soil, rich loam and sand,—first rate. Minerals; gray limestone, freestone, and inexhaustible beds of coal.

WABASH.—The Wabash river, and W. and E. canal, pass through it, as does the Missisinawa, Eel, Bluegrass, and Salamania. Surface,—wide, rich bottoms on the streams,—bluffs and ravines adjoining,—table lands further back, either dry and rolling, or flat and wet, and abound with willow swamps. Limestone rock abundant, and many excellent springs of pure water.

WARREN.—The Wabash on the S. E. border for thirty miles, and navigated by steamboats; interior streams, Rock, Redwood, and Big and Little Pine creeks, all of which afford good mill sites. Some pine and cedar timber. Surface generally level, with broken land on the bluffs of creeks; some forest, but the largest proportion prairie; soil, a rich and very fertile loam. Minerals; lime and excellent freestone for building purposes,—coal,—iron,—lead and copper,—with several old "diggings" and furnaces, where both copper and lead ore have been smelted in early times.

WARRICK.—Watered by the Ohio river, Big and Little Pigeon, and Cypress. Surface, rolling and hilly; soil, a sandy loam on clay. Minerals; quarries of freestone, some limestone, and inexhaustible beds of coal.

WASHINGTON.—Streams; Muscatatack on the north, Rush, Twin, Highland, Delany's, Elk, Bear, and Sinking creeks, and the heads of Blue and Lost rivers, with mill sites. Surface, diversified from gentle undulations, to lofty and precipitous hills; soil, in part, second rate, with much of inferior quality. Substratum of limestone, caves, hollows, and sink holes.

WAYNE.—Streams, East and West Forks of Whitewater, with excellent water power for machinery. Surface, moderately hilly; heavy forest land; soil, a rich loam; substratum, clay. Minerals; generally, limestone, and excellent for buildings.

Form of Government.—This differs very little from that of Ohio. The Constitution provides that an enumeration be made every five years of all free white male inhabitants, above the age of twenty-one years; and the representation of both houses of the General Assembly is apportioned by such enumeration, in such ratio that the number of representatives shall never be less than 36, nor exceed 100, and the number of senators not exceeding one half, nor less than one third the number of representatives. Every free white male citizen, twenty-one years of age, who has resided in the State one year, is entitled to vote; "except such as shall be enlisted in the army of the U. S., or their allies." Elections are held annually, by ballot, on the first Monday in August. Senators, the governor, and lieutenant governor, hold their offices for three years. The judiciary is vested in a Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, Probate Courts, and Justices of the peace. The Supreme Court consists of three judges, who are appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the senate, for the term of seven years, and have appellate jurisdiction. The Circuit Courts consist of a presiding judge in each judicial circuit, elected by joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly, and two associate judges in each county, elected by the qualified voters in their respective counties, for a like term. The Probate Courts consist of one judge for each county, who is elected by the voters, for the same term. Justices of the peace are elected in each township, for the term of five years, and have jurisdiction in criminal cases throughout the county, but, in all civil cases, throughout the township.

Finances.—The Indiana Gazetteer, of 1833, estimates that the revenue for State purposes amounted to about $35,000 annually, and, for county purposes, to about half that sum. The aggregate receipts for 1835, according to the governor's message, of Dec. 1835, amounted to $107,714; expenditures for the same time, $103,901.

Sales of canal lands for the same period, $175,740. The canal commissioners have borrowed $605,257, for canal purposes, on a part of which they obtained two per cent. premium, and, on another part, as high as seven per cent.; and have also borrowed $450,000 bank capital, for which they received four and a half per cent. premium. Three per cent. on all sales of U. S. lands within the State, is paid by the general government into the State treasury, to be expended in making roads. The receipts from this source, in 1835, amounted to $24,398. Sales and rents of saline lands, produced an income of $4,636. The proceeds of certain lands, donated by the general government towards the construction of a road from the Ohio river to lake Michigan, amounted to $33,030.

Internal Improvements.—This State has entered with great spirit upon a system of internal improvements. It consists of canalling, improving river navigation, rail-roads, and common turnpike roads.

Wabash and Erie Canal.—This work will extend from La Fayette, on the Wabash river, up the valley of that stream, to the Maumee and to the boundary of Ohio; distance, 105 miles. The cost of construction has been estimated at $1,081,970, and lands to the amount of 355,200 acres, have been appropriated by the general government, the proceeds of which will be sufficient to complete the canal to Fort Wayne. The middle division, 32 miles, was completed in July, 1835, and the remainder is in active progress. Its whole distance, through a part of Ohio to Maumee bay, at the west end of lake Erie, will be 187 miles.

The Whitewater Canal, 76 miles in length, along the western branch of Whitewater, is intended to pass through Connorsville, Brookville, Somerset, and other towns, to Lawrenceburgh, on the Ohio river.

Provision is made to improve the navigation of the Wabash river, in conjunction with Illinois, where it constitutes the boundary line, and, by this State alone, further up.

Rail-Roads.—From Evansville, on the Ohio, to La Fayette on the Wabash, 175 miles; from La Fayette to Michigan city, 90 miles; forming a line from the Ohio river to lake Michigan, 265 miles in length:—From Madison, on the Ohio, to Indianopolis, the seat of government, 85 miles; and several others were projected two years since. But at the session of the legislature of 1835-6, a bill was passed to borrow, in such instalments as should be needed, ten millions of dollars; and a system of internal improvements, including canals, rail-roads, and the improvement of river navigation, was marked out. In a few years, this State will be prominent in this species of enterprise.

Synopsis of Canals surveyed by order of the Indiana Legislature during the Year 1835.

La Fayette and Terre Haute division of the Wabash and Erie canal. Length, 90 miles; total cost, $1,067,914.70; per mile, $11,865 79.

Central canal, north of Indianopolis. Total length, from Indianopolis via Andersontown, Pipe creek summit to the Wabash and Erie canal at Wabash town, 103 miles 34 chains; total cost, $1,992,224.54; per mile, $17,106 51. Length, via Pipe creek summit to Peru, near the mouth of the Missisinawa, 114 miles 46 chains; total cost, $1,897,797.19; per mile, $14,871.85. Length, via Pipe creek summit (including lateral canal to Muncietown) to Wabash town, 124 miles 51 chains; total cost, $2,103,153.61; per mile, $15,873.83. Length, via Pipe creek summit (including lateral canal to Muncietown) to Peru, 185 miles 63 chains; total cost, $2,008,726.26; per mile, $14,793.12. Total length, from Indianopolis via Muncietown to the Wabash and Erie canal at Peru, 131 miles 41 chains; total cost, $2,058,929.41; per mile, $14.549 71.

Central canal, south of Indianopolis. Total length, from Indianopolis to Evansville, 188 miles; total cost, $2,642,285.92; per mile, $14,054.71. Route down the valley of Main Pigeon. Length, 194 miles; total cost, $2,400,957.70; per mile, $12,376.02.

Terre Haute and Eel river canal, which forms a connexion between the Wabash and Erie canal and White river or Central canal. Total length, 40-1/2 miles; total cost, $629,631 65; which, including a feeder, is $13,540.46 per mile.

Wabash and Erie canal, eastern division, [east of Fort Wayne], Upper line: Length, 19 miles 30 chains; total cost, $154,113.13; per mile, $7,952.17.—Lower line: Total length, 20 miles 76-1/2 chains; total cost, $254,817.52; per mile, $11,159.04.

The following are the works provided for in the Bill, and the sums appropriated for them:

1st. The White Water Canal, including a lateral canal or rail-road, to connect said canal with the Central or White river canal, $1,400,000

2d. Central or White river Canal, 3,500,000

3d. Extension of the Wabash and Erie Canal, 1,300,000

4th. Madison and La Fayette Rail-road, 1,300,000

5th. A M'Adamized turnpike road from New Albany to Vincennes, 1,150,000

6th. Turnpike or rail-road from New Albany to Crawfordsville, 1,300,000

7th. Removing obstructions in the Wabash, 50,000 —————- $10,000,000 8th. The Bill gives the credit of the State to the Lawrenceburgh and Indianopolis Rail-road Company, for the sum of $500,000.

Manufactures.—Besides the household manufacture of cotton and flannels, common to the western people, at Vincennes, and probably other towns, machinery is employed in several establishments. It will be seen from the sketch of each county, already given, that in most parts of the State there is a supply of water power for manufacturing purposes. Both water and steam power, saw and grist mills, are already in operation in various parts of the State.

Education.—The same provision of one section of land in each township, or a thirty-sixth part of the public lands, has been made for the encouragement of common schools, as in other Western States. A law has been enacted providing for common schools, and the public mind has become measurably awakened to the subject of education. Some most extravagant and exaggerated statements have been made relative to an incredible number of children in this State, "who have no means of education." As in all new countries, the first class of emigrants, having to provide for their more immediate wants, have not done so much as is desirable to promote common school education; but we have no idea they will slumber on that subject, while they are wide awake to the physical wants and resources of the country. Academies have been established in several counties, and a college at Bloomington, from the encouragement of State funds, and other institutions are rising up, of which the Hanover Institution near the Ohio river, and Wabash College at Crawfordsville, promise to be conspicuous.

History.—This country was first explored by adventurers from Canada, with a view to the Indian trade, towards the close of the seventeenth century; and the place where Vincennes now stands is said to have been thus early occupied as a trading post. A company of French from Canada, made a settlement here in 1735. The country, in common with the Western Valley, was claimed by France, until it was ceded to Great Britain, at the treaty of peace in 1763, under whose jurisdiction it remained, until subdued by the American arms under the intrepid Gen. G. R. Clark, and his gallant band, in 1779. A territorial government was organized by Congress in 1787, including all the country north-west of the river Ohio, which was then called the North-western Territory. In 1802, when the State of Ohio was organized, all that part of the Territory lying west of a line due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, was organized into the Territory of Indiana,—which was divided, and from which Illinois Territory was formed in 1809. In June, 1816, a constitution was adopted, and at the ensuing session of Congress, Indiana was made a State.

General Remarks.—The importance of Indiana, as a desirable State for the attention of the emigrant to the West, has been too much overlooked. Though not possessing quite equal advantages with Illinois, especially in the quality and amount of prairie soil, it is far superior to Ohio, and fully equal,—nay, in our estimation, rather superior to Michigan. Almost every part is easy of access, and in a very few years the liberal system of internal improvements, adopted and in progress, will make almost every county accessible to public conveyances, and furnish abundant facilities to market.

Along the wide, alluvion bottoms of the streams, and amidst a rank growth of vegetation, there is usually more or less autumnal fever, yet, in general, there is very little difference in any of the Western States as to prospects of health.

Mechanics, school teachers, and laborers of every description, are much wanted in this State, as they are in all the States further west; and all may provide abundantly and easily, all the necessaries of living for a family, if they will use industry, economy and sobriety.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] See a valuable statistical article, by B. Drake, Esq., in the Western Monthly Magazine, for January, 1836, entitled, "Cincinnati, at the close of 1835."



CHAPTER XI.

ILLINOIS.

Situation, Boundaries, and Extent.

The State of Illinois is situated between 37 deg. and 42 deg., 30' N. latitude; and between 10 deg. 25', and 14 deg.30' W. longitude from Washington city. It is bounded on the north by Wisconsin Territory, north-east by lake Michigan, east by Indiana, south-east and south by Kentucky, and west by the State and Territory of Missouri. Its extreme length is 380 miles; and its extreme width, 220 miles; its average width, 150 miles. The area of the whole State, including a small portion of lake Michigan within its boundaries, is 59,300 square miles.

The water area of the State is about 3,750 square miles. With this, deduct 5,550 square miles for irreclaimable wastes, and there remains 50,000 square miles, or 32 millions of acres of arable land in Illinois,—a much greater quantity than is found in any other State. In this estimate, inundated lands, submerged by high waters, but which may be reclaimed at a moderate expense, is included.

Face of the Country, and qualities of Soil.—The general surface is level, or moderately undulating; the northern and southern portions are broken, and somewhat hilly, but no portion of the State is traversed with ranges of hills or mountains. At the verge of the alluvial soil on the margins of rivers, there are ranges of "bluffs" intersected with ravines. The bluffs are usually from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet high, where an extended surface of table land commences, covered with prairies and forests of various shapes and sizes.

When examined minutely, there are several varieties in the surface of this State, which will be briefly specified and described.

1. Inundated Lands. I apply this term to all those portions, which, for some part of the year, are under water. These include portions of the river bottoms, and portions of the interior of large prairies, with the lakes and ponds which, for half the year or more, are without water. The term "bottom" is used throughout the West, to denote the alluvial soil on the margin of rivers, usually called "intervales," in New England. Portions of this description of land are flowed for a longer or shorter period, when the rivers are full. Probably one eighth of the bottom lands are of this description; for, though the water may not stand for any length of time, it wholly prevents settlement and cultivation, though it does not interrupt the growth of timber and vegetation. These tracts are on the bottoms of the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi, Illinois, and all the interior rivers.

When the rivers rise above their ordinary height, the waters of the smaller streams, which are backed up by the freshets of the former, break over their banks, and cover all the low grounds. Here they stand for a few days, or for many weeks, especially towards the bluffs; for it is a striking fact in the geology of the western country, that all the river bottoms are higher on the margins of the streams than at some distance back. Whenever increase of population shall create a demand for this species of soil, the most of it can be reclaimed at comparatively small expense. Its fertility will be inexhaustible, and if the waters from the rivers could be shut out by dykes or levees, the soil would be perfectly dry. Most of the small lakes on the American bottom disappear in the summer, and leave a deposit of vegetable matter undergoing decomposition, or a luxuriant coat of weeds and grass.

As our prairies mostly lie between the streams that drain the country, the interior of the large ones are usually level. Here are formed ponds and lakes after the winter and spring rains, which remain to be drawn off by evaporation, or absorbed by an adhesive soil. Hence the middle of our large, level prairies are wet, and for several weeks portions of them are covered with water. To remedy this inconvenience completely, and render all this portion of soil dry and productive, only requires a ditch or drain of two or three feet deep to be cut into the nearest ravine. In many instances, a single furrow with the plough, would drain many acres. At present, this species of inundated land offers no inconvenience to the people, except in the production of miasm, and even that, perhaps, becomes too much diluted with the atmosphere to produce mischief before it reaches the settlements on the borders of the prairie. Hence the inference is correct, that our inundated lands present fewer obstacles to the settlement and growth of the country, and can be reclaimed at much less expense, than the swamps and salt marshes of the Atlantic States.

2. River Bottoms or Alluvion. The surface of our alluvial bottoms is not entirely level. In some places it resembles alternate waves of the ocean, and looks as though the waters had left their deposit in ridges, and retired.

The portion of bottom land capable of present cultivation, and on which the waters never stand, if, at an extreme freshet, it is covered, is a soil of exhaustless fertility; a soil that for ages past has been gradually deposited by the annual floods. Its average depth on the American bottom, is from twenty to twenty-five feet. Logs of wood, and other indications, are found at that depth. The soil dug from wells on these bottoms, produces luxuriantly the first year.

The most extensive and fertile tract, of this description of soil, in this State, is the American Bottom, a name it received when it constituted the western boundary of the United States, and which it has retained ever since. It commences at the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, five miles below the town of Kaskaskia, and extends northwardly along the Mississippi to the bluffs at Alton, a distance of ninety miles. Its average width is five miles, and contains about 450 square miles, or 288,000 acres. Opposite St. Louis, in St. Clair county, the bluffs are seven miles from the river, and filled with inexhaustible beds of coal. The soil of this bottom is an argillaceous or a silicious loam, according as clay or sand happens to predominate in its formation.

On the margin of the river, and of some of its lakes, is a strip of heavy timber, with a thick undergrowth, which extends from half a mile to two miles in width; but from thence to the bluffs, it is principally prairie. It is interspersed with sloughs, lakes, and ponds, the most of which become dry in autumn.

The soil of the American bottom is inexhaustibly rich. About the French towns it has been cultivated, and produced corn in succession for more than a century, without exhausting its fertilizing powers. The only objection that can be offered to this tract is its unhealthy character. This, however, has diminished considerably within eight or ten years. The geological feature noticed in the last article—that all our bottoms are higher on the margin of the stream, than towards the bluffs, explains the cause why so much standing water is on the bottom land, which, during the summer, stagnates and throws off noxious effluvia. These lakes are usually full of vegetable matter undergoing decomposition, and which produces large quantities of miasm. Some of the lakes are clear and of a sandy bottom, but the most are of a different character. The French settled near a lake or a river, apparently in the most unhealthy places, and yet their constitutions are little affected, and they usually enjoy good health, though dwarfish and shrivelled in their form and features.

"The villages of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia, were built up by their industry in places where Americans would have perished. Cultivation has, no doubt, rendered this tract more salubrious than formerly; and an increase of it, together with the construction of drains and canals, will make it one of the most eligible in the States. The old inhabitants advise the emigrants not to plant corn in the immediate vicinity of their dwellings, as its rich and massive foliage prevents the sun from dispelling the deleterious vapors."[11]

These lakes and ponds could be drained at a small expense, and the soil would be susceptible of cultivation. The early settlements of the Americans were either on this bottom, or the contiguous bluffs.

Besides the American bottom, there are others that resemble it in its general character, but not in extent. In Union county, there is an extensive bottom on the borders of the Mississippi. Above the mouth of the Illinois, and along the borders of the counties of Calhoun, Pike, and Adams, there are a series of bottoms, with much good and elevated land; but the inundated grounds around, present objections to a dense population at present.

The bottoms of Illinois, where not inundated, are equal in fertility, and the soil is less adhesive than most parts of the American bottom. This is likewise the character of the bottoms in the northern parts of the State.

The bottoms of the Kaskaskia are generally covered with a heavy growth of timber, and in many places inundated when the river is at its highest floods.

The extensive prairies adjoining, will create a demand for all this timber. The bottom lands on the Wabash are of various qualities. Near the mouth, much of it is inundated. Higher up it overflows in high freshets.

These bottoms, especially the American are the best regions in the United States for raising stock, particularly horses, cattle, and swine. Seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre is an ordinary crop. The roots and worms of the soil, the acorns and other fruits from the trees, and the fish of the lakes, accelerate the growth of swine. Horses and cattle find exhaustless supplies of grass in the prairies; and pea vines, buffalo grass, wild oats, and other herbage in the timber, for summer range; and often throughout most of the winter. In all the rush bottoms, they fatten during the severe weather on rushes. The bottom soil is not so well adapted to the production of small grain, as of maize or Indian corn, on account of its rank growth, and being more subject to blast, or fall down before harvest, than on the uplands.

3. Prairies. Much the largest proportion is undulating, dry, and extremely fertile. Other portions are level, and the soil in some cases proves to be wet;—the water, not running off freely, is left to be absorbed by the soil, or evaporated by the sun. Crawfish throw up their hillocks in this soil, and the farmer who cultivates it, will find his labors impeded by the water.

In the southern part, that is, south of the National road leading from Terre Haute to the Mississippi, the prairies are comparatively small, varying in size from those of several miles in width, to those which contain only a few acres. As we go northward, they widen and extend on the more elevated ground between the water courses to a vast distance, and are frequently from six to twelve miles in width. Their borders are by no means uniform. Long points of timber project into the prairies, and line the banks of the streams, and points of prairie project into the timber between these streams. In many instances are copses and groves of timber, from one hundred to two thousand acres, in the midst of prairies, like islands in the ocean. This is a common feature in the country between the Sangamon river and lake Michigan, and in the northern parts of the State. The lead mine region, both in this State and the Wisconsin territory, abounds with these groves.

The origin of these prairies has caused much speculation. We might as well dispute about the origin of forests, upon the assumption that the natural covering of the earth was grass. Probably one half of the earth's surface, in a state of nature, was prairies or barrens. Much of it, like our western prairies, was covered with a luxuriant coat of grass and herbage. The steppes of Tartary, the pampas of South America, the savannas of the Southern, and the prairies of the Western States, designate similar tracts of country. Mesopotamia, Syria, and Judea had their ancient prairies, on which the patriarchs fed their flocks. Missionaries in Burmah, and travellers in the interior of Africa, mention the same description of country. Where the tough sward of the prairie is once formed, timber will not take root. Destroy this by the plough, or by any other method, and it is soon converted into forest land. There are large tracts of country in the older settlements, where, thirty or forty years since, the farmers mowed their hay, that are now covered with a forest of young timber of rapid growth.

The fire annually sweeps over the prairies, destroying the grass and herbage, blackening the surface, and leaving a deposit of ashes to enrich the soil.

4. Barrens. This term, in the western dialect, does not indicate poor land, but a species of surface of a mixed character, uniting forest and prairie.

The timber is generally scattering, of a rough and stunted appearance, interspersed with patches of hazle and brushwood, and where the contest between the fire and timber is kept up, each striving for the mastery.

In the early settlements of Kentucky, much of the country below and south of Green river presented a dwarfish and stunted growth of timber, scattered over the surface, or collected in clumps, with hazle and shrubbery intermixed. This appearance led the first explorers to the inference that the soil itself must necessarily be poor, to produce so scanty a growth of timber, and they gave the name of barrens to the whole tract of country. Long since, it has been ascertained that this description of land is amongst the most productive soil in the State. The term barren has since received a very extensive application throughout the West. Like all other tracts of country, the barrens present a considerable diversity of soil. In general, however, the surface is more uneven or rolling than the prairies, and sooner degenerates into ravines and sink-holes. Wherever timber barely sufficient for present purposes can be found, a person need not hesitate to settle in the barrens. These tracts are almost invariably healthy; they possess a greater abundance of pure springs of water, and the soil is better adapted for all kinds of produce, and all descriptions of seasons, wet and dry, than the deeper and richer mould of the bottoms and prairies.

When the fires are stopped, these barrens produce timber, at a rate of which no northern emigrant can have any just conception. Dwarfish shrubs and small trees of oak and hickory are scattered over the surface, where for years they have contended with the fires for a precarious existence, while a mass of roots, sufficient for the support of large trees, have accumulated in the earth. As soon as they are protected from the ravages of the annual fires, the more thrifty sprouts shoot forth, and in ten years are large enough for corn cribs and stables.

As the fires on the prairies become stopped by the surrounding settlements, and the wild grass is eaten out and trodden down by the stock, they begin to assume the character of barrens; first, hazle and other shrubs, and finally, a thicket of young timber, covers the surface.

5. Forest, or timbered Land. In general, Illinois is abundantly supplied with timber, and were it equally distributed through the State, there would be no part in want. The apparent scarcity of timber where the prairie predominates, is not so great an obstacle to the settlement of the country as has been supposed. For many of the purposes to which timber is applied, substitutes are found. The rapidity with which the young growth pushes itself forward, without a single effort on the part of man to accelerate it, and the readiness with which the prairie becomes converted into thickets, and then into a forest of young timber, shows that, in another generation, timber will not be wanting in any part of Illinois.

The kinds of timber most abundant are oaks of various species, black and white walnut, ash of several kinds, elm, sugar maple, honey locust, hackberry, linden, hickory, cotton wood, pecan, mulberry, buckeye, sycamore, wild cherry, box elder, sassafras, and persimmon. In the southern and eastern parts of the State are yellow poplar, and beech; near the Ohio are cypress, and in several counties are clumps of yellow pine and cedar. On the Calamick, near the south end of lake Michigan, is a small forest of white pine. The undergrowth are redbud, pawpaw, sumach, plum, crab apple, grape vines, dogwood, spice bush, green brier, hazle, &c.

The alluvial soil of the rivers produces cotton wood and sycamore timber of amazing size.

For ordinary purposes there is now timber enough in most parts of the State, to say nothing about the artificial production of timber, which may be effected with little trouble and expense. The black locust, a native of Ohio and Kentucky, may be raised from the seed, with less labor than a nursery of apple trees. It is of rapid growth, and, as a valuable and lasting timber, claims the attention of our farmers. It forms one of the cleanliest and most beautiful shades, and when in blossom gives a rich prospect, and sends abroad a delicious fragrance.

6. Knobs, Bluffs, Ravines, and Sink-holes. Under these heads are included tracts of uneven country found in various parts of the State.

Knobs are ridges of flint limestone, intermingled and covered with earth, and elevated one or two hundred feet above the common surface. This species of land is of little value for cultivation, and usually has a sprinkling of dwarfish, stunted timber, like the barrens.

The steep hills and natural mounds that border the alluvions have obtained the name of bluffs. Some are in long, parallel ridges, others are in the form of cones and pyramids. In some places precipices of limestone rock, from fifty to one or two hundred feet high, form these bluffs.

Ravines are formed amongst the bluffs, and often near the borders of prairies, which lead down to the streams.

Sink-holes are circular depressions in the surface, like a basin. They are of various sizes, from ten to fifty feet deep, and from ten to one or two hundred yards in circumference. Frequently they contain an outlet for the water received by the rains. Their existence shows that the substratum is secondary limestone, abounding with subterraneous cavities.

There are but few tracts of stony ground in the State; that is, where loose stones are scattered over the surface, and imbedded in the soil. Towards the northern part of the State, tracts of stony ground exist. Quarries of stone exist in the bluffs, and in the banks of the streams and ravines throughout the State.

The soil is porous, easy to cultivate, and exceedingly productive. A strong team is required to break up the prairies, on account of the firm, grassy sward which covers them. But when subdued, they become fine, arable lands.

Rivers, &c.—This State is surrounded and intersected by navigable streams. The Mississippi, Ohio and Wabash rivers are on three sides,—the Illinois, Kaskaskia, Sangamon, Muddy, and many smaller streams are entirely within its borders,—and the Kankakee, Fox, Rock, and Vermillion of the Wabash, run part of their course within this State. The Mississippi meanders its western border for 700 miles. Its principal tributaries within Illinois, are Rock, Illinois, Kaskaskia, and Muddy rivers. The Illinois river commences at the junction of the Kankakee, which originates near the South Bend in Indiana, and the Des Plaines, which rises in the Wisconsin Territory. From their junction, the Illinois runs nearly a west course, (receiving Fox river at Ottawa, and Vermillion near the foot of the rapids,) to Hennepin, where it curves to the south and then to the south-west, receiving a number of tributaries, the largest of which are Spoon river from the right and Sangamon from the left, till it reaches Naples. Here it bends gradually to the south, and continues that course till within six miles of the Mississippi, when it curves to the south-east, and finally, to nearly an east course. Its length, (without reckoning the windings of the channel in navigation,) is about 260 miles, and is navigable for steamboats at a moderate stage of water to the foot of the rapids. The large streams on the eastern side of the State are Iroquois, a tributary to the Kankakee, Vermillion of the Wabash, which enters that river in Indiana, Embarras, that has its source near that of the Kaskaskia, runs south-easterly, and enters the Wabash 9 miles below Vincennes, and Little Wabash near its mouth. Along the Ohio, the only streams deserving note are the Saline and Bay creeks, and Cash river, the last of which enters the Ohio six miles above its confluence with the Mississippi.

Productions.—These are naturally classed into mineral, animal and vegetable.

Minerals. The northern portion of Illinois is inexhaustibly rich in mineral productions, while coal, secondary limestone, and sandstone, are found in every part.

Iron ore has been found in the southern parts of the State, and is said to exist in considerable quantities in the northern parts.

Native copper, in small quantities, has been found on Muddy river, in Jackson county, and back of Harrisonville, in the bluffs of Monroe county. Crystallized gypsum has been found in small quantities in St. Clair county. Quartz crystals exist in Gallatin county.

Silver is supposed to exist in St. Clair county, two miles from Rock Spring, from whence Silver creek derives its name. In early times, a shaft was sunk here, by the French, and tradition tells of large quantities of the precious metals being obtained.

In the southern part of the State, several sections of land have been reserved from sale, on account of the silver ore they are supposed to contain.

Lead is found in vast quantities in the northern part of Illinois, and the adjacent territory. Here are the richest lead mines hitherto discovered on the globe. This portion of country lies principally north of Rock river and south of the Wisconsin. Dubuque's, and other rich mines, are west of the Mississippi.

Native copper, in large quantities, exists in this region, especially at the mouth of Plum creek, and on the Peek-a-ton-o-kee, a branch of Rock river.

The following is a list of the principal diggings in that portion of the lead mine region that lies between Rock river and the Wisconsin, embracing portions of Illinois State, and Wisconsin Territory. Some of these diggings are, probably, relinquished, and many new ones commenced.