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CHAPTER XXIX. MISSOURI.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This state is bounded W. and N. by the Territory of Missouri, E. by Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, and S. by Arkansas. It extends from 36° to 40° 30′ N. lat. and from 89° to 94° 10 W. lon. It is 270 miles in length and 220 in breadth, and contains 60,000 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The Ozark Mountains extend from the central parts of this state southwesterly into the region west of the Arkansas. East of them is a ridge called the Iron Mountains. Some of the peaks of these mountains are said to be 3,000 feet high, but they have been little explored.

3. RIVERS. The Mississippi washes the whole eastern boundary of this state. The Missouri passes through it from W. to E. and here joins the Mississippi. The Osage enters from the West, and joins the Missouri near the centre of the state; it has a boat navigation of 600 miles. The Gasconade falls into the Missouri below the Osage; it is navigable for boats 66 miles. The Merrimack or Maramec falls into the Mississippi below the Missouri; it is navigable 50 miles. The St. Francis, the White Water, Black and Cnrrant rivers rise in the south and pass into Arkansas. Grand and Chariton rivers fall into the Missouri from the North. Salt river is a branch of the Mississippi in the same quarter; these are navigable for boats.

4. CLIMATE. This state is subject to greater extremes of temperature than any other in the western country. The summer is intensely hot, and the winter often so severe that the Missouri is frozen for weeks so as to be passed by loaded wagons. The sky in summer is clear, and the air generally very dry.

5. SOIL. The soil of this state contains, more sand, and is more loamy and friable than that of the lands upon the Ohio. The alluvial prairies are universally rich, and nearly as fertile as the river bottoms. The rich uplands have a dark gray soil, except about the lead mines, where the soil is formed of a decomposed pyrite, and is of a reddish color. Nearly all the level tracts are sufficiently fertile to produce good crops of maize without manure.

The alluvial borders of the Missouri are generally loamy, with a large proportion of sand. The soil here contains a quantity of marle or lime, and is exceedingly fertile. The richer prairies and bottoms are covered with grass and weeds so tall as to make it difficult to travel on horseback. In the southwestern part are large tracts of poor sandy soil, covered with yellow pine, and in many parts stony.

6. MINERALS. The chief mineral production is lead, which exists in great abundance in the eastern part of this state. The district most rich in the metal is 100 miles in length and 40 in width, and lies south of the Missouri, in the county of Washington and the neighborhood. The lead ore is found in detached masses, and not in veins, and is probably the richest ore in the world, yielding from 70 to 80 per cent of metal; it is commonly found imbedded in rock and hard gravel. In 1828 there were about 50 mines or diggings in operation, which produced annually above 3,000,000 pounds of lead. The mines are leased to individuals or companies who work them on their own account. The ore is principally galena, and contains barytes and arsenic.

Coal is found in great abundance along the Missouri, and iron in every part of the state. Manganese, zinc, antimony, and cobalt are contained in the lead ore. Limestone is abundant.

7. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. The northwestern part of the state is a wide prairie. The central and southwestern parts are hilly and broken; the southeastern is low, swampy, full of lakes, and subject to inundation from the waters of the Mississippi. The best portion of the state and the most thickly peopled lies between the Missouri and the Mississippi; it has an undulating and variegated surface, and contains large tracts of alluvial and hilly prairies.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. DIVISIONS. Missouri is divided into 34 counties.* The population is 140,074 of whom 24,990 are slaves.

2. Towns. St Louis, once the capital, is the largest town in the state. It stands on the western bank of the Mississippi, 18 miles below the mouth of the Missouri. The site of the town rises gently from the water, and is bounded on the west by an extensive plain. The buildings mostly occupy three parallel streets extending along the river. The greater part of the houses are of wood, whitewashed, but some are of stone; they are generally furnished with gardens. Here is a Catholic college and several other seminaries of learning. A Catholic cathedral is now erecting, which when completed will be a magnificent structure. In the neighborhood of the town are the remains of the fortifications erected by the first settlers, consisting of a number of circular towers of stone. St Louis has a considerable river trade, and communicates with New Orleans, Louisville and many other places by steamboats. Pop. 5,852.

St. Genevieve, on a small creek, near the Mississippi, has a Catholic church and some neat French houses; most of the inhabitants are French. Considerable lead is exported from this place.

Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi, 50 miles above the Ohio, is finely situated upon a bluff, but is not a flourishing town.

Potosi, in the centre of the mining country occupies a pleasant spot surrounded by hills. It has a great trade in lead.

Herculaneum, on the Mississippi, 30 miles below St Louis, stands on a narrow alluvial spot bounded on the land side by lofty bluffs. It is the chief depot for the lead mines, and has several shot towers. New Madrid, on the Mississippi, 50 miles below the Ohio, was once a considerable place, but suffered severely by earthquakes in 1811 and 1812. St Charles, on the Missouri, is pleasantly situated and handsomely built.

The City of Jefferson has been fixed upon for the seat of government, and recently laid out. The situation is on the southern bank of the Missouri, in the centre of the state.

3. AGRICULTRUE. Maize, wheat, rye, oats, flax, and hemp, are extensively cultivated. Some cotton is raised in the southern parts. Tobacco is also raised. The land is easy of tillage but the great obstacle to farming is the want of fencing materials, the soil affording neither stones nor timber fit for the purpose.

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4. GOVERNMENT. The legislature is called the General Assembly, and consists of a Senate and House of Representatives. The Senators are chosen for 4 years, and the Representatives for two. The Governor is chosen

for 4 years. Elections are popular, and suffrage is universal. The state sends one representative to Congress.

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5. RELIGION. The Baptists have 67 ministers; the Methodists 23; the Presbyterians 10; the Episcopalians 3; there are many Catholic priests. 6. EDUCATION. The college of St Louis is a catholic institution. It was founded in 1829. It has 6 instructers and 125 students; the library has 1200 volumes. There is another catholic seminary at Bois Brulé Bottom. are also several convents in the state, where females are sent for education. 7. HISTORY. This state was originally a part of the great territory of Louisiana. Some settlements had been made by the French in 1764; yet, previous to the acquisition of the country by the United States, it contained but few inhabitants. In 1804 it was separated from Louisiana and erected into a Territory. A constitution was formed in 1820, and the next year it was admitted as a state into the Union.

CHAPTER XXX. TERRITORY OF ARKANSAS.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This Territory is bounded N. by the state of Missouri; E. by the river Mississippi, which separates it from Tennessee and Mississippi; S. by Louisiana, and W. by the Mexican and Missouri territories. It lies between 33° and 36° 30′ N. lat. and between 90 and 100 W. Its medial length is 300 miles, and its breadth 240; and it contains more than 50,000 square miles.

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2. MOUNTAINS. Several ranges of the Ozark chain cross the northwestern part of the territory; they are here called the Black Mountains. A ridge called the Masserne Mountains branches off from the Ozark, and extends easterly to the south of the Missouri. These mountains have been little explored.

3. RIVERS. The Arkansas, one of the greatest branches of the Missis sippi traverses this state from N. W. to S. E. It rises in the Rocky mountains in about lat. 41° N. and pursuing a S. E. course, joins the Mississippi 400 miles above the mouth of Red river. Its whole length is more than 2000 miles. It surpasses all the rivers of the west in the perfect regularity of its curves and bends, and in the beauty and uniformity of the young cotton wood groves, that spring up on the convex sand bars. In the spring floods steamboats can ascend it nearly to the mountains. White River has its sources in the ridge called the Black Mountains, which divides its waters from those of the Arkansas. It flows east and receives Black River in lat. 35° 15′ N., after which its course is southerly. Near its mouth it divides into two branches; the smaller branch joining the Arkansas, while the eastern enters the Mississippi. The other rivers are the St Francis, Cache, Washita, Bartholomew and Red River.

4. CLIMATE. The climate is a compound of that of Missouri and Louisiana. Until we advance 200 miles west of the Mississippi, in its humidity it more nearly resembles the latter. The distribution of rain is very unequal. Drenching rains and thunder are experienced sometimes 36 days in succes

sion. At other times the weather is remarkable for long droughts. Planting of corn commences by the middle of March, and cotton by the first of April. The shores of the Arkansas, as far up as Little Rock, are extremely unhealthy. Great tracts on all sides are covered with sleeping lakes and stagnant bayous. The country is a dead level; and the falling waters of the rains cannot be drained off. On the vast prairie which commences just above the Post, and extends 90 miles up the country, it is more healthy. This long sweep of country is thoroughly ventilated. But the air, in the timbered bottoms, is close and unelastic; and the moschetoes are excessively troublesome. Farther up the country and on the open prairies, it is as healthy as in any other country in the same latitude.

5. SOIL. The soil is of all qualities, from the best to the most sterile. The settlement of Point Chico, on the Mississippi, has a soil of the best quality; and is noted for the productiveness of its cotton plantations.

There is much fine land above Peccan Point on Red River. Mount Prairie, which is ten or twelve miles in diameter. and situated on the Washita, has a soil of great fertility and of the blackness of ink. On White river are some of the best lands and the healthiest sites in the country. The soil on the St Francis is very fertile, and covered with a heavy growth of beech. On the whole, this territory has a sufficiency of excellent lands to become a rich and populous state.

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6. GEOLOGY. Vast masses of sea shells are found dispersed over different tracts of this country. They are generally found in points remote from limestone; and answer a valuable purpose to the inhabitants, who collect and burn them for lime.

7. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. The whortleberry of the north is found in great perfection in the S. W. extremity of this state. The hills in many pla ces are covered with red cedars and savines; and muscadine grapes are met with in abundance.

S. MINERALS. Limestone, gypsum, and stone-coal abound on the banks of the White river; and iron ore is plentiful in all parts. Salt occurs principally in the Salines, a tract about 100 miles wide, extending through the whole breadth of this territory from N. to S. at the distance of 700 miles from the Mississippi. Here is the salt prairie which is covered for many miles with pure white crystallized salt from four to six inches deep.

The Hot Springs toward the S. W. part of this territory are among the most interesting curiosities of the country. The waters are remarkably pure and limpid, and are efficacious in many disorders; but they exhibit no mineral properties beyond common spring water. During the spring floods of the Washita, a steamboat can approach within thirty miles of them. Two miles from the springs is the famous quarry of stone called oil-stone. The mountains in the vicinity of these springs are thought to be volcanic. 9. ANIMALS. The country is still in many parts unsubdued, and wild animals abound. Buffaloes and deer feed in herds on the prairies. Among the other animals are the bear, the beaver, the badger, and the gopher. 10. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. For some distance up the waters of Arkansas and White rivers, the country is an extensive, heavily-timbered, and deeply inundated swamp. Near the St Francis hills and at Point Chico, the eastern front along the Mississippi is above the overflow. The remainder of the eastern line is a continuous and monotonous flooded forest. It has large and level prairie plains, and possesses a great extent of rocky and sterile ridges, with a considerable surface covered with mountains. Near the S. W. part of the territory is a singular detached elevation, called Mount Prairie.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. DIVISIONS. This territory is divided into 23 counties.* tion is 30,383, of whom 4,578 are slaves.

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2. TOWNS. Little Rock on the S. bank of the Arkansas is the seat of government. It received its name by antiphrasis from the prodigious masses of rock in its neighborhood; and it has a healthy and pleasant situation. The other principal towns are Arkansas, an ancient French settlement, the inhabitants of which are mostly descendants of French and Indians, Batesville, Helena and Cadron. Dwight is a missionary station among the Cherokees.

3. AGRICULTURE. Cotton is the staple article of cultivation; but it becomes an uncertain crop N. of the river St Francis. The rich lands produce fine maize and sweet potatoes. Rye and barley will thrive in almost every part; and wheat does well in the high country. Figs are raised, but with difficulty; the tree being frequently killed by the frost. Peaches are raised in great excellence and abundance; and various kinds of fruit are cultivated with success.

4. GOVERNMENT. The Governor is appointed for the term of three years, by the President of the United States. The executive powers are vested in the Governor and Judges of the territory.

5. INDIANS. The Quawpaws, intermixed with many fugitive Choctaw Indians, reside chiefly on the Arkansas. That portion of the Cherokee nation, which has emigrated W. of the Mississippi, has its chief settlements on the Arkansas. Beyond this territory on White River are congregated the Shawnees and Delawares, that have emigrated from Ohio and Missouri. Above the Cherokees, on the Arkansas, are the Osages; and still higher are the Pawnees. In the vast waste of prairies which interpose between this territory and the Rocky Mountains, roam different tribes of Indians, among which are often seen, Indians from the Mexico country, who come here to hunt the buffalo.

6. HISTORY. The Arkansas Territory was erected into a separate government in 1819, extending from the Mississippi to Mexico; but in 1824, the western limit was restricted to a line beginning 40 miles W. of the S. W. corner of the state of Missouri, and running S. to Red River. The Spanish and French had establishments on the Arkansas at early dates in the history of the country.

CHAPTER XXXI.

TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This territory, in a political sense includes the peninsula of Michigan and the Northwestern Territory. It is bounded N. by Canada and Lakes Superior and Huron; E. by Lake Huron and the waters which connect it with Lake Erie; S. by Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, and W. by Missouri Territory. It extends from 41° 31' to 49° N. lat. and from 82° to 95° W. lon. and contains 180,000 square miles.

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