BUT HOPEFUL FUTUEE. 41 



of the settlers have been sadly depressed. Bad news travel 

 fast. Migration from the Eastern States is suspended, and 

 foreign immigration has almost ceased. 



It does not seem to me possible that there can be any real 

 improvement in the traffic of the western railways before next 

 harvest. The chief produce of the country which at present 

 creates traffic, is the grain trade. There is but one crop in 

 the year, and if that proves a partial failure, there is no help 

 but to wait the result of another harvest. But nature is so 

 bountiful in this country, and so small is the proportion of land 

 yet under cultivation, that when the tide turns we may look 

 for a rapid change. If with not more than a tenth of the good 

 land of Illinois under a rude system of cultivation, the agricul- 

 tural produce exceeded for a time the carrying capacity of the 

 railways, what may it not become as the country becomes peo- 

 pled and cultivated ? With less than a million and a half of 

 people, Illinois afforded in 1857 an amount of traffic which left 

 a profit to the railways. A very few years, at her average rate 

 of progression, will double that population, and at the same 

 time double her agricultural produce. And if directors and 

 shareholders will in the meantime act with prudence and pa- 

 tience their capital will soon again become remunerative. 



Before examining particular localities in the State, I was 

 anxious to obtain as it were a bird's-eye view of the country ; 

 such a general impression of its surface as would enable me to 

 select points for special inspection. I therefore first traversed 

 the entire state on the line of the Illinois Central Kail way, from 

 north-east to south, and from south to north-west, a total dis- 

 tance of about 700 miles. The State of Illinois extends from 

 37 to 42 30' north latitude, being thus nearly the same length 

 as England, but further south, and on the same parallel with 



