112 IOWA. 



said that the grass was as good as in Ireland, the crops of corn 

 better, and more wealth of tin and lead in the bowels of the 

 earth than would make the world rich. He told me of three 

 cousins of his who came out three years ago, with money 

 enough to buy 600 acres among them ; that their cattle, 

 horses', and swine had increased so much already that they could 

 not count them, and that they had been lately offered twice as 

 much for 100 acres of their land as they had originally paid for 

 the whole ! There is a rich mineral district round Dubuque, 

 similar in its character to that of Galena, on the opposite shore 

 of the river, in Illinois. 



Burlington is finely placed on the side of a blur? rising from 

 the river, to a height of 150 feet. It has a population of 

 15,000, and is likely to increase, as the system of railways 

 which centre in it are opened up westwards. It is the chief 

 town of the southern part of Iowa, and the railway now being 

 constructed from it to the Missouri Eiver, traverses the finest 

 portion of the State. By the month of May, this line is ex- 

 pected to be opened as far as the Des Moines Eiver. I trav- 

 elled on it to Fairfield, its present terminus, through a country 

 of prairie and woodland intermixed. It seemed not more roll- 

 ing than Illinois, and not so rich. Very little clover or blue 

 grass is seen growing along the line, such as cheers the eye to 

 the westward of Mendota. The buildings in the towns are in- 

 ferior, and the country generally looks poorer. There is no 

 land for sale along the line, at government prices, nearer than 

 fifteen miles distant, and enclosed land within that distance 

 sells at from ten to twenty dollars (21. to 4/.) an acre. But the 

 market on the Mississippi is not equal to that of Chicago, and 

 the land of Iowa cannot be so profitable as that of Illinois, for 

 the cost of the additional transit must always operate against 

 the former. Beyond Fairfield, the line traverses a coal country, 

 and its point of junction with the Missouri Kiver is opposite to 



