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loa 



IOWA. 



unhappily to be equally applicable. Nevertheless agriculture is 

 making progress ; those openitions which have been cited as proofs 

 of improvement increase steadily. An agricultural commission has 

 been established in Corfu; and although only of recent creation, 

 their proceedings hitherto warrant a hope of their labours being 

 productive of positive practical good." 



IDS, now NIO, one of the Sporades Islands in the ^gean Sea, lies 

 15 miles S.S.E. from Naxos. The highest point of the island is in 

 36° 42' 44" N. lat.. 25° 20' 57" E. long. Its greatest length from 

 north-west to south-east is about 10 miles, and its greatest breadth 

 ia about 5 miles. The surface is high and hilly, calcareous ridges 

 Bcreeniug a few small valleys and plains. The soil is naturally 

 infertile, but by dint of labour some wheat, barley, and pulse are 

 raised for the scanty population, which hardly exceeds 2500. The 

 yield of wine and oil is equal to the consumption. A little cotton 

 and some wax are also produced. The islanders rear cows, sheep, and 

 goats, and manufacture cheese and cotton hosiery. 



The most ancient name of los, according to Pliny, was Phocnice. 

 The town of los was built on an eminence on the west coast near the 

 head of a small circular bay which opens to the south-west, and forms 

 one of the best harbours in the archipelago. The site is occupied by 

 Nio, the present capital of the island. Some remains of the ancient 

 town still exist. los is celebrated as the burial-place of Homer, who 

 ia said to have died here on his voyage from Smyrna to Athens. A 

 Dutch nobleman named Van Kri^nen is said to have discovered the 

 tomb of Homer in 1771, but his account is not now believed. The 

 coins of loa had Homer's head on the obverse. 



IOWA, one of the United States of North America, extends from 

 aouth to north between 40° 85' and 43° 30' N. lat, and from east to 

 west between 90° 18' and 96° 53' W. long. It h bounded S. by the 

 ■tate of Missouri, K. by the Mississippi River, which separates it 

 from Illinois and Wisconsin, N. by Minnesota Territory, and W. by 

 the Hisaouri River and its tributary the Tchankasndata, or Big Sioux 

 River, which divides it from the newly-formed Nebraska Territory. 

 Its greatest extent from north to south is 196 miles, from east to 

 west 307 miles. Its area is 50,914 equate miles, or about 7400 square 

 miles less than that of England and Wales. The following table 

 •hows the population, with the proportion of coloured persons, at the 

 two decennial censuses of the state. The total population in 



1840 was 43,112, indading 173 free coloured persons, ud 16 slaves. 

 1850 „ 192,214, „ S33 „ so „ 



The population being all free in 1850, the ratio of representation 

 entitles the state to send two representatives to Congress. To the 

 ■enate, like each of the other United States, Iowa sends two members. 

 Of the 192,214 inhabitants of Iowa in 1850, 170,620 were bom in 

 the United States (50,380 of whom were bom in Iowa) ; 21,232 in 

 foreign countries (including 3785 bom in England, 4885 in Ireland, 

 712 in Scotland, and 352 in Wales; 7240 in Germany, llOS in 

 Holland, and 382 in France) : of 362 the birth-place was ui^nown. 



Surface, Hydrography, and C'ommunicatiom. — Iowa is one of the 

 newest states of the Union (having been admitted as a state in 1846), 

 trat its resources are such us to promise that it will at no very distant 

 period take rank among the first. It stands near the centre of the 

 North American continent, and the two great rivers of the continent, 

 which bound it on the east and west, afford it the utmost facilities 

 of external water communication ; the soil b throughout fertile, 

 abundantly watered, and the grassy prairies supply a vast extent of 

 natural pasture; the climate is healthy; the mineral riches, espe- 

 cially coal, are unbounded; it is equal in extent to most of the 

 laijjest of the older states ; and its settlers are among the hardiest 

 and most energetic of the Anglo-American and Saxon races. The 

 surface of the country is elevated, but not greatly broken. Iowa 

 contains no mountains, or even hills of any great altitude. For the 

 most part it consists of rounded sweeps, with broad valleys in which 

 the rivers flow; the upland tracts being connected with "the volleys 

 by gentle slopes. In the language of the country the general surface 

 of the state is a ' rolling prairie ; ' it being in fact an elevated 

 brcadly-undulating prairie laud, watered by magnificent streams and 

 their numerous affluents ; the term ' rolling prairie ' being applied to 

 it by the settlers from the resemblance which the broad rounded 

 undulations seemed to bear to the 'rollers' or great swelling waves 

 of the ocean. The prairie scenery is said to be very striking ; but it 

 becomes wearisome to the traveller from its great similarity for vast 

 distances. Belts of forest occur noar all the rivers, but especially 

 along the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Des Moines. 



The two great rivers of Iowa are the Mississippi, which forms its 

 eastern boundary for nearly 450 miles, and the Missouri, which forms 

 its western boundary from the mouth of the Big Sioux, a distance of 

 more than 300 miles; both are navigable throughout for steamers of 

 light draught : they will be found described under Mississippi. The 

 Missouri has no very considerable affluents within the limits of this 

 state. The Big Sioux, which forms the north-western boundary of 

 the state, is the principal; the upper part of Grand River also belongs 

 to Iowa. Nearly all the secondary rivers of the state are tributaries 

 of the Mississippi. The cliiet of these is the Da Moinet, a splendid 

 stream, which rises in the Coteau des Prairies north of Iowa, and 

 flows through the state in a south-easterly direction, dividing it into 



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two nearly equal sections, and falling into the Mississippi at the 

 south-eastern angle of the state. It has a course through the state of 

 about 400 miles, and is navigable by steamboats at full water for 100 

 miles, and for keelboats for 300 miles; but the state government has 

 undertaken, aided by a grant of laud from Congress, to render it 

 navigable, by means of substantial locks and dams for creating slack 

 water, for steamboats of a medium class up to Fort des Moines, a 

 distance of more than 200 miles from its mouth. This river flows 

 through the great coal-field of the state, and a country of unusual 

 agricultural capabilities. It has a large number of tributaries, some 

 of considerable size. At the present time the valley of the Des 

 Moines contains half the population and agricultural wealth of the 

 state. The Ivwa, which gives its name to the state, though a fine 

 stream, is one of much less magnitude. It rises in the northern part 

 of the state, and flows in a generally south-eastern direction to its 

 junction with the Mississippi, which it enters by two arms : the Red 

 Cedar, the northern or main stream, uniting with the Mississippi 

 opposite Edward's River, Illinois; Iowa Slough, tlie southern arm, 

 falling into it about six miles lower down. The river is navigable by 

 steamers of light draught for 30 miles or more, according to the 

 season ; and by keelboats much higher, at times for above 100 miles. 

 The Skunk, the Waosipinicou, and some others are also navigable for 

 distances varying from 20 to 50 or 60 miles; and all of them; as well 

 as their numerous afilueuts, alTord a large amount of water-power for 

 manufacturing purposes. 



Roads have been made across the state in various directions ; and 

 a system of railways radiating from Iowa city has been laid down, 

 and will be carried out as rapidly as the funds permit. The main 

 state line is proposed to be carried westward, from Iowa city to 

 Council BluflTs, as a part of the Great Pacific line, the western terminus 

 of which is to be the city of San Francisco in California. Th.-re is 

 little doubt, however, that the Des Moines will for a considerable 

 period continue to be the main line of internal commuuication, and 

 to its improvement therefore the attention of the authorities will in 

 the first instance be chiefly directed. 



Geology, Mineralogy, <tc. — The north-western corner of the state 

 bordering on the Coteau des Prairies is occupied by eruptive aud 

 metamorpbic rocks ; aud bounding these on the south, and extending 

 completely across the state from west to east, is a broad bolt of 

 Silurian strata. The Lower Silurian rocks, occupying the northern 

 half of the belt, are chiefly magnesian limestone, including gdena 

 limestone, in which are the Iowa lead-mines, and what is locally 

 known as St. Peter's, or shelly, limestone. The Upper Silurian rocks, 

 lying south of the Lower Silurian aud following the direction marked 

 out by them, consist of the upper shelly limestones, or upper 

 magnesian strata. South of the Silurian strata, and stretching like 

 them across the state from east to west, is a band of the Devonian 

 formation, consisting chiefly of what is known as Red Cedar limestone, 

 so called from the main branch of the Iowa, the bluQs of which are 

 formed of it. The whole southern section, and by far the larger 

 portion of the state, consists of Carboniferous rocks. Immediately 

 south of the Devonian, and extending along both the Missouri and 

 the Miaeissippi, is a comparatively narrow belt of the Lower Car- 

 boniferous formation, comprising bituminous black schists and sand- 

 stones, and carboniferous or mouutain limestones, which inclose a 

 wide I'xtent of strata of the Upper Carboniferous, or coal-measures, a 

 part of the great basin which stretches into the states of .Missouri, 

 Illinois, and Indiana. Along the great rivers alluvial deposits occa- 

 sionally cover up the older rocks. 



Iowa does not appear to possess any great variety of minerals, but 

 the most important of those it has occur in vast quantities. Dr. Dalo 

 Owen, who made a geological survey of the statj for the federal 

 government, remarks that a review of its resources and capabilities 

 induces him to say with confidence that 10,000 labourers and miners 

 could find profitable employment within its boundaries. Lead is the 

 metal which has hitherto been most largely worked. The mines are 

 chiefly in the north-east of the state, Dubuque being the capital of 

 the lead-mining district ; the mines have been worked for a long time 

 and have proved very productive. Dr. Owen says that the Iowa lead- 

 mines produce as much of the metal as the whole of Europe, except 

 Great Britain, and their capabilities are unbounded : they are a con- 

 tinuation of the mines of Illinois aud Wisconsin. Zinc, chiefly in the 

 form of electric calamine, occurs in cellular masses in fissures along 

 with the lead. Zinc is also found both as a carbonate and a sulphuret. 

 Iron-ore is largely distributed, but as yet it has not been worked to 

 any great extent. Copper also occurs, but it is not peihaps likely to 

 be found in sufficient quantities for working. The great mineral 

 feature of the state is however its vast coal-fields. The carboniferous 

 measures occupy, aa already stated, the larger moiety of the state. 

 According to Dr. Dale the area of the coal-field of Iowa cannot be 

 less than 20,000 square miles ; while the beds of coal are 100 feet in 

 thickness, and lie so near the surface as to be worked very easily aud 

 at a small expense. The Des Moines River passes through this great 

 coal-field for upwards of 200 miles ; and the Iowa skirts its north- 

 eastern margin. Limestone suitable for building is almost everywhere 

 abundant ; and there are some good sandstones. Some marbles of 

 great beauty are quarried. 



Climate, Soil, Prodactiont, <bc. — The climate is on the whole salu- 



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