80 



The Valley of the Mississippi. 



V0L.VIIL 



proved Short-horns should be chosen, as the 

 unimproved, although good milkers, cannot 

 compete with them in any way. 



N. 



Sept. 12th, 1843. 



The Valley of the Mississippi. 



The Mississippi valley is known by such 

 crude and indeiinite names as the West, the 

 Western country, the Lake country, the 

 South-west, the Far West. Its boundaries 

 on the west, are the Rocky mountains, Mex 

 ico and Texas ; on the south, the Gulf of 

 Mexico ; on the east, the Alleghany moun 

 tains; and on the north, the Lakes and Brit- 

 ish possessions. It contains nearly as many 

 square miles as continental Europe, and if 

 populated as densely as England, would sus- 

 tain a population of five hundred millions of 

 human beings — more than half of the pre 

 sent population of the earth. Stretching 

 from the 29th to the 49th degree of latitude, 

 it possesses great variety of climate. In 

 richness of soil and extent of tillable land, 

 it is not surpassed by any country of the 

 same extent. Its surface is almost unbroken 

 by a mountain, or a hill of sufficient size to 

 impede cultivation. Geographically viewed, 

 it is pre-eminently a commercial country, 

 and is particularly eligible for foreign com- 

 merce. To see, reader, for yourself, what 

 the Mississippi valley is, suppose you go on 

 board of one of those steamboats lying at 

 the wharf in New Orleans, and about to 

 start for the upper Mississippi. Leaving 

 the orange groves and sugar plantations of 

 the South, in about ten days the boat will 

 land you at the Falls of Saint Anthony, 

 twenty-five hundred miles up the Missis- 

 sippi river; if you think you are not far 

 enough north, you can walk around the 

 Falls, and, taking another boat, ascend eight 

 hundred or a thousand miles further. On 

 your way up, you will have passed through 

 many climates, and seen the productions of 

 each under cultivation, and over a vast 

 mining region, abounding in coal, lead, iron, 

 and copper ore, all found in veins of won- 

 derful richness. As you return, should you 

 wish to take a peep at the West, you will 

 take a boat at St. Louis, bound up the Mis- 

 souri. 



Afler a couple of weeks or so of good 

 hard running, she will land you at the Great 

 Falls, in the country of the Blackfoot In- 

 dians, about thirty-nine hundred miles above 

 St Louis, and five thousand from New Or- 

 leans. Returning, you would of course wish 

 to see some of the tributaries of the Missou- 

 ri; for this purpose you would make a little 

 excursion of eleven hundred miles up the 

 yellow Stone, of sixteen hundred up the 



Platte, and of twelve hundred up the Kon- 

 zas, and so back to St. Louis, on the Missis- 

 sippi river, twelve hundred miles from New 

 Orleans. There you would take a boat for 

 the beautiful Ohio, and run up that stream 

 to Pittsburgh, one thousand miles from the 

 mouth of the Ohio, and two thousand from 

 New Orleans. You would see the flourish- 

 ing towns of Louisville, Cincinnati, and 

 Pittsburgh ; the most luxuriant croi>s of 

 grains and grasses; fine and numerous 

 flocks and herds of every kind : you would 

 smile to see the primitive contrivances waft- 

 ed on the bosom of the Ohio, bearing the 

 products of the Ohio valley to its distant 

 market in New Orleans, and more than all, 

 you would rejoice to see the healthy, happy, 

 smiling fa,ces of the people. Before you 

 again embarked on the Mississippi, you 

 would no doubt run three or four hundred 

 miles up the Cumberland, six or seven hun- 

 dred up the Tennessee river, to see what 

 were the first cotton regions of the valley, 

 and how highly cultivated and improved. 

 Once more on the Mississippi, on your way 

 downward, you would be prompted to shoot 

 fifteen hundred or two thousand miles up 

 the Arkansas river, just to see where all 

 those hides and furs come from. You would, 

 no doubt, run two or three hundred miles up 

 the Yazoo, and two hundred or so up the Big 

 Black, both in the State of Mississippi, to 

 see the countries that send out those stupen- 

 dous steamboat loads of cotton that you meet 

 on your way up; and just before you reached 

 New Orleans, you would be sorely tempted 

 to pop a thousand or fifleen hundred miles 

 up Red river, to see the splendid cotton 

 plantations of Louisiana, and give a finish 

 to your excursion. 



When you got back to New Orleans, you 

 would have a tolerably accurate idea of what 

 the Mississippi valley is; and by putting the 

 distances together, you will find that you 

 travelled very comfortably by steomboat, six- 

 teen thousand miles, and in going and re- 

 turning, double that distance. Should curi- 

 osity lead you to investigate, you will find 

 that in the Mississippi river and its tributa- 

 ries, the Mississippi valley possesses a steam- 

 boat navigation of twenty-five to thirty 

 thousand miles. Such is a brief but true 

 geographical glance at the valley. To the 

 mind of an Atlantic or European reader, it 

 may appear more of a "fancy sketch," than 

 a true description. Let them not suppose 

 that truth is violated because our rivers are 

 large ; we did not make them, and are not 

 responsible for that. We have, however, 

 plenty of such little streams as the Hudson, 

 the Delaware, the Potomac, the Santee, the 

 Thames, the Severn, the Mersey, the Hum- 



