NO TES AND Q UERIES. 187 ' 



This increase in its advance was owing to the rapid settlement of the Pacific 

 slope, which not only worked an unusual transfer of population from east tO' 

 west, but effected an abnormal displacement of the center, by locating the new 

 western population at the longest possible distance from it. If San Francisco be 

 2,000 miles from the center of population, and St. Louis 400, one person in the 

 former city will count equal to five in the latter in determining its position. Ev- 

 ery inhabitant works on the center with a leverage equal to his distance from it, 

 so to speak, hence it is not only the movement of population which affects the 

 center, but also the distance which it moves. In 1870 the center was forty- eight 

 miles east by north of Cincinnati, in latitude 39.15, having made only forty-six 

 miles of westing, and performed the novel feat of veering some fifteen miles 

 northward. But this was the war decade, when the increase of population in the 

 south was almost wholly arrested, and the movement of population westward ser- 

 iously disturbed. The wonderful increase of the south in population during the 

 past decade has brought the center again back to the central parallel, and it is 

 now supposed to be in Northern Kentucky, five miles west of Covington, in 

 about latitude 39.03. Its position is about ten miles east of the boundary line 

 between Ohio and Indiana, and fifty-one miles west of its location in 1870. 



It is well to remark, however, that this latter determination is only approxi. 

 mate. The Census Bureau is said to be ascertaining the population to each 

 square degree of territory for the purpose of locating the center with the greatest 

 practicable accuracy. It is certain, however, that its present position is west of 

 Cincinnati, and that its movement westward during the last decade was fully up 

 to the average of the last ninety years. It has moved westward about 450 miles 

 since 1790, and is now within about 300 miles of St. Louis. An advance at the 

 same average rate would bring it here in sixty years, but as the density of popu- 

 lation increases to the westward it ought to move slower in that direction. Still 

 it is not likely that its advance will be materially lessened during the present dec- 

 ade. The tide of population is flowing westward with unprecedented volume, 

 and the capacity for absorption in many favored regions is still immense. A new 

 and heavy movement will follow the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad, 

 and taking everything into consideration it would not be surprising if the advance 

 were greater during the present decade than it was in the last. — Globe- Democrat. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND MISSOURI RIVERS. 



I have found in my reading the following names applied to these rivers. If 

 the readers of the Review know of others I should be glad to have them re- 

 ported : 



Indian names for the Mississippi — Meico, Mescha-Sibi-Mescha, Namosi- 

 Sipon, Okimo-Chitto, Mesipi, Misseepe, Meact-Chassipi, and Malbouchia. 



