332 Expedition to the 



the meridian of Council Bluff; and 5th, the country between 

 the proposed meridian and the Rocky Mountains. 



I. — Of the country situated between the Ohio river and the 

 Alleghany Mountains. 



The country on the south side of the Ohio, including the 

 northerly parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee, to- 

 gether with the whole of Kentucky, abounds in hills elevated, 

 in thevicinity of the Ohio, from fourtoeighthundredorathou- 

 sand feet above the water table of the river, and rising many 

 hundred feet higher, in the neighbourhood of the Alleghany 

 Mountains. This section is watered by many streams of con- 

 siderable magnitude, tributary to the Ohio, the most import- 

 ant of which are the Monongahela, Kenhawa, Great Sandy, 

 Licking, Kentucky, Salt, Greene, Cumberland, and Tennessee. 

 Most of these rivers are navigable for keel-boats, and many 

 of them for steam-boats, some hundreds of miles, during the 

 boating season, which generally commences about the 20th of 

 February, and terminates early in June. Occasional freshets 

 contribute to render them navigable during short portions of 

 the other months of the year, but no reliance can be placed 

 on periodical returns of freshets, excepting those of the spring 

 season. Upon these rivers are extensive and valuable tracts of 

 bottom land, covered with deep and heavy forests, and pos- 

 sessed of a soil adapted to the cultivation of all the variety 

 of vegetable products, common to the various climates in 

 which they are situated. The highlands back of the bottoms, 

 although variegated with hills and vallies, alternating with 

 each other in quick succession, are generally possessed of a 

 surface susceptible of being tilled, and in many instances, of 

 a soil equally rich and prolific, with that of the bottoms. In 

 many parts of the country, however, the hills are abrupt and 

 stony, to such a degree as renders them unfit for tillage. 

 The average produce per acre, upon the farming lands of 

 this section may be estimated at the following rates, viz. In- 

 dian-corn or maize, forty bushels, wheat twenty-two, rye 

 twenty-six, oats thirty- five, barley thirty, tobacco from twelve 

 to fifteen hundred weight, and cotton from five to seven 

 hundred weight. In regard to the products last mentioned, 

 viz. cotton and tobacco, it should be observed, that they are 

 cultivated only in the southwesterly parts of this section, and 

 that oats and barley are seldom cultivated, except in the up- 

 per or northeasterly parts. 



Of the population of this section, if we except the towns 



