Rocky Mountains. 333 



and villages and their immediate vicinities, as also a large 

 portion of country surrounding Lexington, Kentucky, and 

 another of considerable extent, including Nashville, Tennes- 

 see, it is yet but thinly inhabited, affording room fbr a popu- 

 lation far more numerous and more widely diffused. There 

 are extensive tracts of country between the Alleghany moun- 

 tains and the Ohio, as yet almost entirely destitute of inha- 

 bitants, the most considerable of which are situated in the 

 vicinity of the mountains, also the country generally between 

 Tennesse river and the Mississippi. As this section of coun- 

 try is pretty generally well known, the foregoing outline of 

 its topography will suffice. 



II. — Of the country situated between the Ohio, Mississippi, 

 and the Lakes. 



The section of country next in the order proposed, is situ- 

 ated north of the Ohio river, and comprehends the states of 

 Ohio, Indianna, and Illinois. This section may be subdivid- 

 ed into three orders or varieties of country, which merit a 

 separate consideration, viz. the hilly, the plain or rolling, 

 and the valley country. 



1. The hilly country like, that south of the Ohio, exhibits 

 a very uneven surface, variegated with hills and dales, irre- 

 gularly distributed, and occupying about one-third part of 

 the section under consideration. This portion of the country, 

 is of an oblong form, extending in a direction nearly parallel 

 to that of the Alleghany mountains. It is limited on the 

 southeast by the Ohio river, and on the northwest by an im- 

 aginary line, commencing on the Mississippi near the Grand 

 Tower, and running in a direction nearly east-northeast, till 

 it approaches the easterly part of Lake Erie. On the east it 

 mingles with the hilly country, comprehended in the back 

 parts of Pennsylvania and New York. In short, the whole 

 region, situated between the Alleghany mountains and the 

 imaginary line above specified; or, in other words, the coun- 

 try through which the Ohio and its tributaries, except the 

 Wabash, have their courses, may be arranged under this head. 

 The hills, throughout the whole, are very similar in respect 

 to their altitudes, multiplicity, and conformation. 



Although the hilly country, north of the Ohio, is in many 

 places rugged and broken, yet a large portion of it is suscep- 

 tible of cultivation. No high mountains are to be seen; the 

 hills usually rise from six to eight hundred feet above the com- 

 mon level, or about one thousand feet above the water tables 



