LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.—NO. 11 . 
307 
increasing trade. It is said to contain about 50,000 
inhabitants. Here, at a distance of 1,400 miles from 
the Gulf of Mexico, is a new starting point for a 
further inland navigation to the north, of 1,000 
miles by the Mississippi; to the west of 2,000 
by the Missouri: to the northeast, 1,000 by the 
Wisconsin, and 400 by the Illinois ; and to the 
east, 1,200 by the Ohio. Through all of these and 
their countless tributaries, is the mighty West con¬ 
tinually pouring out its teeming products to the 
seaboard. Through the Mississippi alone, one only 
of the outlets of this valley, there will probably be 
transported to a market, more than $100,000,000 in 
the surplus agricultural products of last season, and 
that not an abundant one. If such are the results 
of a single half century’s enterprise, by the surplus 
progeny of a people numbering but little more than 
3,000,000 at its commencement, what must be the 
results of future centuries of similar enterprise, With 
the accumulating ratio of our skill and population ? 
There are usually from 60 to 70 steamboats lying 
at St. Louis, destined to every accessible port. I 
took one, out of five or six, bound for the 
extreme limits of navigation on the Illinois. We 
had 100 passengers on board, including one bishop, 
one governor, sundry colonels, and some 50 return¬ 
ing volunteers, officers and privates. About one- 
half only of those enlisted in one of the Illinois 
regiments, will reach their homes in safety; while 
of those composing another from Mississippi, that 
I had before come in contact with, it is estimated 
that only one-third will again greet the home and j 
the friends they left but a twelvemonth since; 
and many of these, from their association and 
habits, have become both morally and physically 
unfitted for any useful employment hereafter. Ex¬ 
posure, disease, dissipation, and Mexican weapons 
have scattered the bones of the remainder from the 
Mississippi to Cierro Gordo. Such are a part, and 
a small part only, of the evils of a war, unnecessa¬ 
rily undertaken, in the middle of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury, by a nation claiming a pre-eminence in civili¬ 
zation ! 
Our route was to the mouth of the Missouri, 20 
miles, where we took a final leave of the muddy 
waters that mar the beauty of the stream, the whole 
distance to the Gulf; thence past Alton 5 miles 
above, a thriving place of 4 or 5,000 people; thence 
20 miles further, when we shot out of the main 
stream, into the Illinois. Here one finds a miniature 
Mississippi, especially at its lower extremity ; while 
higher up, its numerous bluffs now approaching 
and now receding from the banks, remind one of the 
bolder scenery between its mouth and the Ohio. 
The banks, which are generally from 6 to 12 
feet above low water, are frequently overflowed 
through a great part of their course. They descend 
from the edge of the river to lowland, or swamps, 
in their rear, evidently marking this valley as a 
deltal formation. The conformation of the remote 
or primitive banks of this river, and those of the 
Aux-Plaines, one of its principal tributaries, which 
flows within 8 miles of Lake Michigan, indicate 
conclusively that they formerly discharged a vastly 
larger body of water than they now contain. It is 
conjectured, and with a good deal of probability, 
that they were once the outlet of one or more of 
the large northern lakes, and possibly those of 
Michigan, Huron, and Superior. If this were the 
case, we can conceive of no adequate cause short 
of the upheaval of the western shore of Lake 
Michigan, which should have sent the waters that 
formerly met the Atlantic at Cape Sable, in latitude 
25° through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, that commu¬ 
nicates with the ocean at its northern outlet in 52°. 
Most of the banks of the Illinois are densely 
wooded ; but after ascending about 100 miles above 
its mouth, the prairies frequently comedown to the 
edge of the water. Peoria is beautifully situated oil 
one of these, 200 miles from the outlet of the river, 
whose rolling bank, ascending inland, rises 20 feet 
above the water, which here expands to a tiny 
lake. The town of Henry, a few miles above and 
on the same western bank, is similarly situated, but 
on a higher bank, and the prairie stretches off 60 
miles towards the Mississippi. 
There are numerous small thriving towns along 
this stream, which are already the depots for im¬ 
mense quantities of corn, wheat, flour, pork, beef, 
&c., &c. Some 15 or 20 small steamboats are em¬ 
ployed with the traffic and passengers on this river, 
besides scows and flat-boats that are used in freight¬ 
ing the produce. Two of the latter, each capable 
of carrying 1,000 barrels of flour, were loading at 
Hennepin, some 300 miles above St. Louis. There 
are numerous steam-saw and flouring-mills on the 
banks, by which lumber and grain are largely manu¬ 
factured, the latter only to any extent for expor¬ 
tation. 
, From Peru to Chicago, 100 miles, our course was 
over fertile and undulating prairies, most of which, 
though unoccupied a' dozen years ago, are now 
under cultivation and thickly studded with tasteful 
villages. The canal, destined to link the waters of 
Lake Michigan with the Mississippi, is substan¬ 
tially built, 60 feet in width by 6 in depth, and will 
be ready for use in the courseof the coming season. 
The crops, owing to the long continued cold 
weather,, were very indifferent, with the exception 
of grass, oats, and spring-wheat. Much of the fall- 
wheat had been winter-killed, and the fields were 
occupied by spring-grains. A large portion of these 
prairies afford an uncertain return of winter-grain, 
and the quality is much below the highest standard 
of good wheat. There is frequently a difference of 
5 to 10 cents per bushel in the market price of wheat 
raised in the prairies and adjoining woodlands. 
This difference in value and the uncertainty of the 
crop, has induced many of the new settlers to resort 
to the wooded country further north ; and I found 
much of the forest in Wisconsin, adjoining Lake 
Michigan, heretofore passed by for the sake of more 
easily reclaimed lands, has been purchased within a 
twelvemonth, and is now rapidly assuming the con¬ 
dition of cultivated farms. The fertile counties of 
Washington, Sheboygan, and Manitouwoc, in the 
latter Territory, are fast filling up with enterprising 
and intelligent settlers ; and lying on the lake, with 
thriving ports for the shipment of their products, 
they are soon destined to contain a dense and pros¬ 
perous agricultural population. 
Chicago, Milwaukie, and all the towms on the 
western shore of Michigan, are rapidly improving, 
and give substantial evidence, in their increase and 
improvements, of their future destiny. 
The wheat-crop in southwestern Michigan looked 
