The herds of gregarious animals, particularly the buffaloes, are innumerable. Such is the gen- eral character of the country, until we come in contact with the spurs of the Rocky Mountains.
As far as the limits of the state, this river is ca- pable of supporting a dense population, for a con- siderable distance from its banks. Above those limits it is generally too destitute of wood, to be- come habitable by any other people than hunters and shepherds. All the great tributaries of this river are copies, more or less exact, of the parent stream. One general remark applies to the whole country. The rivers have a narrow margin of fertility. The country, as it recedes from the
river, becomes more and more sterile, sandy and destitute of water, until it approximates in char- acter towards the sandy deserts of Arabia.
Missouri, one of the United States, lying west of the Mississippi, and intersected by the great river from which it takes its name. It is bounded N. and W.bytheTerritory of Missouri, E. by Illin- ois, Kentucky and Tennessee, and S. by Arkan- sas ; extending from 36. to 40. 30. N. lat. and from
89. to 94.10. W. long. 270 m. in length and 220 'n breadth. It contains 60,000 sq. m. The Mis- sissippi washes the eastern boundary, the other principal streams are the branches of the Mis- souri and this river. The Ozark Mountains ex- tend south-westerly from this state into Arkansas, and there are some mountain ridges toward the east A large extent of this great state in its south-east angle commencing above New Mad- rid, and extending down the great swamp, and through the alluvial region, a considerable dis- tance back from the Mississippi, is low, swampy, full of lakes, and in many places subject to be in- undated. Beyond that region, which is generally marked by a bold line of rolling and fertile high lands, the country gradually rises into high flint knobs, still rising beyond that region to the moun- tainous country of the lead mines. This country extends to the Osage and its tributaries. Beyond this the country is broken and hilly; until we open upon the boundless belt of open prairies, which spreads beyond the western limits of this state. The best portion, and the most inhabited parts of the state are between the Missouri and Mississippi. This vast tract is no where moun- tainous. It contains great tracts of alluvial and hillv prairies. It is for the most part a surface, delightfully rolling and variegated. There is no part of the globe, where greater extents of coun- try can be traversed more easily, and in any di- rection by carriages of any description, where tbere are no roads, and that is yet in a state of nature.
One specific difference between the soil of this country, and the country bordering on the Ohio is, that trie land here contains a much greater pro- portion of sand, is more loamy and friable, and the soil is not so stiff. There are tracts over all this country, wrier? we find the Hayey soils of Ohio and Kentucky. But they are small. The roads generally, ran over tracts, where the falling rain and snow are so readily absorbed, even in the win- ter, that the people are not troubled with the deep and almost impassable roads, that we find in those states. The rich uplands are of a darkish grey colour; with the exception of the great tract about the lead mines, where trie soil, composed of decom- posed pyrite, is reddish, and of a colour brighter than Spanish brown. The poorer uplands are generally covered with white oak, and that small shrubby species of oak denominated here pin oak.
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It is usually a stiffer and more clayey soil than the other; and it is of a light yellow colour. There are two extensive tracts of that fine kind of tim- bered upland alluvion, which constitutes the finest central portions of Kentucky. The one is, per- haps, fifteen or twenty miles in extent. It is south- west of the mine country, and is called Bellevue settlement. The other tract is much larger, and is called in this country the Boone's lick settle- ment. There are smaller extents of this kind of land, spread over all the state. In a state of na- ture, it strikes the eye delightfully. The surface rolls gently and almost imperceptibly. It has the same trees and shrubs, and the grand vegetation, that designate the rich alluvions; and at the same time it has the diversified surface, and the asso- ciated ideas of health, and springs of water that are naturally connected with the notion of up- lands. These lands are limbered with the same trees which the alluvions bear. Like those, they are surmounted with grape vines, and are free from underbrush. The graceful pawpaw, the persimou, and the wild cherry tree, all denoting rich soils, abound in these regions ; and they are nearly as fertile as the bottoms of the Missouri, or the Mississippi.
The prairies are generally level and of an inter- mediate character between the richer and the poorer uplands. The alluvial^irairies are univcr sallv rich, and nearly as fertile as the bottoms Some tracts of the upland prairies are rich But there are scarcely any lands in this state suffi- ciently level for cultivation, that have not ferti- lity enough to bring good crops of corn without manure ; and in many instances the poorer lands are better for wheat than the richer. The grand- est objects of nature will, probably, not excite so much surprise in the mind of a traveller from the Atlantic states, as tl.e first view of a prairie. Ri- ding, day after day, through forests, where the small improvements made in the wilderness scarcely interrupt the general aspect of woods, he opens at once upon the view of a boundless hori- zon. In the early periods of summer, he beholds outstretched under his eye a perfectly level plain, of the most soft and beautiful verdure, covered with a thousand flowers of every scent and hue. Here and there, in the skirts of the prairies, and often in their centre are clumps of oaks, and pec- cans and black walnuts, disposed in forms so re- gular, and generally circular, as could not fail to delight the eye of an admirer of the ancient style of gardening. He is unprepared for such a view, seen in such strong contrast with dark and lonely forests. It is, after all, impossible to convey by description the impression, which these views |