territorial government. During the last war (1812) with England, Michigan fell into the hands of the enemy through the treason of Gen. Hull, but was retaken under Gen. Harrison in the following year. In 1836, it was admitted into the Union as a state.

THE STATE OF WISCONSIN.

WISCONSIN, one of the most flourishing and healthy states of the Union, lies between the latitudes of 42° 30′ and 47° N., and between the longitudes of 87° and 92° 40′ W., and is bounded north by the territory of Minesota, Lake Superior and the northern peninsula of Michigan; east by Lake Michigan; south by the State of Illinois and west by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the State of Iowa and Minesota territory. It is 300 miles in length and 240 miles broad, with an area of 53,924 square miles, or 34,511,360 acres, of which only 13,955,825 are surveyed.

Wisconsin is one vast plain, varied only by river hills, and the gentle swells and undulations of the country, usually called "rolling." This plain is elevated from 600 to 1,500 feet above the level of the ocean. The highest lands are those dividing the waters of the lakes from those of the Mississippi. From these there is a gradual descent towards the south and west, which, however, is several times interrupted by ridges and mounds, the latter of which, rising above the general landscape, present an anomaly in the contour of the country, and in the unsettled parts serve as guides to the traveller. The slope towards Lake Superior is very abrupt, and as a consequence, the rivers are short, rapid, and broken by falls. They are unfit for navigation, but possess abundance of water-power, which, at no distant period, will become useful to the settler. There is another ridge of broken land, running from Green Bay south-westerly, forming the "divide" between the waters of Lake Michigan and those of the Bay and the Neenah. After pursuing a similar direction, this ridge passes into the State of Illinois.

Besides the great lakes on the north and east, a vast number of smaller ones are scattered over the northern portion of the state. They are from one to twenty miles in extent, and many are amid the most beautiful and picturesque scenery, abounding in fish of various kinds, and having a rich supply of fine specimens of agate, cornelian and other precious stones on their shores. In the shallow water of the bays, the "zigania aquatica,” a species of wild rice, is abundant, and attracts immense flocks of water-fowl to these localities, and even affords a nutritious aliment for man. Among the small lakes may be mentioned Lakes Winnebago, St. Croix, Cass, Pepin, Four Lakes, the Mille Lac, Ottawa, Pewaugau, Pewaukee, Geneva, Greene, and many others.

The Mississippi, as before observed, forms the western boundary. It is augmented from this state by the waters of the Chippewa and Wisconsin, which, though themselves considerable rivers, scarcely perceptibly increase the volume of the "Father of Waters." Innumerable smaller streams and branches run through the whole extent of the state, so that no portion of it is without a plentiful supply of good and generally pure water. The Missis

sippi is navigable as far up as the Falls of St. Anthony, and small steamboats ply on the Wisconsin and some other rivers.

The rivers running into the Mississippi take their rise in the vicinity of the sources of those running into the lakes, and they often originate in the same lake or swamp, so that the communication from the Mississippi to the lakes is rendered comparatively easy at various points. Some of the rivers are supplied from the Tamarack Swamps, from which the water takes a dark color.

All kinds of crops which are raised in northern latitudes may be cultivated with success; and owing to the great range of pasturage on the prairies, it is an uncommonly fine grazing country. The counties of Grant and Iowa abound with lead and copper ore. Bordering the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers the soil is rich, and the surface most generally covered with a heavy growth of timber.

The proximity of Wisconsin to the Great Lakes ensures it a softer climate than its geographical position would assign to it. The extremes, however, are great-the thermometer sometimes during the summer marking 100°, and in winter receding to 40° below zero. The mean temperature of the year is, in different parts, from 46° 6' to 47° 4'; and of spring, 43° 4′ to 48° 6'; summer, 67° 3′ to 71° 1′; autumn, 45° 5' to 48° 2′; and winter, 17° 3′ to 27° 3'. The lowest mean monthly temperature is 13° 58′ in January; and the highest 75° 47′ in July. The annual amount of rain falling is from 27.96 to 38.83 inches. The north and north-west, and the south and south-west winds are those most prevalent; the former in the winter and the latter in the summer season.

The salubrity of the climate, the purity of the air, and of the water; the coolness and short duration of the summers, and the dryness of the winters, conspire to render Wisconsin one of the most favored regions of the United States. The swamps, marshes, and wet meadows are constantly supplied with pure water from springs; and as they are seldom exposed to long continued heats, they do not send forth those noxious vapors so much dreaded in the more southern sections of the Union. Many of the most flourishing towns are in the immediate vicinity of large swamps, yet no injurious effect on the general health is experienced.

Wisconsin contained in 1850, according to the census of that year, 305,191 inhabitants, or one person to every 113 acres; and these were distributed to the several counties in the following proportions:

The number of dwellings in the state in 1850, was 56,316, or one dwelling for every 5.4 inhabitants, and the families numbered 57,608, or in the proportion of 5.3 persons to every family. The number of deaths was 2,884, or in the ratio of one to every 105.8 inhabitants.

The industry of the people embraces mining, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, etc., and in each of these branches the state has made astonishing progress. Twenty years ago the state, within its present limits, contained only 3,245 inhabitants, but such has been its facilities for prosecuting all kinds of industry, that in the ten years ending 1840, it increased 853.6 per cent., and in the ten years ending 1850, 886.2 per cent. Mining is generally confined to the lead region of the Galena country in the southwest; but copper and iron are also extensively mined in other partscopper in the north-east, and iron, more or less, in almost every county. Agriculture employs about nine-tenths of the whole population, and much attention is given to grazing, for which, indeed, the greater portion of the country is better adapted than to grain growing. In 1850 there were in the state 20,177 farms under cultivation, or one farm to every 15 of the whole population. The manufactures of the state are yet but in embryo, and are chiefly incidental. At the date above named there were 1,273 establishments, at which productions to the value of $500 and upwards annually, were turned out. In commerce the state is scarcely second to any of those north-west of the Ohio. It has an extensive front on Lake Michigan, and an outlet on Lake Superior, besides its fine navigable rivers, which, but for a short portage, would afford a natural passage from the Lakes to the Mississippi. Such advantages, especially those peculiar to the front on Lake Michigan, have been very favorable to the development of the resources of the country, and have invited to it a commerce which the most extravagant visionary could not have dreamed of ten years ago. Milwaukie and other towns have sprung up as if by magic, and have already become ports of considerable importance. In regard to Milwaukie, indeed, it is the rival of Chicago, and with the progress of settlement must become a great entrepôt between the north-west and the states to the eastward.

Wisconsin is engaged in several works of internal improvement which will add essentially to the commercial facilities of the state. The most important of these, perhaps, is the Portage Canal, which will, when completed, open a navigable channel from Green Bay to the Mississippi by way of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. The canal is very short, and its cost as nothing compared with the benefit it will afford to the neighboring communities. From Milwaukie, on Lake Michigan, railroads are being built towards the interior, and many others, chiefly connecting with these, are projected. The Milwaukie and Galena Railroad is about 70 miles long, and will form a

junction with the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad; and the Rock River line from Chicago will, following the valley of the Rock River, terminate at Fon du Lac, Plank-roads and macadamized-roads are already numerous, and in reference to plank-roads, few other states have greater means for making them, or a surface more fit for their establishment.

MADISON, the capital, is 159 miles from Chicago, and pleasantly situated on a peninsula between two lakes, on a gentle swell of ground from which there is a regular descent to the water. It is well laid out, the streets crossing each other at right angles, and having in their centre a large square, in the middle of which is the state-house, a handsome stone edifice. The town contains about 1,500 inhabitants.

MILWAUKIE is the largest and most important town in the state. It is situated on both sides of the Milwaukie River, near its entrance into Lake Michigan, 90 miles above Chicago, and is a very flourishing city. Previous to 1835, this city was a wilderness; its population in 1850 was 21,000. Constant steamboat communication from Milwaukie to Buffalo and other lake ports, is maintained, and the interior is reached by railroads and plankroads.

GREEN BAY, on the bay of the same name; RACINE and SHEYBOYGAN, on Lake Michigan; PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, on the Mississippi River, are growing towns, and will eventually become important to the commerce of the

Wisconsin originally belonged to the French, and formed part of that vast territory called New-France. It was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, and acquired by the United States at the close of the revolution. Few settlements were made in the territory previous to 1836, when it was erected into a separate territorial government. In 1848, having, after a prolonged opposition, voted itself a constitution, it was admitted into the Union as an independent state.

THE STATE OF KENTUCKY.

KENTUCKY, formerly a part of Virginia, and until explored by Daniel Boone, in 1770, a wilderness, is now one of the most populous and prosperous of the states of the American Union. It lies between the latitudes of 36° 30′ and 39° 10 North, and between the longitudes of 82° and 80° 35′ West. It is bounded on the north and north-west by the windings of the Ohio River, which separates it from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; east by the Big Sandy River, and the Cumberland Mountains, which separate it from Virginia; south by Tennessee, and west by the Mississippi, which separates it from Missouri. From east to west, it is 400 miles long, and from north to south, 175 broad; its area occupies 40,500 square miles, or 25,920,000

acres.

The outline of Kentucky, except on its southern border, is very irregular, and, as delineated on maps, has the appearance of a cumulated mountain. The only mountains are the Cumberland range, on the western borders of Virginia. The eastern counties are hilly, and the tract from five to twenty miles wide along the margin of the Ohio River, extending through the whole length of the state, is of a similar character, and much broken. The soil of these regions is good, and a part of this tract lying immediately

on the Ohio, averaging one mile in width, consists of bottom lands, and is subject to periodical inundations. Between this tract, the eastern counties and Green River, lies the "garden of the state." It is about 150 miles long, and from 50 to 100 miles wide. The surface of this district is agreeably undulating, and the soil black and friable. The natural growths are the black-walnut, black-cherry, honey-locust, buck-eye, paw-paw, sugarmaple, mulberry, elm, ash, cotton-wood, white thorn, &c. The country between Green and Cumberland rivers is called the "barrens." In 1800, the legislature of the state bestowed this tract gratuitously on actual settlers, under the impression that it was of little value; but it proved to be excellent grain land, and peculiarly well adapted to grazing and the rearing of cattle. The whole state, below the mountains, rests on an immense bed of limestone, usually about eight feet below the surface. There is everywhere apertures in this formation called "sinkholes," through which the waters of the rivers disappear into the earth. The waters for this reason are more diminished during the dry season than those of any other portion of the Union, and the small streams are entirely dried up and disappear. The banks of the rivers are natural curiosities; the streams have generally worn very deep channels in the calcareous rock over which they flow. The precipices formed by Kentucky River are, in many places awfully sublime, presenting perpendicular banks of 300 feet of solid limestone. In the southwest part of the state, between Green River and the Cumberland, there are several wonderful caves. One called the "Mammoth Cave," is said to be eight or nine miles long.

The staple productions of Kentucky are hemp, tobacco, wheat and Indian corn. Salt springs are numerous, and supply not only this state, but also Ohio and Tennessee with that mineral. Iron, bituminous coal, and granite are mined in considerable quantities in the eastern districts.

Kentucky is almost insulated by navigable rivers. The Big Sandy, which rises in the Cumberland Mountains, near the sources of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, forms the eastern boundary for nearly 200 miles. The Ohio forms the northern boundary for nearly 600 miles, and the Mississippi the western boundary. The Cumberland River rises in the mountains, and passes into the State of Tennessee, where it makes a circular bend, and returning to Kentucky, falls into the Ohio, 60 miles from its mouth. It is 600 miles long, and navigable for boats of 15 tons, 500 miles up. The Tennessee falls into the Ohio after winding southward from its source in Alabama, returns through Tennessee, and hence flows northward until it meets the Ohio, into which it falls, about 12 miles west of the Cumberland River. The principal rivers which lie wholly within the state are Green, Kentucky, and Licking, all of which fall into the Ohio, and are navigable for a considerable distance for boats.

Situated in the centre of the United States, on the table land of the western country, with the Alleghany Mountains to the eastward, and the high lands of Tennessee on the south, Kentucky enjoys a climate protected from all extremes, and is not excelled in salubrity by any other portion of North America. In Lexington, near the centre of the state, the heat of summer seldom exceeds 80° Fahrenheit, and in winter the temperature scarcely ever recedes below 250. The average annual temperature is about 58°. The whole of the state being, as above remarked, on a bed of limestone, and considerably elevated above the rivers, there are no swamps or