sissippi, and north of the State of
Missouri, was ceded by the Sauk Indians, Sept. 1832. It now contains
about 6000 inhabitants.

Probably there is no portion of the globe, of equal extent, that
contains as much of soil fit for cultivation, and which is capable of
sustaining and supplying with all the necessaries and conveniences, and
most of the luxuries of life, so dense a population as this great
Valley. Deducting one third of its surface for water and desert, which
is a very liberal allowance, and there remains 866,667 square miles, or
554,666,880 acres of arable land.

Let it become as populous as Massachusetts, which contains 610,014
inhabitants on an area of 7,800 square miles, or seventy-eight to every
640 acres, and the population of this immense region will amount to
67,600,000. The child is now born which will live to see this result.
Suppose its population to become equally dense with England, including
Wales, which contains 207 to the square mile, and its numbers will
amount to 179,400,000. But let it become equal to the Netherlands, the
most populous country on the globe, containing 230 to the square mile,
and the Valley of the Mississippi teems with a population of 200
millions, a result which may be had in the same time that New England
has been gathering its two millions. What reflections ought this view to
present to the patriot, the philanthropist, and the christian.

_Physical Features._ The physical features of this Valley are peculiar.

1. It includes two great inclined planes, one on its eastern, and the
other on its western border, terminating with the Mississippi.

2. This river receives all the waters produced on these slopes, which
are discharged by its mouths into the gulf of Mexico.

3. Every part of this vast region can be penetrated by steamboats, or
other water craft; nor is there a spot in all this wide region,
excepting a small district in the vast plains of Upper Missouri, that is
more than one hundred miles from some navigable water. A boat may take
in its lading on the banks of the Chatauque lake, in the State of New
York; another may receive its cargo in the interior of Virginia; a third
may start from the rice lakes at the head of the Mississippi; and a
fourth may come laden with furs from the Chippewan mountains, 2,800
miles up the Missouri, and all meet at the mouth of the Ohio, and
proceed in company to the ocean.

4. With the exception of its eastern and western border