grounds around, present objections to a dense
population at present.

The bottoms of Illinois, where not inundated, are equal in fertility,
and the soil is less adhesive than most parts of the American bottom.
This is likewise the character of the bottoms in the northern parts of
the State.

The bottoms of the Kaskaskia are generally covered with a heavy growth
of timber, and in many places inundated when the river is at its highest
floods.

The extensive prairies adjoining, will create a demand for all this
timber. The bottom lands on the Wabash are of various qualities. Near
the mouth, much of it is inundated. Higher up it overflows in high
freshets.

These bottoms, especially the American are the best regions in the
United States for raising stock, particularly horses, cattle, and swine.
Seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre is an ordinary crop. The roots
and worms of the soil, the acorns and other fruits from the trees, and
the fish of the lakes, accelerate the growth of swine. Horses and cattle
find exhaustless supplies of grass in the prairies; and pea vines,
buffalo grass, wild oats, and other herbage in the timber, for summer
range; and often throughout most of the winter. In all the rush bottoms,
they fatten during the severe weather on rushes. The bottom soil is not
so well adapted to the production of small grain, as of maize or Indian
corn, on account of its rank growth, and being more subject to blast, or
fall down before harvest, than on the uplands.

3. _Prairies._ Much the largest proportion is undulating, dry, and
extremely fertile. Other portions are level, and the soil in some cases
proves to be wet;--the water, not running off freely, is left to be
absorbed by the soil, or evaporated by the sun. Crawfish throw up their
hillocks in this soil, and the farmer who cultivates it, will find his
labors impeded by the water.

In the southern part, that is, south of the National road leading from
Terre Haute to the Mississippi, the prairies are comparatively small,
varying in size from those of several miles in width, to those which
contain only a few acres. As we go northward, they widen and extend on
the more elevated ground between the water courses to a vast distance,
and are frequently from six to twelve miles in width. Their borders are
by no means uniform. Long points of timber project into the prairies,
and line the banks of the streams, and points of prairie project into
the timber betwee