as I could ascertain there never had been a coaching-time, except for
short distances. The long ones were done by waggons, at the rate of,
say, fifteen miles a day, the passengers sleeping in or under the
said vehicles at night. From New York to California at that time took
a good six months. It is now done by the direct route in something
less than that number of days.

Louisiana, the first state we traversed on leaving New Orleans, is an
uninteresting and swampy country, and must be very unhealthy. The
vegetation is luxurious and semi-tropical. Mosquitoes exist in
swarms. Some of the jungle we passed through (it has that character)
reminded me of the jungles in the south-east of Bengal. Louisiana
cannot be a good state for emigrants.

Texas, the next, is very different. No swamps, indeed not much water.
Vast and interminable plains of grass, very thinly inhabited, and
almost entirely destitute of trees. The soil in many parts seemed
good; the climate, though hot, is not bad, and millions of emigrants
might find homes here. This is the largest cattle-breeding state, and
the ranches there are of enormous size. I have said much on this head
previously, so we need not linger here.

New Mexico comes next. We only traversed a corner of this; it was all
desert, and from this point, all through Arizona and well into
California, there was nothing else as far as the eye could reach on
either side but sand, sand, desert sand, and not a drop of water. If
I remember right, we were nearly two days and nights traversing it. I
was astonished beyond measure; I had read much about the United
States, and I knew that there was a desert around Salt Lake, the
abode of the Mormons, but I had never heard of any other. When later,
both from what I saw and what was told me, I found that a very
considerable part of the States is desert, I wondered more that such
a great and important fact is not at all known in England, and that
none of the numerous writers on America have brought it forward.[5]
In the following, I may in one or two cases be open to correction,
but substantially I know I am right, for most cases are the result of
my own experience.

A great, if not the best part of Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, and Utah
are mostly desert.

More or less of California and New Mexico are the same.

A small part of Daho and Texas may, I believe, be included, but my
information on these is from hearsay.

There may be much more than the above.