bushels corn; 207,948 do. wheat; 666 do. beans; 500 do. flaxseed; 1,847 do. barley; 32,821 bbls. flour; 384 do. whiskey; 1,643 tons pork, bacon and lard; 150 tons hay; 23 do. dry hides-which is found to be equal to 14,250 tons at an average of $6, is $71,250.

"Number of steamboat arrivals, 524.

"Number of cabin passengers from St. Louis to Burlington, estimated to be 10 to each arrival, 5,230, at an average of $5 each,

Number of deck passengers, estimated at 15 to each arrival, 7,845, at an average of $2 50,

Number of horses, carriages, wagons, &c., 1,000, at an average fare of $5,

$25,150 00

19,612 50

5,000 00

$144,668 50

From which deduct the probable amount of freight and fare if the obstructions were removed from the

Rapids, viz., 3,776 tons freight imported at $2 50 14,250 tons freight exported at $2

5,230 cabin passengers at $3

$9,440 00

28,500 00

15,690 00

11,767 50

$79,151 00

To which should be added for losses by detention arising from re-shipping, towing and additional insu

rance,

For loss of keel and flatboats, and their cargoes, For depreciation in value of all surplus which finds a market through this point, estimated to be, the present year, $504,000, at 10 per cent.,

Estimated loss to steamboat owners, merchants and Insurance offices from stranded boats and loss of cargoes, which your committee have not the means of ascertaining, say,

10,000 00

10,500 00

50,040 00

$10,000 00

$159,691 00

"The steamboat arrivals at St. Louis from the Upper Mississippi, for five years, were as follows:

The city of Galena, situated in the north-western part of Illinois, on a small tributary of the Mississippi, about 700 miles above St. Louis, and in the vicinity of the lead mines, exports more than any other town above St. Louis, on the Mississippi. Its exports of lead amounted in 1846 to 672,420 pigs, worth about $2,225,000; exports of copper, about $22,000; lumber about $100,000; hides about $14,000; wheat, 150,000 bushels. In 1844, there were 308 steamboat arrivals, of 53,900 tons, in 1846, 333 arrivals, with 58,275 tons.

The country of the upper Mississippi, tributary to St. Louis, may be considered as including Missouri, the northwestern half of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with a vast tract of unsettled country lying still further to the north and west. With the exception of the settlements in the immediate vicinity of St. Louis, nearly the whole of this tract was a wilderness twenty years ago; a large portion of it within fifteen years. Thirty years ago there were scarcely any inhabitants in Illinois north of Vandalia, which is on the same parallel with St. Louis; and the Indians had the sole possession of Iowa. The writer traversed extensive tracts of that country, between the years 1820 and 1830, while it was yet untrodden save by the foot of the hunter and the Indian, and while the native forest and prairie retained their pristine character, un

changed by the hand of cultivation. In 1846 Mr. Bradford, in his "Notes on the North Western States," estimates the population at seven hundred and fifty thousand souls, and it may now be safely set down at one million.

This wide region is an almost unbroken plain of rich land. There is no range of mountains within it, and scarcely a tract that could properly be called hilly. Vast plains, sometimes level, often beautifully rolling or undulating, composed of a rich dark loam, of unsurpassed productiveness, spread on every hand. It is the region of the broad prairie-the paradise of flowers and wild honey bees.

The whole of this extensive country is peculiarly congenial to the growth of wheat and other small grain. Not only is the product of the wheat crop large, but the grain remarkably fine; the flour of the St. Louis market being fully equal to that of Baltimore, heretofore considered the best in the Union. The crops of the Indian corn are scarcely less abundant and fine, this region being, in regard to that grain, inferior only to the country lying immediately south of it. The actual products of these grains over so wide a surface is immense; and the quantities of beef, pork, and whisky are consequently great. In the northern parts of this district, the potatoes are excellent, and very productive; and in the southern parts hemp and tobacco are among the great staples.

Lead, iron, and copper are very abundant. The lead mines are sufficiently extensive and productive to supply the world. The iron mountain, of Missouri, is a stupendous mass of that mineral, in so pure a state that the ore is taken from the mine, without the intermediate process of smelting, directly to the forge, and wrought into fabrics of iron. The wife of a distinguished senator from

Missouri presented to President Van Buren a very handsome knife, made in that manner from the ore of the iron mountain, by a blacksmith of the country.

The copper mines have but lately begun to be worked. There is no doubt, however, that the metal exists in great abundance, and is destined to become an important staple for trade and manufacture. Zinc also is found in great plenty, though not brought into use.

CHAPTER VIII.

Western steamboats-origin and early history to the year 1832list of steamboats navigating the Western rivers down to 1832.

When we consider the unexampled rapidity with which the Western States have acquired population and importance, we are surprised, not only at that fact, but at the inadequate ideas which have heretofore prevailed as to the magnitude and resources of this country. We are a traveling and a calculating people, and it seems strange that those who visited the Western wilds in early times should not have foreseen the events which have since transpired. That they did make golden reports, we are aware; but contrary to all experience in similar cases, those reports have fallen far short of the truth, and all that has been dreamed and prophesied in relation to this region, by its most sanguine admirers, has been more than realised. When a few hunters, encamped in the forests of Kentucky, heard the rumor of the battle of Lexington, and gave that name to the spot on which they reposed, how little could they have imagined, that within the duration of one human life, a town of excelling beauty, and a population remarkable for its intelligence and refinement, would spring to maturity in these shades-or that in the wilderness beyond them, a population would grow up within the same period, superior in number to that which was then contending for independence, against the most