BOOK tially through the western States. It forms the staple of XXIX. Maryland and Virginia. Cotton grows as far north as 39°,

Animals.

but its cultivation is not profitable beyond the latitude of 37°. This useful plant was first raised for exportation only in 1791. It is now produced in immense quantities from the river Roanoke to the Mississippi, and forms the leading export of the United States. The best grows in dry situations in Carolina and Georgia upon the sea coast. The rice crops, which require a great heat, and a soil susceptible of irrigation, commence about the same parallel, and have nearly the same geographical range. The sugar eane grows in low and warm situations, as high as the latitude of 33°, but the climate favourable to its cultivation does not extend beyond $13°. It is now cultivated to a great extent in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Dr. Morse states, that in Louisiana alone 20,000,000 of pounds of sugar were raised in 1817, when the whole quantity consumed in the republic was estimated at 70,000,000 of pounds. Oats, rye, and barley are raised in all the northern and middle States. The oats are used for horses food, the barley chiefly for breweries, and the rye for distillation. Hemp and flax are raised in the Western States. The vine thrives as far north as Pennsylvania, but home wines are only made yet to a very limited extent. Natural meadows are more numerous in New England and New York than in the parts farther south. Pennsylvania is distinguished by its superior breeds of horses and horned cattle. Merinos of full and mixed blood are now spread over the northern, middle, and western States.*

The bison, American ox, or buffalo, though it has an eminence on its back, is a distinct species from the Zebu of India and Africa, or the slightly humped Anerochs of northern Europe. The American ox has always the neck, the shoulders, and the under part of the body covered with long rough hair; it has a long beard under the chin; and

Warden's Introduction, p. 29.

the tail does not reach to the houghs. It differs widely BOOK also from the small musk ox of the extreme northern parts LXXIX. of the American continent, which has a resemblance, in the singular form of its horns, to the buffalo of the Cape. The moose-deer, which is found from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is now rare in the inhabited parts of the United States. It is a gigantic animal, sometimes twelve feet high. The elk, and the red deer, and the caribou, which is probably the reindeer, are also found. There are two species of bear, the one short-legged, living chiefly on vegetables, the other called the ranging bear, which destroys calves, sheep, pigs, and sometimes children. The wolf is also found in all the States, and is very destructive to cattle. The catamount, of the size of a large dog, and the spotted tiger, five or six feet long, both voracious animals, are rare. The cougar, or American panther, is more common.

No mines of gold (a) or silver of any importance have yet Minerals. been discovered in the United States; but the useful metals are in general abundantly distributed. Some of the ores of iron are found in almost every State; and mines of this metal are worked in New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The number of furnaces, forges, and bloomeries in 1810, was 530, and the value of the iron manufactured annually, was estimated at twelve or fifteen millions of dollars. The United States are supplied with copper chiefly from Mexico and other foreign countries, but ores of this metal exist in most of the States, and in the north-west territory are said to be in great abundance in situations of easy access. Lead is chiefly procured from Missouri, where forty-five mines are worked, and yield three millions of pounds annually. Of coal there is a large field twenty miles long by ten broad, twelve miles from Richmond, which has been long worked.

(a) [Gold mines, found in North Carolina, have recently excited considerable interest.-AM. ED.

BOOK This useful mineral is also found at various places in New LXXIX. England, New York, and Pennsylvania. But the most

abundant supply is on the west side of the Alleghanies, where a coal formation, one of the largest in the world, extends, with some interruption, from the western foot of the mountains across the Mississippi. Salt is chiefly obtained from the sea, or imported in the eastern States; but brine springs (a) abound over the great valley of the Mississippi, from the Alleghanics to the Rocky Mountains, and in some situations on the western side of the valley, plains occur of many miles in circuit, which are periodically covered with a thick crust of salt.*

(a) [The brine springs, at Salina, near the Erie Canal, in the state of New York, about 150 miles W. by N. of Albany, have hitherto been the most productive in the United States. The quantity of salt manufactured at these springs, amounted, in the year ending November 1824, to 820,962 bushels; and in the year ending November, 1825, to 736,622 bushels.]—Am. ED.

BOOK LXXX.

171

AMERICA.

Description of the United States continued.-Topography and
Statistics of the several States.

HAVING described the limits and extent of Federal Ame- BOOK
rica generally, and completed our sketch of its physical LXXX.
geography, we have now to speak a little more in detail of
the several States which compose the republic.

The American Federation embraces at present (1824) twenty-four distinct States, each ruled by its own government; three (a) territories, in which civil governments are established without constitutions; and three other territories yet unoccupied by a civilized population. A view of the extent, population, commerce, &c. of the whole will be found in the tables subjoined to this article.

If we attend to the distinctions which exist among these various states and territories, founded on their physical circumstances, or the pursuits and character of the people, we may class them into four grand groups; first, New England, embracing the Six States east of the Hudson, which is the most thickly peopled, and the most commercial section of the Union. Second, the Middle States, including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in which the agricultural character is united with, and qualified by the commercial. Thirdly, the Southern States, including Virginia and all the maritime country to the Mississippi, where the amount of commerce

(a) [Besides the District of Columbia.]—Am. En.

BOOK is comparatively small, where slaves are numerous, and the LXXX. husbandmen are generally planters. Fourth, the Western

Maine.

New

Hampshire.

States, in the basin of the Ohio, enjoying the best soil and climate in the United States, where there are few slaves, and where the character of the people is almost purely agricultural. We shall begin with the first class.

Maine embraces an area of 32,000 square miles. It contains much poor soil along the coast, and many barren mountains in the interior. The climate, though severe, having five months of frost and snow, is remarkably healthy. Wheat, rye, oats, and barley are cultivated, but pasturage and the feeding of cattle are leading objects of attention. The manufactures are chiefly domestic, and were estimated at 2,158,000 dollars in 1810. The inhabitants carry on commerce with much activity, and possess a greater amount of tonnage than the State of Pennsylvania. The chief exports are timber, and fish. Maine was a (a) dependency of Massachusetts till 1820, when it received a constitution as an Independent State, and became a member of the federal body. The population, which in 1790 amounted only to 96,540, was found to be 298,335 in 1820. Portland, its chief town, which has a fine harbour, contained at the last mentioned date 8581 inhabitants. The Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives, are all elected annually, by the male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one and upwards. There are schools in almost every township, besides twenty-five academies in the more populous places. The prevailing religious sects are the congregationalists and baptists. There are some methodists, episcopalians, catholics, and universalists. The people are moral, active, industrious, and enterprising.*

New Hampshire lies between Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and embraces an area of 9280 square miles. The surface in the interior rises into mountains, which are

(a) [Maine formed an integral part of the State of Massachusetts till 1820.]

AM. ED.

*This and the following statistical sketches of the various States are taken from Mr. Melish's work, ed. 1822, Dr. Morse's ed. 1819, and Mr. Warden's book, printed in 1819, with the addition of a few facts taken from recent English travellers.