This vast country, though peopled with ten millions of inhabitants, still presents, to the eye of a European, the general aspect of a boundless forest. Volney, who visited the United States in 1796, describes the woods as covering the surface to the sea shore, interrupted by open spaces, formed by brackish marshes, and by the cultivated tracts around the cities, but growing thicker and thicker as you advance into the interior. In the region west of the Alleghanies, the forest is still less broken by cultivation than on the east, but large openings, called prairies, occur, covered only by low shrubs, the trees being either destroyed by the ancient conflagrations of the savages, or their growth prevented by the nature of the soil. In such newly settled districts, growing wood is considered as an encumbrance to be removed, rather than a commodity to be advantageously disposed of. This circumstance has given a bias to the natural taste which surprises a European. Trees, which, in other countries, are considered essential to the beauty of a landscape, are here, generally, regarded as a deformity or a nuisance. Though the population of the United States has doubled since Volney wrote, and the clearing of land, with other improvements, has increased in a much higher ratio, a recent traveller describes Connecticut, one of the most densely peopled states in the Union, as having half its surface uncultivated. But this is, in some measure, the consequence of the rapid progress of the country. Wood, besides all its other uses, supplies the inhabitants with fuel, and has already acquired such a value in the neighbourhood of towns, that

land covered with trees brings as high a price as cleared land of a good quality.

The Alleghany chain is more remarkable for its length and breadth than its height. Perhaps there is no tract of country in the world, that preserves the mountain character over so great a space, with so small an elevation. The mean height of the Alleghanies Proper, is only from 2000 to 8000 feet, about one-half of which consists of the elevation of the mountains above their base; and the other half, of the elevation of the adjoining country above the sea. To this height, the country rises by an irregular but al most imperceptible acclivity, from the ocean, at the distance of 200 or 300 miles on the one side, and from the channel of the Mississippi, at an equal distance, and by a still more gentle acclivity, on the other. A gradual elevation of 1000 or 1200 feet, upon a horizontal surface of 200 or 300 miles, would give the surface of the country, on the eastern side, an average rise of from three to four feet in the mile, and from two to three feet on the western side, making allowance for the height of the channel of the Mississippi. This small degree of inclination accounts for the great extent of inland navigation which the United States enjoy. Besides, the beds of the rivers are generally lower than the country near their banks, and their / winding course also lessens the rapidity of their descent. In the northern parts of the Union, however, from the greater proximity of the mountains to the sea, the descent is more rapid, the navigation shorter, and more obstructed. By the course of the Missis

sippi, Ohio, and Alleghany rivers, vessels ascend over an inclined plane of 2400 miles in length, to an elevation perhaps of 1200 or 1400 feet, without the help of canals or locks. The situation of Europe, as to inland navigation, is extremely different. The Danube, the largest river in its southern division, descends from the Alps, which have a mean elevation of 9000 or 10,000 feet, and after a course of 1600 or 1800 miles, falls into the Black Sea. Its course is not much more than two-thirds of that of the American rivers above mentioned, while its source is nearly three times higher, implying a rate of descent four or five times greater. The navigation of the Danube is, accordingly, confined to detached portions of its course. The highest summits of the Norwegian chain, which traverses a peninsula of from 250 to 450 miles in breadth, are about 8100 feet. The Pyrenees rise, in some parts, to 12,000, and have a mean height of 8000 feet. The different ridges which intersect the interior of Spain have an elevation from 3000 to 10,000 feet. greatest height of the Apennines is 7800 feet. The Carpathian mountains, which, from their situation, have a better title than the Alps to be considered as the central ridge of Southern Europe, rise 8600 feet above the sea; their mean elevation may probably be 5000 feet. The mean height of mount Hæmus, which may be considered as a prolongation of the Alps, is probably as great. And as the breadth of Europe, from the Adriatic and Egean Seas, to the nearest point of the Baltic, is from 700 to 1000 miles, we have, within that distance, two chains of mountains

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of 5000 feet elevation, and these mountains give rise to four series of rivers; one series flowing to the Baltic, and one to the Gulfs of the Mediterranean, while the Danube, occupying the bottom of the central valley, is the common receptacle of the other two. Thus, the surface of Europe is every where broken by high mountains placed near the sea, and near one another; the vallies are, consequently, narrow and steep in their sides, and the courses of the rivers short and rapid. On the other hand, the breadth of the North American continent, from the ocean to the Mississippi, at the latitude of 40°, is above 800 miles, and in this space there is but one chain of mountains, and this chain has but about one-half of the elevation of the two mountain chains included within a similar space in Europe. The American rivers, consequently, fall only from half the altitude in a course of twice the length, and their rate of descent must, therefore, be, generally speaking, but one-fourth of that of the others. Yet the Alleghany chain, though so much lower than the European mountains, exceeds them all in length, and probably in breadth. As the plain country eastward of the Mississippi may be considered as a prolongation of the sides or declivities of the Alleghanies, so the country westward of that river may be considered as a prolongation of the sides of the Rocky mountains. From the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, at the parallel of 40°, is about 1450 miles, and the Rocky mountains, which crown this gradually swelling surface, rise only to the height of 9000 feet. This is an elevation three times as great as that of the Alleghanies, and it is remarkable, that the

Mississippi, which is the common reservoir of the streams descending from both, is about three times farther from the higher chain than from the lower, so that the declivity on both sides of the immense basin, included between these mountains, is nearly the same, and the streams flowing from the Rocky mountains are as susceptible of navigation as those from the Alleghanies. This peculiarity in the surface of the North American mountains is undoubtedly an advantage. Had the mountains been lower, they would not have afforded a sufficient declivity to carry off the waters from a continent of such a breadth. Had they been higher, they would have given these waters too rapid a descent for the purposes of navigation; a part of the soil would have been consigned to the dominion of eternal frost, another part rendered incapable of cultivation from its steepness, and a barrier would have been placed between the sections of the population on their opposite sides. In a community, held toge ther by no other ties than those of mutual advantage, common views, and common interests, the influence of such a circumstance is not to be disregarded.

With regard to soil, the territory of the United States may be classed under five grand divisions. 1. That of the New England states, beyond the Hudson, where the Alleghanies spread out into a broken hilly country. The soil here is, in general, rocky, has but little depth, is barren in many places, and better adapted for pasture than tillage. 2. The sandy soil of the sea shore, commencing from Long Island, and extending to the Mississippi, with a breadth varying from thirty to a hundred miles. This tract, from the