The principal trade is with the British and Americans. The island belongs to the Portuguese, and the inhabitants, estimated at 90,000, are almost wholly of Portuguese origin. Funchal is the capital of the island. Adjacent to Madeira are Porto Santo and the Desert isles. These, with Maderia itself, compose the group called the Madeiras. The AZORES or WESTERN ISLANDS, 9 in number, lie in the Atlantic ocean, almost midway between Europe, Asia and Africa. They extend from 37° to 40° N. lat. and from 25° to 32° W. lon. The principal islands in the group are St. Michael, Fayal and Tercera. The surface of these islands is covered with hills of various forms and dimensions, all, apparently, the product of volcanic agency. The most terrible convulsions of nature seem to have been exhibited here on a stupendous scale. The islands have been at different times laid waste by earthquakes, of which the most formidable on record is that of 1591, which continued 12 days without interruption. The traces of these shocks appear in the mountains, many of them having been split in two, leaving a wide path between. Another phenomenon, still more extraordinary, is that of new rocks or islands, which have repeatedly The effect of subterraemerged from the bosom of the ocean. neous fire is also visible in numerous hot springs. The soil throughout these islands is exceedingly fertile, producing wheat, barley and maize much beyond the consumption of the inhabitants, gether with vines, oranges, and other fruits. The best vines are raised on the lofty sides of mount Pico, which rises, in the island of the same name, to the height of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. Angra, the capital of Tercera, is the seat of government. The islands belong to the Portuguese, and the population, estimated at 160,000, is almost entirely of Portuguese origin. NORTHERN POLAR REGIONS. New Discoveries.] The regions within the Arctic circle have been rendered interesting from the recent discoveries effected by the expeditions sent out by the British government in search of a north-west passage. The most successful of these expedi tions was that under command of captain Parry, who left England in the spring of 1819, and passing through Davis's strait into Baffin's bay, reached the western shore of that bay in lat. 74° N. at a place which had been named by former voyagers Lancaster Sound. But instead of a Sound, captain Parry ascertained that It extends it was a strait, leading directly into the Polar sea. about 150 miles in a direction due east and west, the shores, bounding it to the north and south, being nearly parallel, at an average distance of 10 or 50 miles. To the now-ascertained strait the name of Barrow's strait was given. In this the water was deep, and clear from ice; but on entering the Polar sea, the barrier of ice preventing further progress westward, capt. Parry bent his course in a southerly direction, and entered a large Sound or inlet, 25 miles in breadth. Having sailed 120 miles down this inlet, the ships were obstructed by ice, and returned to the western extremity of Barrow's straits, where the ice was found broken up to such an extent that they were enabled to proceed westward, and the ships pursued their course between the parallels of 74° and 75°, passing a number of islands, one of which, in about 104° W. lon. they named Byam Martin island. Proceeding still westward, a very large island was discovered, extending from 106° to 114° W. lon. and from 74° 30′ to nearly 76° N lat. This island was called Melville island. The polar winter now commenced, and the ships anchored in a harbor on the south side of this island, where they were imprisoned by the ice during a period of 310 days. Having sailed again on the 6th of August, 1820, they reached the western extremity of Melville's island, in lon. 114° W. where, owing to the immense and impermeable barriers of ice, further progress became impossible, and the ships returned to England. Outline of the Ice.] The ice in the northern Polar regions fills, on an average, a circle around the north pole of about 2,000 miles in diameter, and presents an outline, which, though subject to partial variations, is found at the same season of each succeeding year, to be generally similar and often strikingly uniform. With each recurring spring it presents the following general outline. Filling the bays of Hudson and Baffin, as well as the straits of Hudson and part of that of Davis, it exhibits an irregular, waving, but generally continuous line, from Newfoundland or Labrador to Nova Zembla.—From Newfoundland it extends in a northerly direction along the Labrador shore, generally preventing all access to the land as high as the mouth of Hudson's strait; then, turning to the N. E. forms a bay near the coast of Greenland, in lat. perhaps 66° or 67° by suddenly passing in a southerly direction to cape Farewell at the extremity of Greenland. The quantity of ice on the east side of Davis's strait, being often small, the continuity of its border is liable to be broken, so as to admit of ships reaching the land: and sometimes the bay of ice in 6° or 67° does not exist, but the sea is open up the strait to a considerable distance beyond it.-After doubling the southern promontory, or cape Farewell, the line advances in a N. E. course along the east coast, sometimes enveloping Iceland as it proceeds, until it reaches the island of Jan Mayen. Passing this island on the N. W. but frequently inclosing it, the edge of the ice then tends a little more to the east, and usually intersects the meridian of London, between 71° and 73° N. lat. Having reached the meridian of 6° or 8° E. lon. in 73° or 74° N. lat. it forms a remarkable promontory, and suddenly stretches to the north, sometimes proceeding on a meridian to the lat. of 80° N.: at other times, after running 2 or 3 degrees to the north, it turns and runs S.E. to Cherie island, thus forming a deep bay. After passing Cherie island it assumes a more direct course a little S. of E. until it forms a junc tion with the Siberian or Nova Zemblan coast. To the east of Nova Zembla, the ice, during the winter and spring, seems closely to embrace the whole of the northern shores of Russia, and filling in a great measure Bebring's strait and the sea north of it, continues in contact with the polar face of the American continent. That remarkable promontory, midway between Jan Mayen and Cherie islands, formed by the sudden stretch of the ice to the north constitutes the line of separation between the east or whaling and the west or sealing ice of the fishers. The deep bay lying to the east of this promontory may be called the Whale fisher's bay, and invariably forms the only pervious tract for pro ceeding to the most northerly fishing latitudes. When the ice at the extremity of this bay is so strong and compact as to prevent the approach to the shores of Spitzbergen, and the advance northward beyond the lat. of 75° or 76° it is said to be a close season ; and on the contrary, it is an open season, when the navigation is uninterrupted along the whole western coast of Spitzbergen. In an open season, therefore, a large channel of water lies between the western coast of Spitzbergen and the ice, from 20 to 50 leagues in breadth, and extending to the latitude of 79° or 80° N. -The place where whales occur in the greatest abundance is generally found to be in 78° or 79° N. lat.-In close seasons, though the ice joins the southern part of Spitzbergen, and thus forms a barrier against the fishing stations, yet it is often of limited extent, from 20 to 30 or 40 leagues across in the shortest diameter, and beyond this is an open sea forming the retreat of the whales. This formidable barrier, whenever it occurs, is regularly encountered by the whale ships in the month of April, though it costs the fisherman immense labor and anxiety to penetrate it. It is generally removed by natural means as the season advances, so that he rarely meets with any difficulty in his return. GENERAL TABLE. Showing the number of square miles of each state in the Union; the population in 1820; the average population on a square mile; the estimated value of manufactures in 1810; the value of houses and lands in 1815; and the time when each state was admitted into the Union. Maine, 31,750 298,335 10 Va. Dollars. D. C. 1820 38,745,974 172 52 +143,765,560+190 22 20,907,766 264 63 88,534,971 332 83 32,461,120 144 911791 269,870,900 244 88 95,899,333 374 60 346,633,889 389 47 13,449,370 186 79 106,496,638 273 76 6,653,15211 98 51,517,031 88 36 74,325,262 165 13 300,000 12 50 1816 N. C. 48,000 638,829 13 419,07313 51 1,222,35716 08 3,611,029 13 83 6,181,024 15 22 2,894,290 12 58 '172,762,67617 951,631,657,224 230_00 Remarks, The numbers in the fifth column, showing the value of the manufactures in 1810, are an estimate, made by Mr. Tench Coxe of Philadelphia, and founded principally upon the official returns made to the government. These returns were in many cases very imperfect, and the deficiency was supplied by the estimate of Mr. Coxe, at the request of the Secretary of the Treas Proportion of When admitted ury. The numbers in the sixth column are obtained by dividing the estimated value of the manufactures in each state by its population. They enable us, of course, to determine at a single view which state manufactures most in proportion to its population.---The numbers in the eighth column are obtained by dividing the value of houses and lands in 1815 by the population. They show us at a single glance in which states the inhabitants on an ave¬ rage are most wealthy, so far as real estate is concerned. Questions. 1. Which is the largest state in the Union ? 2. Which is the smallest ? 3. Which states contain less than 10,000 square miles? 4. Which states contain more than 30,000? 5. Which state contains the greatest population? 6. Mention the five next in the order of their population. 7. Which of the states is most thickly settled? 8. Which next? 9. Which next? 10. Mention the states that contain less than 10 on a square mile. 11. Mention those that contain more than 30. 12. Which state is the first in the value of manufactures? 13. Which next 14. Which next? 15. Which state manufactures most in proportion to its population? 16. Which next? 17. Which next? 18. In which state is the value of houses and lands the greatest? 19. In which state are the inhabitants most wealthy so far as real estate is concerned? 20. In which, next? 21. In which, next? 22. How much real estate has each individual in the Union, on an average? 23. Mention the names of the thirteen original states. 24. Mention the names of the new states in the order in which they were admitted into the Union. |