The New York Herald Newspaper, June 17, 1854, Page 2

Iines, flanked by buttes and knebs and trees, mark the windings of the streams. Upon the prairies the tall rich grasses occasionally cover warface for miles and miles together, scarce rupted by anything else; then the wayfarer will bunches and zig-zag lines of alder, of hazle, and terlaced vines and briars; and, again, large 8 will be invested by bouquets of wild roses and flash- ing flowers, filling the air with fragrant odors, and outvieing in grace and beanty the rarest exotics. There the gentle harebell, the carnation rose, the blue violet, the gaudy piony, the modest daisy, the simple buttercup, the fragrant sweet briar, the pur- ple amorpba, and an endless variety of shrubs and flowers, are set as gems upon the deep green ver- dure of the plains, delighting the eye with their brilliant hues, and enriching the imagination with gorgeous pictures of grace, beauty, and grandeur. The face of the country presents a nearly uniform succession of ridges-and valleys, marked by curved lines, nowhere expanding into dead flats, save in the river bottoms, broken into knobs and bluffs slong ‘the streams, and along the entire skirts of the bot- toms, but nevertoo much so to prevent a profuse growth of grass everywhere. The soil from one ‘hundred and fifty to two hundred miles westward and south of the Platte river has nearly the charac- ‘teristics of that of the adjoining States. From the Ar- ‘kansas boundary to the cross timbers, the highlands sare fertile and beautifully variegated with open prai- wies and tufts of forest trees and gladea,with an occa- gional intermixture of small spots too flatand marshy Yich loam, in aome places subject to inundation, but for the moat part tillable. That portion adjacent to the boundary of the State of Missouri, including the pources of the Neostro, the Verdigris, the Marais de Cygne, and other tributaries of the Osage, and the Jower section of the Kansas river, is unparagoned for the fertility of its soil, the value of its timber nod forest trees, the beauty of its rolling prairies and broad valleys, the number of its peilucid' streams and rivulets, and the salubrity of ita climate. Though this first section of the great Western Territory is more scant of timber than the adjoining States, it sequal them in fertility and water courses, and sur- passes them in the purity of its atmosphere. Travel- ling due west from Independence, in the State of Missouri, this dark, fertile soil, ceases at Sandy Creek, a tributary of the Kansas; moving on the route to Santa Fe, it commences deteriorating at Council Grove, near the Neostro river, and becomes more sterile thence to the Arkansas; and farthér North it is intersected by the Platte river, with its double line of sterile bluffs. It is remarkable that this change of soil is not gradual, but sudden and palpable to the most careless observer. At Sandy Creek and at Council Grove the traveller sees the last timber trees, properly so called, until he ap- proaches the spires of the Rocky Mountains ; and at deste points the caravans of emigrants and traders usually make a pause to provide themselves with timber to rectify any accident which may occur to their wagons. South of Platte river this fertile district is con- tiguous to one directly west of it, where the soil is so intermixed with sand as scarcely to be percepti- ‘ble, save in its luxuriant grasses, which extends several hundred miles towards the mountains, and is again succeeded by a bench of fertile soil in the vicin.ty of them. _ The valleys of the Platte, Arkan- ‘gas, Kansas and Red rivers consist generally of rich alluvion, freely interspersed with sand; and the high dividing ridges between these great streams become more sterile as we recede from the waters, ‘until upon their summits the grasses become stunted, and present a withered and sickly appearance. North of th> Platte river, and adjacent to the first district, and between its north and south forks, the whole soil is largely intermixed with a formation of | marl and earthy limestone, so tenacious in some places as to be nearly as much indurated and give the appearance of the yellow soapstone of our streams; but this extensive district is also inter- | sected by ridges, not of desert, but of poor soil. It is in this district that what are called buétes by the | French, and cerros by the Spaniards, make their | appearance. Custom has, however, enlarged these terms to include what we denominate bluffs and knobs. It is as if the whole surface had suddenly aud regularly sunk, leaving points and portions of various sizes and forms from twenty to three hun- Gred feet above the plains. The sides of these buttes { gre nearly perpendicular, and their upper surfaces | flat and covered with grass, and sometimes trees. ‘This is the formation of which what are popularly called the Court House, the Cathedral, ani the chimneys in the valley of the Platte, are composed. ; mouth of the Yellow Stone. | low these highlands. Bay. mapetcus, River of the of the Hauteurs de |, and vast Jacques and Missouri Noccolet the Plateau soil is a mixtu: co Wank Ba, Ree 00 8 aS about 500 feet above the river. with a short, sweet-scented verdure. It ex- tends indefinitely north and northwest. & united with lees from with e by. of sulphate nesia. The rivers of this region the Mississippi are now too well known that the tributaries of the nomber, and that springs and rivulets are of much rarer occurrence than within the States. The wanderer is seldom without water of some kind more than one or two days, but he is Sroquentiy com- pelled to content himself with a draught from small poe and slews. Intervals of many miles between fountains and brooks are of juent occurrence. This sparsity of streams is, no doubt, attributable to the rapid tion on these elevated plains, which rise ually from one thousand to six thou- sand feet above the Mexican Gulf. It is also remark- ably deficient in ‘water privileges.”” The conforma- tion of the soil bordering the streams is unfavorable to the construction of locks and dams, and there are few places where water power could be obtained. From my observations, a8 well as from information received from many others of excellent practical sense, I have no doubt that windmills might be con- structed almost anywhere in this territory, which would run a long period, and with as much certain- | more abundant in the vicinity of the mountains, and | within their spurs rapid torents rush through the fissures of the rocks, or leap in snow-white cascades from their summits. The Missouri river runs a course of more than-3,000 miles from the junction of its three headstreams, the Gallatin, the Madison and the Jefferson. It has been navi Great Falls, about one hundred miles above the the first five hundred miles, the river flows through a valley varying in width from three to six miles. This valley is bordered by a ridge of highlands on each side, in some places seeming to be continuous, and at others cut into segments and bluffs. The valley has a depth of one hundred and fifty feet be- The whole of it is an alluvial deposit. From the summit of the highlands the sur- face slswly ascends towards the plains on the north and south, and probably at no great distance these valley. Major Long made an erroneous guess that the soil would be found to be confined to the vicinity of the river. The soil is generally good, indefinitel’ noth, and would have been so indefinitely sout! but for the interposition of the Ozark mountains. From the Kanias to the Nodaway the highlands are continuous, and generally about eight miles asun- disappear, and they again approach some miles skirt the stream close P. as high as Council Blaffs. Above Council Bluffs the highlands diminish, and recede for two hundred miles. The valley continues to become narrower to the mountains, and the high- lands, after passing Calumet Bluff become lower, until the spurs of the mountains are entered. The lower portions of the river are thickly bor- dered with forest and timber trees. mouth of the Platte few timber trees are found, and at intervals the river flows many miles through an open prairie. For a considerable distance above the | Platte the soil of the river bottom is a deep al- | luvion, and the highlands, for many miles north ard south, is very fertile, much more so than was They are sc called because at some miles distance they bear a rude resemblance to the structures from | which they are named. Col. Fremont has only | ° ped one of the chimney rocks, of which he | Gives a lithograph. There were two in the summer | of 1843, | As the tallest of these is one of the grand | landmarks of traders and hunters, it should be men- | tioned that it is (or was) about two hundred feet | see Between the forks of Platte river, at a place called Goshen’s Hole, this formation has been work- | ed by the elements into an extraordinary imitation of a massive fortification. At a little distance it | strikingly resembles masonry, and it sweeps round | an area of some three hundred yards in diameter in | the form of a half moon, terminating in immense | bastions, with domes and minarets along the whole | line of the parapets. The formation juts for some distance across the south fork of the Platte, pre- eenting a variety of strange and fantastical forms. On the head waters of White river, a tributary of ‘the Missouri, there,is a youce of near thirty miles in diameter broken into buttes and towers. Some miles off the traveller sees gleaming in the sun the outlines ofa fairy city. Pr 8, and walls and for- tifications shine and frown upon the surface, and steeples, and domes and minarets, and innumerable fantastic and beautifal forms, shoot up to the height of severai hundred feet. It is to the optical delusions described a acs and Sconsby dn the masses of ice in the Polar Seas, or the extra- rdinary phenomena sometimes exhibited by the reflection of light inthe atmosphere, porten | in the eyes of the ancients the fall of thrones an ‘the revolutions of empires. But the delusion van- | ishes as we approach, and nothing is presented to ‘the eye but cold dead masses of marl and earthy dimestone worked into been forms by the Fabel and caprice the elements. Scattered vk this city of clay I found great numbers of | petrefactions on the surface, principally of turtle, some of which were fifteen inches across the back, andthe whole frame, shell, legs, and intestines, Pay indurated. A few wolves’ heads fen also found, with a multitude of shells and molusca. | ‘This spot is very celebrated among traders and Sue not only for its curiosities but because of | its having been a great Indian battle-ground time | out of mind. It is also a place of refuge and se- curity for traders when pursued by hostile bands | of Indians. Once fairly within it, the pursuer | (right as well attempt to thread the Egyptian barynths, such a multitude of narrow and windin; passages and strange and curious caverns does it sontain, The French traders have given it the fame of La mauvaise terre. The fugitive is amply repplied, too, with good water preserved ina num- ber of natural reservoirs. It is impossible that such | # soil can be otherwise than very productive. Scattered all over these western savannas may ‘be seen immense boulders distributed, if we may ‘trust geology, by the last great fiood, many of them | several hundred tons in weight. Towards the ‘western section two trees of the largest size have ‘been hurled from the mountains by tornadoes and | hurricanes, and deposited in the plains hundreds of miles from the where they grew. The district nm the Alssourt river and the forty-ninth lel, and west of the Territory of | Minnesota, is a succession of rolling prairies, the soil of which is tolerably fertile, though rather dry and | ‘too freely intermixed with sand. They ody ‘thick grassy sward, which yields an abundant pas- ‘tore to innumerable herds of bison and other_ani- ‘mals; and the grisly bear, the finest of all the North American fand aninals, has selected this as almost the only prairie district into which he will now venture from his mountain fastnesses. The Territ of Minnesota isa beautifal and very ifertile tract of country, strongly contrasted in its «conformation with other sections of the United States. It is neither mountainous nor hilly, nor is it a dead flat. There are hillocka, ridges and uplands, ‘but they are characterized by a longitudinal and horicontal instead of vertical projection. Without exhibiting either marked or meuntainous features or. dead sterile » the surface is sufficiently wwariegated with eminences and fed te mg and -contrasted in curving rid; and undulating plains decorated with limpid and streams, to an aapect of deep interest. The jive it | ag one of the most beautiful and picturesque. | basin of the upper Mississippi is separated | that of the Missouri by an elevated plain, the | appearance of which, as seen from a distance the east or west side, has suggested to the early traders the name of the Coteaux de Prairie. | id Elf te ibadlcrg te it as ohio, ite aspect presents & the | ind an idea different from that of a plaia, th wat includes The northern extremity of ti “ it. plotear is in latitude 46 exjards to su} pon by Long, and Lewis and Clarke. e spring freshet usually occurs in the early part of June, and lasts some weeks. Except during this freshet the navigation for steamboats in descending anywhere above the Council Bluffs (now Kanes- ville,) is nearly impossible, and the ascent is very difficult. In midsummer a fifty ton boat is doing well to ascend twenty miles per day. From its mouth upward the river becomes more and more serpentine. It is not correct, as often asserted, that the Mis- souri derives its turbid water entirely from the Platte. Some of the tributaries higher up flow through the same formation of marl and limestone. The specific gravity of the waters of the Missouri at the mouth of the Kansas, is 78, whilst that of the | Kansas is one 72 degrees. was observed by Lewis and Clark, and confirmed ae James, of Long’s party, in 1818. The fall of the Mississippi from St. Peter’s, and the fall of the Missouri from Fort Pierre, are in the ratio of 45 to 85; that is to say, the ave rapidity of the Missouri is nearly twice that of the Mississippi. Long found the cur- rent at the mouth of the tte one fathom per se- cond; in low water it rushes through the narrow banks between its ponds at the rate of twelve fa- thoms per second, and when the spring rise is at its maximum, it moves at the rate of 720 feet per mi- nute. The celerity of the Amazon equals that of the ben! and the Orinoco exceeds that of the Missouri. The difference of clevation of the valleys of the Missouri and Mississippi has been determined. The level of the Missouri at Council Bluffs is one thou- | sand and twenty feet above the Mexican Gulf; that | of the ote at Rock Island, in the same lati. tude, only five hundred and twenty-eight feet. » At Fort Pierre, in latitude 44 deg. 24 min., the eleva- tion is one thousand and fifty-six feet, while at the lower end of Lake Pepin, in the same latitude, the elevation is only seven hundred feet above the Gulf. There are in the Missouri 210 islands between the Yellow Stone and its mouth; one half of them pro- duce forest trees, chiefly the cottonwood and plane | tree below the Platte, and above it ee gradually with trees and shrubs peculiar to higher ons, until the predominating growth is stunted ry and pine. Very few of them are of any size or length. The Kansas and the Platte are the only ones west of the States of ony ee for navigation. ‘aking ita rise in the North Parkin the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 40 deg., and longitude 106 deg. 40 min., the Platte river winds through the mountains north, aud then east, in rapids and cata- racts, until it bursts through the chain, and flows Hal et Ro to a point in latitude 41 deg. and longi- tude 100 deg. 50 min., where it receives the South Fork, which takes its rise in the vicinity of the Ar- kaneas,and flow: in a northeast direction to its mouth. Immediately below the junction the stream is five thousand three hundred feet wide, and flows on with an average width of three-fourths of a mile to its mouth, in lagitude 41 deg. and longitude 95. There are many islands, some of them timbered and ali fertile. The river bottoms are also fertile, but destitute of timber, and in many places subject to inundation. The waters are expanded over so great asurface that it is too shallow tobe navigated by sayin but light flat boats, and they get alo hi difficulty. Nor can it be improved by art an Two great forks, the Republican and Smoky Hill, which have their sources within the spurs of the mountains, unite in latitude 39 deg. and longitude 964 deg., to form the Kansas river, from whence it flows several hundred miles eastward to its junction | with the Missouri, in latitude 39 deg. and longitude 94 deg., ba a narrow valley well timbered for three hundred miles, and well wooded thence to the mountains. Like the Platte, it is too swift and shal- hag be navigated with anything but very light craft. The Yellow Stone, rising amid the peaks of the mountains, flows northeast to the Missouri. It waters a large and fertile valley, and is navigable for steamboats eighty miles, and for other craft two hundred and fifty miles, Here we anticipate the birth and growth of a considerable community. Rising within the spurs of the mountain, the Arkansas leaves them with a breadth of ay. yards, and widen ng, as it flows onwards, to four hundred hia and sometimes a mile from its tribute into ie Mississippi, in Cita $150, Its upper por- tion is densely timbered, Put about one hundred miles east of the mountains every trace of trees is lost, and it flows on several hundred miles through | & vast expanse of igre | plains, and again pen- etrates fine forests near the western line of the State. It is navigable for steamboats as high as the Neostro, a distance of six uuadsed mites; above tia point navigation is,and must continue to be, wretch- edeven for large canoes. The Washita, one of its tibutactes, is also navigable a cousidergble distaace. ty as watermills do within the States. Springs are | ited with steamboats tothe foot of the | From its mouth, for | plains are elevated three hundred feet above the | above the Platte. Ontne south tide the highlands ( Above the | e number of its tributaries with- | | in the same space is over two hundred. Sopa ere ge bene ye Beg bluffs - a ot ‘iamand mlleas its confinence the valley of unbounded y, shrowded in rich B x ry F f i Ee E g E é F = 2 k a 5 F a Ly t & Hi ce : m4 BE z i i ween, ty feet. which pursue ent courses and fall into separate oceans—the first into the North Pacific, while the other, a branch of the Athabarea, unites finally with the Myrja and Mackenzie, and flows into the Arctic Sea.” and Clark found the sources of the Missouri within a mile of the waters of the Columbia; Fremont those of Sweet Water within a mile of the head waters of the Colorado; and the sources of the Ar- kanras and Platte both interlock with branches of the Colorado. Lal oons and bayous abound in the Delta of the ippi, and over the at alluvial: for- mation extending six or eight huni miles up the Arkansas and Red rivers, but we know of no lakes south of the Missouri and west of the States in the great Western Territory. Anerror committed by Major Long, in conse- uence of relying too implicitly on the representa- fone of the men of the mountains, who delight in magnifying the wonders of their wild home, deserves special correction, insamuch as he was officially en- gaged in the examinationof the country, and conse- geese has been looked to with greater confidence for correct statements of fact, both in Europe and America. This error is quoted so recently by M. de 1] # ; ed in concluding that it is Ret the prevalent opinion among men of science. The sta | from a line drawn parallel with the twentieth de- gree of longitude from the Red river, in the south, to the Platte, northward, and from thence indefinite- | ly north, the whole country is unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending | upon agriculture for their subsistence.’ It so hap- ned that Major Long, in following the line of the latte river to its forks, and thence across and stone the south fork, ed over the only remarka- bly sterile district in the whole territory. The truth | to this sweeping denunciation. From the forks of the Platte westward, there is a broad strip of marl | and earthy limestone, extending from the south fork | north to whole country is fertile back to the mountains. Along the eastern slope of the mountains, as far south as New Mexico, there is generally a broad | bench of fine soil. Within the mountain chain | | are and fertile yalleys occur. The basin of the | Yellow Stone isa very rich district. Large spots of | good soil are found between the Platte and the Mis- | Souri. The river bottoms are all fertile near their | der. From the Nodaway the northern hills nearly | sources, and become much more go, as well as larger, | asthey are descended. On these factsI cannot be | mistaken. They are the fruit of personal ob- | servation and of inquiries directed to intelligent and competent sources. Entire deserts never occur, | save in a few narrow strips slong the Arkansas | and Canadian rivers; south of the Plattejand east of | | its fork, cultivation will be confined to the river | bottom, west of the first district described herein; while the, highlands will afford fore for flocks. Sparsity of timber constitutes the greatest barrier | to the settlement. | Scattered throughout this territory, there area iB! ry; ‘hey rise from six to eight hundred feet ve the common level, and are frequentiy surrounded by | rugged slopes and abrupt precipioes, rendering their | summits nearly inaccessible. A number of them | are in this way perfectly insnlated; but others sub- | side into the plains below by geatle declivities from | their summits to their bases on one or other side of | theeminence. These tracts are more numerous but | lees extensive near the mountains. They have been | likened without reason to the steppes of Asia. They | are called mesas by the Mexicans. The largest of them is known as El Dano Escatado,which stretches | north tothe Canadian, east to the boundary of Lou- isiana, including the heads of the false Wachita and | other streams, and expands southward to the sources of the Trinity, Brazos and Colorado, and westward | | to theRio Pecos—embracing an area of about thirty | thousand square miles. In places where the brows of these mesas approach a stream closely on both | sides, the deep caverns or ravines there found are | called canores by the (Mexicans, and this term has been extended to include the narrow gorges in mountains and fissures of rock, through which | streams are frequently found rushing in volcanic re- | gions. Even in an open plain the small streams of- | ten cut chasms, which, although only a few feet in | | width, may sometimes be seen from fifty to one hun- | dred feet in depth. The stupendous chain of the Rocky Mountains which bound this vast territory on the west has | been distinguished by a number of appellations, such as the as Mountains, the Mexican, | the Andes, the Chippewayan, &c. Upon the whole, the Mexican portion should be designated a | ; the Anahuac; that ‘extend: | Meaka succeeding an | ing tothe forty-ninth parallel, the Rocky Mountains, and the portion north of that line as the Ohippe- wayan. mountains are arranged in # west | northwest anda south-southeast direction, and rise | bruptly from the plain, towering into ridges and | peaks of great height, becoming visible at a dis- tance of one hundred miles. James’s peak is eight | thousand five hundred feet above the common level. | Fremont’s peak, on Wind river, is thirteen thousand five hundred and seventy feet above the Mexican | Gulf, and is undoubtedly the highest peak of the whole chain. The more elevated portion of these | mountains are covered with perpetual snow, pre- | senting, at great distances, a very brilliant aspect. | | Here nature has undergone her wildest and d st throes, hl enormous masses of rugged primi- tive rock clad in a scattering growth oF ecrabby | Pines, oak, cedar, furze and artemisia, Formefly this range was deemed impassable, but Mackenzie succeeded in passing it in 1793, at the | head of Peace river. Lewis and Clark, in 1806, found the North Pass, near the head of the Missouri, a depression offering a good wagon road, and an- other good road a little south of it. The South Pass has been known to trappers since 1809. There is a difficult one at the head of the Saskatchaman river; another followed by Fremont in returning from Cali- fornia, in 1844; another discovered by Governor Stevens's party, and a very fine one; another sixty miles south of the South Pass, examined by Capt. Stansbury; another rough one at the sources of the Del Norte; another by which mule caravans travel from Santa Fe to Monterey, near the source of the Rio Charna; another south of it, and nearly west of Albuquerque, and an more, some of which have been traversed trappers. With re-' spect to the climate of the West, I cannot speak with scientific precision. Many more meteorological observations must be before | this can be done ; but it is gue easy to give a popu- lar, intelligibie, and practical account of it. whole region is exposed to the influence of the west | and northwest winds, refrigerated in their over the broad and frozen district of the Roc! mountains, and rushing down unimpeded across the naked plains quite to the Atlantic coast. Volney | thought the temperature west of the Alleghenies much milder than east of them; but subsequent obs¢rvation has not confirmed his conjecture. The extremes of heat and cold are both at the Council Bluffs than at Germantown, in Pennsylvania. Extending, as this terri does, through many de- es of latitude and longitude, it may bee ted | t affords considerable variety of climate, this | is sufficiently verified by the commencement and progress of the seasons, and of annual vegetation. he change is also marked by certain peculiarities in vegetable products. Vegetation commences at least | oné month earlier in Louisiana than in Missouri, and | some weeks later then the latter in Iowa. Agaln, it commences two weeks catiter upon the Missi sippi than five hundred miles west of it, and three weeks | tater still at the base of the mountain. ‘The Spanish moss disappears north of the thirty-third degree of | | latitude. Cotton and indigo cannot be cultivated above 36 degrees ; the cane brake is never found | north of degrees ; nor the Osage orange above the valley of the Arkansas—I mean growing spon- taneously. Indian corn reaches its maximum in Misecusi, and dwind‘es from thouce to the forty. ninth paral'el, where iti: of ‘nferior growth. The’) | ehrobs ard flowers also vary with the progress north and routh, or east and west. In 1842 the thermo Tocqueville, in his great work, that we are warrant- | ent is, “That | is, that many considerable exceptions must be made | e Missouri. North of the Missouri the | | great number of insulated table-lands or plateaus. | | ona bona fi i “ g i E F Hele 1 eg numerous’ rrit South of the Missouri and west of the line of the States, there is not a solitary earthenwork, or ancient mound, or fortification, to evidence the oc- cupancy of the Would this be eo if it had been occupied coeval with the origin of ocean, as & profui of through them amply testify. Z them they were of course bare of planta, and prebeniy saturated with salt, and must fore ve been slowly supplied as they became capable of receiving them by their gramination or contigu- ous and elevated areas, and the distribution of seed by the winds and waters. In this manner these P lains might long since have been covered with rees as well a, if the pro; of these natu- ral causes had not been arrested by the anlar of animals, followed by those of Indians. It may therefore be concluded that these prairies do not owe their existence to the destruction of timber shoots by the animals and the annual pedi of the Indians, but that they are indebted for their preservation chiefly to these facts. These causes would no doubt be greatly assisted by the nakedness of the soil and | the free admission of the rays of the sun. Forests attract rain and impede evaporation; but the re- flection from the surface of vast plains scatters the clouds and vapors driven over them by the winds. If the Indians and animals were withdrawn, the skirts of timber would slowly enlarge, and as they | enlarged they would overcome the excessive evapo- ration by shading the surface, and although the | Sreniens elevations might perhaps be left bare, and the timber everywhere smaller than in lower situa- tions, yet the forests would ontmeasure the prairies, and the latter would become the exception instead of the rule. This has been the result along the line of the western border of the States wherever these impediments to germination have been withdrawn. Mineral springs are profusely distributed over this great territory, especially within the localities where metallic ores prevail, and in the mountain re- gions. Lewis and Clark notice the following alo , the line of the Missouri : 150 miles above the mout! on Manitou Creek, several salt spri were higher up—a spring of salts, €., near White river, and several others still higher up. In Saline | county, Mo., salt water is very abundant. The | true as respects many portions of Iowa | like and Arkansas. On the south bank of the Platte river there is a copious spring of salt water, and saline efflorescences cover the surface of large portions of its bottom as with hoar frost. A large district along-the head waters of White and Run- | ning Water river, branches of the Missouri, are satur- | ated with salt, and oozing springs of it are freely dis- tributed over it. The grand saline near the Neostro, 40 miles above its mouth, consists of a number of | springs, affording a sufficiency of salt water to justify extensive works. There are a numberof salinas, or mines of pure salt, The most northern is fifty miles west of the Missouri, and forty south of the Platte, where the Ottoes and other tribes procure salt. The mine is inexhaustible, Capt. Nathan Boone, in 1843, during a journey between the Cana- dian andthe Upper Arkansas, found efflorescent, salt in many places. On the Red fork, he remarks in his journal, “The whole cove on the right of the two forks of the river appears to be one immense spring of salt water,so much concentrated that as scen asitreaches the point of breakin begins depositing its salt. In this way a large crust or rock was found all over the bottom for 160 acres. Digging through the sand for a few inches, every where we found the solid salt so hard that there was no means in our er of ig up a block of it. We broke our mattock in the cong In many places through this rock-salt crust tl water boiled up as clear as 1 il, so salt that our hands, a! being immersed and suffered to ary. became as white as snow. Thrusting the arm down into these holes,they appeared to be walled with salt as far down as one could reach. The cliffe which overhang this place are composed of red clay and gypsum. It is still more abundant around the suurces of the Arkansas and Canadian. Tt aboun?s also in the mountains. Prior to the present session of Congress, Col. Benton undertook to declare the Western Territory open to settlement, in the teeth of Indian treaties, and direct contravention of the intercourse act of 1834; and he urged the Northern people to enter upon and cultivate itat once. Many persons broke up their business, sacrificed their property, and foolishly made the attempt; but they were met at the threshold by the Indian to set foot spon it without a regular license to carry le trade with the Indians. This they could not Popes and Movements were checked. Colonel's sincerity has been since fairly tested. He was anxious for its occupation, 80 Tong as a doubt of the right to occupy e: caueehe knew that under such circumstances slave- fe tptd bag he bine ere and are se pro- ‘ection heir pro) ; but as soon as the pri sition was made to geet Kansas and Molrsnkay and leave the emigrants to decide the question of slavery for themselves, the Colonel shifted his posi. tion, and we hear no more from him about the im- portance of an immediate settlement. But if his zeal has abated, the zeal of the pioneers has not. They are pouring into Kansas by the thousand from Missouri and Arkansas, and into Nebraska by the thousand from Iowa and Wisconsin. I see that Horace Greeley and other active abolitionists are attempting to raise a fund to colonize Kansas with abolition propagandists and kidnappers. This may be fun for Horace and others of the leaders of the disunionists; but Ican assure him and them, that if jersisted in, it will be death to the innocent ond misguided fools who are sent there. The picncers of the West, and the men of Kentucky“and other slave States, have no objection to respectable Northern people, who come to the border as settlers in gocd faith, resolved to act as upright and orderly citizens, anxious for the promotion of the common od of all; but they cannot be expected to yield one inch, and ceca will not yield the tenth part of one, tothe myrmidoms of a band of men who have alrcady proclaimed their determination to break the tonds of the Union and expose the Southern States to the horrors of a servile war. Kansas will be a slave State in spite of the efforts of these incendiaries, and I advise only such of them as come with arms in their hands and hearts to wield them, to enter into this unholy crusade. Ere this reaches you, there will be more resolute mea in Kansas determined to crush abolitionism and free soilism than can be mus- tered by Greeley and his £2n8 in a twelve-month to come. It is to be hoped that the Indian titles along the border will be acon extin ed. They occupy ae the most valuable portions of the country,and when they are removed a prosperous community will soon spring up. A few words of meditation, and 1am done. The rambler over the plains, who is not annoyed with ng or goods, or troubled with a tent, with only pene for Evia _ a Fonts ee his pil as his imagination night after night put upon t wing. Having nothing to do, he ually lies down a8 s00n As Night stretches forth ber leaden ace) and then his eyes are turned to the broad deep blue ex- panse, where not a dark line or spot is visible, filled with the blended light of every star whose rays have reached us during the :rofeand six thousand years. And he may trace the light filmy clouds ring through the heavens, curling into unimagined forms of beauty, hanging in graceful folds like a yeil of gos- samer, streaking the distant horizon with varied and flickering colors, or rising in masses like the outlines of far off mountains, whose summits are crcwned with eternal snow. How profound is his wonder that amid the busy and grovelling scenes of toil and business, his mind has 80 seldom been ele: vated to the Ce ge of things so grand and neguiticent; that their sizes, their motions, their be vast and various circles in which should have occupied fo little of his at- pealed to to elevate tention, and heen eo seldom apy his feeling, and animate his gratitude to their Di- , and a number | forth it 4 | Tefracted light, and brilliant alpine plants wa' agents, and forbidden | ft ii & ie H E i Zz t i F it in : E 2 B i F Hy i ans fe it be sf F é aan i E iE i if | a | } i 8 4 i Feet es sa delight i drinking from the limpid fountains which | the hill sides. These are the localities, too, where | the hunter finds his richest reward. Stealing around | the brows of hills and rocks, whose points shade him from the view, and whose summits prevent the wind from giving — until he gains a po! fell, he rarely returns, if game is in the valley, without a store of provision to make glad the in- mates of his lodge. But it is beyond and in the midst of the moun- tains that the mind is filled with admiration. In their valleys he may find lakes, and streams, and torrents, and trees, and vines, fruits and flowers—lakes whose broad bright surfaces expand in shining sheets of silver, still and calm as “slumbering infancy,” save when their bosoms are disturbed by the plash of littering fish as in their gambols they leap into the air and plunge into the wave; streams ani tor- rents whose limpid waters spring in rainbow hues from the wild rocks, or irate and wind in tle music through the vale; treeg whose tall Socata clothed in dark foliage throw an im trable shade over his head; vines whose erratic ches stretch in festoons from limb to limb, bending beneath the weight of their berries; fruits whose rich pungent taste Lucullus would have coveted, and flowers, whoee varied hues flash like the gems and stones on an Eastern monarch’s robe. If sated and clo! with exhibitions of beauty and fragrance, he but to Keoki! et dated fissure, opened up by the volcano, the gre! walls of which rise hundreds ef feet above his head, and cren his eyes upon the scene beyond. He will behold a fong dark valley of deso- lation, upon the vital energies of which the Angel of Death has set his . Broad al of discolored marl spread over the surface, with here and there black apots of extinct cinder; hi masees of granite, tumbled in inextricable confa- sion, with. thei» ferruginous sides discolored with age, and plains of sand, and fragments, under the hollow surfaces of which the hoarse, roaring, and pent-up waters straggle for an outlet. Jf scenes of gran leur and sublimity are desired, let_him ascend the summit of some peak whase point pierces the clouds far above its rivals. In his progress he will wind through ravines, and around rocks, and rup narrow which the rains and carn mows have was! ut; sometimes be- tween jut cliffs; sometimes on the very outer edge, where hundreds of feet below the tall trees seem shrusken into shrubs; and anon he will land upon an immense broad terrace, spread thousands ot yards around, with a bright lake gleaming in the their beautiful flowers w i But he must soon leave this oasis; for when he tarna his eyes upward, the of his ambition is so far be- | yond the ken of his vision that he feels as if, instead of secre pr whole mass under him had been | receding, like the mountains of ice over which Parry | atte d to toil ES ae ane le. He wades through snow-wreaths which the have eddied into the indentations; over bright, glassy surfaces of | ice, and fra; nts of Fock, un beens and foot- e on innacle. But not long he remains 5 for the which surround him banish the sensation of and | re-invigorate all his powers. Far away in the dis- tance the tiny waves of streams whose accumulated | waters are destined to bear upon their bosom the | freighted fleets of commerce, wind their solitary way, Through mountains, Leger | Through empires black with shade, | And continents of sand. cere ne the ae retina terraces of the 0) mountains, w ever n pine, the Heh, with its sti ‘angular branches and’ atabes ues, and the spruce, with ite varied curves and. bright green color, are crowded in bunches or stra: | into zigzag lines, inters d with shrubs and ‘al- ine plants; the drifting snow reste its feathery es upon them, awakening in the memory the fabled garden in the story of Aladdin—where trees and sbrubs of gold and silver were leaved and flowered with precious stones, but without one fra- grant odor to delight the sense. If he tarn to the weet, the bare cones rise in multitudes, with their | calm, awful forma shrouded in snow, and their dark | shadows projected far into the valleys, like spectres from the chaotic world risen from the sleep of to contemplate the progress of Time in Dooling | the dead matter into organized forms of light an: beauty. And if the Spirit of the Tem; walk abroad, he eaten far below the rolling clouds like @ troubled ocean now throwing u| bright | Cresta in the sunlight, then opening into dark | fissures, and again heaving in enormous waves, the streaked lightning branching and sprangling | through their folds. ‘ | _ It is like no other mountain scenery in the world. In all other localities there is the appearance of design, and they manifest on their surfaces the pre- domivating principles of order. But here it is as if Nature were struggling against the reign of “ chaos and ancient night,” and slowly conquering an em- pire in the boundless infinite. ‘hen the senses are absolutely pained with the contemplation, the spec- tator Shh closes his yess but even then his imagination is so saturated with overwhelming be ie that it labors on in vain through the endless chain of causes and analogies which bind the visible creation to its eternal Head. Governor Seymour’s Reception in Russia. [Correspondense of the Boston Traveller.) The Emperor of Russia manifests great anxiety to cultivate iriendly relations with the United States. Governor Seymour, our Minister to Russia, was re- ceived, on his arrival at Warsaw, with the greatest honors. An opera, it is said, was formed in honor of the Minister, and the box of Prince Paa- kiewitch placed at the disposal of himself and suite. On his arrival at St. Petersbarg, the same disposi- tion was shown toward the legation. Governor Seymour was presented to the Em Nicholae. Before the presentation took Pe it was intimated to Mr. Seymour that it would be agreeable to the court if he appeared ing to established usuage, in the coun dress. The Governor, however, took Mr. Merey’s famous circular on the subject, “a la lettres,” and went to the sudience in common, bo al He was treated ih May mit of ethan ap- rently, taken of breact uette, inter 3s “tence, Count Neseelrode is sai have intimated that the Emperor Nicholas was “ American to too sensible a man to notice the slight of the Minister.” The slight must have been felt, nevertheless, and deeply, since, from the day of his reception, very little notice is taken of Mr. Seymour; he has not been invited to any review, or to the court again; his presence in the capital seems to be ignored. Also, Governor Seymour, it is said, manifesta a | strong disposition to leave St. Peteraburg. | _ Onto Rrven.—On the 16th instant, there were five feet water in the channel at Pittsburg, and the | large line steamers continued their ly Oapar- | bape for the transportation of passengery down e river. ‘The atore of 8. Towne, in Lawrence, Mawy., was forct- Hy entered on the 14th inet., and robbed of cloths, dry 00ds, he of the value of $2,000 THE WHIG PARTY, NORTH AND SOUTH. PLANS OF RECONSTRUC The Trouble of Mason & Dixon's Line. &e., de. de. ——~ the Peters -) In (From burg (Va. inteltigenece, (whtig.)} THE WHIG PARTY. ‘To any ome of the slightest observation, it must E é was at ; 7 3 8 | F ef = q i iq Ee th i i i f j i 8 8 i i C ES it i i Hs | 5 E i = E = HE E E National Convention. To ini body would be to place their throats at the pj e knives of the free soil butchers. It an endorsement of treachery, and a vile submissio to multiplied wrongs and insults. Should this. of the subject be taken by Southern w! ge ly, as we sincerely hope jt may, it will then be neq cesgary to take some Other action. We sincerely wish that She Soageesion we are about to make had come commended tothe party by more Aa, ex; gg and position, than we can boast of. Hum. , however, as we may be, our advice is thep omapt ing of a heart devoted toa cause for which web Pr vately and publicly struggled for the last en years, and which we will never absn We throw out, then, for the consideration Southern whig brethren, the suggestion of a Southern Whig Convention in some central poin of the South—#ay Columbus, Ga., for instanc either during the coming autumn or in the next spring, to consider of the policy and daty of the| whigs of the South. Although the whi ir the South may never be able to elect a wh! r choice to the presidency, they can exercise an influ ence most potential for good. Upon one gréat aub- ee they can act with the democrats of the South. ey can co-operate in the acquisition of Cuba, and thus place two slave States in the way of Northern aggression, while it would throw open to herm enterprise and Southern cities the trade of the most fertile and beautiful island of the ocean. and best mode of resisting No aggression ig to foster and develope, Liars possible ex: nts, our own vast and incalculable resources. New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston, Sa Norfolk, and in turn they will build up thednterior cities and towns, and iy 3¢ the South in @ condi- tion to laugh to scorn the threats of the abolition- ists. The hol of snch a convention as we pro- pee may de termed sectional. Well, let it be sa.’ t is sectional, and meant to be so. ‘What are Northern whigs now doing? Acting sectional a for the purpose of violating the constitution. at their votes on the Nebraska bill, and then seg if it will lay in their moutbs to rebuke the whigsof the South for holding a sectional conven’ ‘to vise ways and means to protect the c from their own ruthless assaults. ° ape rom the Buffalo Express, (Seward 'e give the above entire on account cance and importance ina political It is filled with omens, menaces and all of which may be realized to the whig and hence the importance of Keeping the per fect, that the responsibilities of any calamity may fale to the whig organization may; be ed to the proper source. We have laboréd and with too much heart in the wig have become too poe, attached to and fortunes to desire to see it should follow, by our Vi such a omnes causes set fo1 shall endeavor to aid in our ble k that portion of it which lies north very. ight ne ‘hes easity: we mig) e nec ‘we can with the Sonth, politically, pan ee a an necessaty to. of te. Wybet tas to6 wile eae oe pee by holding to an alliance ; the South its organization? In 1862, we went into the Presi- dential canvass upon Southern doctrines. A plat form was constructed at Baltimore, for the cam- palgn, which knew no North, no South, no East, no ‘est; and when the fight was over, and the smoke of the conflict lifted, we found nearly every slave State arrayed inst our candidate and cause. when we meet them upon their own doctrines, yield a cheerful acquiescence to their interests and prejudices, they desert us and go over to the com- mon enemy, we cannot see what we are to gain by acting in concert, or to lose by severing the sle ligament which binds us t er. aR Poona “4 praise bestowed ER og our Vi ja cotem| timed well- ruerited, a reall, gerd we believe sincerelya friend to the South. his adi as President, tinued loyalty during his receat delight tour, and no doubt continues it until the present, moment, and most justly does the Intelli; esti- mate the sentiment of the North when it assumes that “now the South has not one friend sacred faith that can be between man and man. How canit expect ie tehGh friends or friend- ship under such rie Li? td 1» We Aa) South, hold hep tes oy ¥ and C: far ie eahate of the Nosth and Northern senti- ment ae you,an@ when are through, sit down quietly, count the cost, tage, and see much bi pe wait —— the big od " ae to take care of Heelf as the South is to [From the Savannah hr ge eget) Jone.) ALL FOR A SOUTHERN INVENTION. It's not strange im the ti vat t aoe ealing hereafter in a8 it, , that the whigs of t aire what aon it behooves them to pursue. AA TE ee oe a rel that nine-tenths of m Ww rage. of ee pill.” For that bill orthern whig senator or representative premet the (nited States voted. More than this: fre eoundest of the Northern whig journals and the most conservative of the Northern whi cians, ‘as far as they have spoken, have the abolition! believe, that not whine cither in or ont of hand bong cy Stn that, we or ee iin inv, “Why, ths soowe the Northern whiga ta an attitude even more hostile tothe South thea