It has been estimated, that thirteen-sixteenths of the country east of the Mississippi, (excluding Florida,) are covered with a strong, fertile soil, adapted to repay, with a moderate degree of cultivation, the labours of the husbandman. Of the remaining three-sixteenths, about 57,000,000 acres are covered with water; about 40,000,000 acres consist of a mountainous country almost universally covered with forest, but, from the nature of its surface, unsusceptible of culture; and about 29,000,000 are either sandy, or covered with too poor a soil to offer any encouragement to cultivation. Of 520,000,000 acres capable of culture, only 41,000,000 were under actual improvement in 1811; but they must now amount to at least 60,000,000, or about one-twelfth of the whole surface E. of the Mississippi, including Florida. In 1813, there were 148,876,000 acres of land, of which the Indian title had not been extinguished, on the eastern side of the Mississippi, situated chiefly in Ohio, Michigan, the North-west territory, Indiana, Illinois, and Mississippi, and 56,225,000 acres of national domain unappropriated, of which the Indian title had been extinguished.* We transcribe from M. Malte Brun the following summary view of the physical aspect of the country.

"From the shores of the Atlantic to the Mississippi, the United States present an immense natural forest, interspersed, however, with open and naked plains, called prairies, which are numerous on the western side of the Alleghanies, but very rare on the eastern side. In the country west of the Mississippi, wood is comparatively scarce; and in the arid and desert plains, occupying a breadth of three or four hundred miles to the east of the Rocky Mountains, only a few

Warden, vol. ii. ch. 36; Malte Brun, vol, v. p. 166,

trees are seen on the banks of the rivers. In the inhabited part of the United States, the lands cleared and cultivated, probably, do not exceed one-tenth part of the surface. There is a diversity in the American woods, according to the climate, soil, and situation of the different districts; and some naturalists have distinguished the vegetation of the United States into five regions. 1. The region of the North-east, bounded by the Mohawk and Connecticut rivers, where firs, pines, and the other evergreens of Canada prevail. 2. The region of the Alleghanies, where the red and black oak, the beech, the balsam poplar, the black and red birch often overshadow the plants and shrubs of Canada, at least as far as North Carolina. The valleys among these mountains are remarkably fertile in corn. 3. The upland country, extending from the foot of the mountains to the falls of the rivers. Here, the prevailing trees are the red maple, the red and black ash, the walnut, the sycamore, the acacia, and the chestnut. To the south, the magnolia, the laurel, and the orange are interspersed through the forest. Tobacco, with the indigo and cotton plants, succeed as far north as the Susquehanna; beyond which pastures prevail. 4. The region of maritime pines, which extends along the Atlantic coast from the sea to the first elevations: the long-leafed pine, the yellow pine, and the red cedar occupy the dry grounds, and the acacialeafed cypress, the low and moist soils, as far as the Roanoke, or even the Chesapeake. Further to the north we find the white pine, the black and Canadian fir, and the thuya occidentalis. The rice-grounds commence where the tide-water becomes fresh, and terminate where it ceases to be felt. 5. The western region, which, no doubt, admits of subdivision, but, in which, generally speaking, the forest trees are, the

white oak, the black and scaly walnut, the walnut hicory, the cherry, the tulip-tree, the white and gray ash, the sugar-maple, the white elm, the linden, and the western plane, which all grow to a great size upon the Atlantic coast.

"But the varying elevation of the ground, necessarily blends the characters of these different regions. Looking, therefore, at the forests of the United States as a whole, the most universally diffused trees are, the willow-leafed oak, which grows in the marshes; the chestnut oak, which, in the Southern States, rises to a prodigious size, and which is as much esteemed for its farinaceous nuts as for its wood; the white, red, and black oak. The two species of walnut also, the white and the black, (the latter valued for its oil,) the chestnut, and the elm of Europe, abound almost as much as the oak in the United States. The tulip-tree and the sassafras, more sensible to cold than these others, are stunted shrubs at the confines of Canada,--assume the character of trees in the Middle States; but, upon the hot banks of the Alatamaha, they develop their full growth, and display all their beauty and grandeur. The sugar-maple, on the other hand, is not seen in the Southern States, except upon the northern slopes of the mountains, while, in the colder climates of New England, it reaches its full natural dimensions. The amber-tree, which yields an odorous gum, the iron·wood (carpinus ostrya), the American elm, the black poplar, and the taccamahaca, are found growing in every place where the soil suits them, without shewing any great preference for one climate more than another. The light and sandy soils are covered with this useful tribe of pines, with the common fir, the beautiful hemlock fir, the black, and the white pine. We may also class with this family of trees, the

arbor vile, the juniper of Virginia, and the American red cedar. Among the shrubs generally diffused in the United States, we may reckon the chionanthus, the red maple, the sumach, the red mulberry, the thorn-apple, &c.

"The United States, generally speaking, do not present the beautiful verdure of Europe; but, among the larger herbs which cover the soil, the curiosity of botanists has distinguished the collinsonia, which affords the Indians a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake; several species of phlox; the golden lily; the biennial anothera, with several species of star-flower, of monarda, and of rudbeckia. It is in Virginia, and in the southern and south-western States, that the American Flora displays its wonders, and the savannas wear their perpetual verdure. It is there that the magnificence of the primitive forests, and the exuberant vegetation of the marshes, captivate the senses by the charms of form, of colour, and of perfume. If we pass along the shores of Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, groves in uninterrupted succession seem to float upon the waters. By the side of the pine is seen the paletuvier, (the only shrub which thrives in saltwater,) the magnificent lobelia cardinalis, and the odoriferous pancratium of Carolina, with its snowwhite flowers. The lands to which the tide reaches, are distinguished from the lands which remain dry, by the moving and compressed stalks of the arundo gigantéa; by the light foliage of the nyssa aquatica; by the taccamahaca; and by the white cedar, which, perhaps, of all the trees of America, presents the most singular aspect. Its trunk, where it issues from the ground, is composed of four or five enormous bearers, which, uniting at the height of seven or eight feet, form a sort of open vault, from the summit of which

rises a single straight stem of eighteen or twenty feet in height, without a branch, but terminating in a flat canopy, shaped like a parasol, garnished with leaves curiously figured, and of the most delicate green. The crane and the eagle fix their nests on this aërial platform; and the paroquets, while leaping about, are attracted to it by the oily seeds inclosed in the cones suspended from the branches. In the natural labyrinths which occur in these marshy forests, the traveller sometimes discovers small lakes and open lawns, which would present most seductive retreats, if the unhealthy exhalations of autumn permitted him to inhabit them. Here, he walks under a vaulted roof of smilax and wild vines, among creeping lianas, which invest his feet with their flowers; but the soil trembles under him, clouds of annoying insects hover around, monstrous bats overshadow him with their hideous wings, the rattle-snake musters his scaly terrors, while the wolf, the carcajou, and the tiger. cat fill the air with their savage and discordant cries.

"The name of savannas is given to those vast prairies of the western region, which display a boundless ocean of verdure, and deceive the sight by seeming to rise towards the sky, and of which the only inhabitants are immense herds of bisons or buffaloes. The name is also given to those plains which skirt the rivers, and are generally inundated in the rainy season. The trees which grow there, are of the aquatic species. The magnolia glauca, the American olive, the Gordonia argentea, with its odorous flowers, are seen here, isolated or in groupes, open above, while the general surface of the savanna exhibits a long and succulent herbage, mixed with plants and shrubs. The wax-myrtle appears conspicuous among many species of azalia, of Kalmia, andromeda, and