Wheeling compiler. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [i.e. W. Va.]) 1829-1831, 1829-11-11
From the 81. Louis Beacon.
NORTH WEST TERRITORY.


This is the title now gwen in books of
Geography, and correctly given to all the
Territory, belonging to the United States,
north Of the State Of Illinois, West of the !
Michigan Territory, East ofthe Mississip
pi ard South of Lake Superior. 1t has
heretofore been terra incognita, to the
mass of the American people, considered
nearly out of the bounds of the inhabitable
part of the globe, and too cold and sterile
to be fit for the residence of civilized
people. Such is the opinion entertained
by many.-HoS great must be their as.
constituent when they come to learn the
truth, that this little known and little es
teemed region, in all the essentials Of rich
land, salubrlous climate, capacities for
producing the most valuable grains, fruits
vegetables and grasses, with water COM
municahons which give them a choice Of
markets at NewOrIeans or New York, is
in reality one of the finest agricultural re.
gions 10 the United States!-To its agri-
cultural capabilities, its also adds resour-
ces of mineral wealth,-its leadmines the
richest and most extensive in the world,
already Cutting the United States with
lead and reducing the price of the article
at the mines, to a cent and hlf pound!
-OfCopper also, the most promIslng IN
dIcatlons, bushels Of ore being picked up
IN various places, and the working Of
Copper.mine actually commenced. All
these things known and considered, and
what was heretofore thought to be an unln-
habitable and sterile region, rises to the
first degree in the scale of Importance, and
announces the future existence Of three
powerful states. Its superficial content is
10000 square miles, which will furnish
territory for three states, each larger than
kentucky.
y In reading this description, the intellI-
gent and rejecting reader who is accus-
toned to calculate the aggregate of geo.
graphical advantages-whO can estimate
the march and expansion Of the human
famly-and foresee inevitable results from
natural causes-will contemplate with
pleasing emotions the various and easy
communications, formed by Nature to con-
meet the Mississippi and the Lakes, to u
nite New York and New Orleans, and to
bring together the waters of the Cuffs Of
Mexico and 81. Lawrence. He will dwell
upon the short and easy portages between
the Illinois and the Michlgan-between the
Fox River and Ouisconsin--between the
St. Croix and Bots Brule Burnt wood, J
and between the Sandy Lake and the
river St. Louis. He will find at these pla.
ces, successfully as they are named, no
more than six miles, then twenty FIVE hum
dred yards, then eight hundred yards, and
lastly four miles, Of dry ground between
the nayigable waters Of the Mississippi
aud the Lakesl And these little necks not
always dry, but often overlooked, and the
waters commingling at their heads, which
have their outlets IN the sea at 80 many
thousand miles apart. AT these four little
portages. now traversed by the canoe of
the Indian and the batteau Of the Fur Ira
der, he will see in a clear and not distant
persDective, the wonderful metamorpho-
sls which the march and genius Of man
will create-canals, steam boats, cities,
and the Concourse of innumerable people
III he wishes to speculate still further, to
expand the circle and extend the line ofhIs
vista, let him contemplate the sources of
the Mississippi, the st. Lawrence and the
Red River Of Hudson's Bay, all lying in d
circle of fifty miles diameter, and that CIR
Gle the seat of innumerable small lakes,
through which the batteauI Of the traders
are continually passing from one great
river to the other, and the speculation
ceases to be incredible, or even Improba
BILE, that the day will arrive, and that be-
fore one hundred years elapse, when he
peopling of this continent, and the intersec'
ton Of three lines of communication be-
tween three seas, will give to the region of
the Lakes of the Woods its Tyres, Pain
yras, and make them the thronged resort
of merchants and travellers and the busy
centres of an immense and extended trade
Such are the effects of peculiar conforma-
lion OF the interior of this continent, which
in giving birth TO three great rivers run
ning 10 different directions to three seas,
mas started them altogether, and not in
mountains, but in plain. where the watsrs
are balanced, and connected through innu-
merable lakes. How different from the
rest of the world How different from the
alpine region whence issues the great riv.
ers Of Europe: the Rhone, the Rhine, the
Danube and the Po.
There is no class Of human beings on