Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1857-11-12

The GREAT Far SyEsg-We have recently
noticed in our columns the arrival of a steamer
at St Louis which had come down the Missouri
for $500 miles, having started at point where
there was barely water enough to allow her to
turn. Col. Galphin, passenger in this steam
er, has communicated to the St. Louis Dcmocra,
a graphic account of the country traversed by
the great river and its branches, from which
account, as condensed, we take the following
"The plains occupy longitudinal paralleo-
gram of nearly thousand, miles in width, and
extending from the Texas I'D akns Arctic coast
present an area equal to tl& twohty -four States
east of the Mississippi. Nbeyahase a slight
slope from the westto the Feast a1hbpund in
rivers and streams. which serve, kke the Nile,
to irrigate, rathef than drain the neighboring
surface, havins isW alllusnts, and running from,
west to east, in shalIew, broad beds, through
long, fiat, narrow basins. They are destitute
of timber even single trees being scarce, though
thickly clad with nutricious grasses and swarm
ing with animal life Their soil is chiefly fine,
calcareous mould, admirably adapted for pas
turage, and good arabic farming land is found
along the banks of the rivers.
Col. Galphin describes the climate to be, in
many respects, like Egypt, rainless, favorable to
longevity, intellectual and physical develop.
ments and stimulative of high social civiIiza
tion. Storms are rare, except during the melt
ing oil snow upon the crest of the Rocky Noun
'alns' These plains. commonly regarded as
deserts irrecaimable, he declares, swarm with
animal life; and he estimates the buffalo. which
hnd their living upon them, at twenty millions,
all OF which subsist mainly upon the gramma
or buffalo grass which the dry atmosphere crisps
into highly nutritious hay.
A million of Indians have until lately suhsis-
ted altogether upon ths game which they fur
nishcd' and they ars4Hapable of sustaining a
vast pastoral population. Sx-tenths Of the
food OF the human fapi!y, the Colonel thinks,
is or ought to be animal, the result of pastoral
agriculture and as the northwest is now the
granary Of the world, so, he maintains, will
the Far West furnish its supplies of animal
food, consisting OF meat milk, butter, cheese
poultry, eggs wool end honey.
xhese plains, without single abrupt noun,
tain, timbered space, desert or lake. rnnnino
smoothly out to the navigable Missouri. Missis.
sippl and st. Lawrence, and to tho Texas coast
not portion oil whose whole sweep of surface
is more than u thousand miles from ,bo hoe,
navigation, must become the pastoral garden o,
the world.
They are everywhere adapted to sustain q
great pastoral population. Adobe bricks fo,
dwellings, imperyious to heat OF cold. can he
made anywhere plaster, lime, CLAW and sand
exist beneath nearly every acre ; bituminou.
coal is abundant, buffalo dung is scattered every
where' and wood fuel is found plentifully by
dieg'ng' ior the trees are stuntcd by the dry at
mosphere, while The roots spread Out in all d;rec
tions. aas
Mr. 1aiphin does not claim for these vas,
plains the cardinal bass of the future e,n,;ro =,
commerce and industry but maintains. froo,
their ample dimensions and positions, their cl;
mate, abundance Of fuel, building material and
animal iiie' that they are not only adapted to be
the home Of millions of happy lreemen. h,i
that they will be the pasture field of the
world"