Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1857-07-18

THE GREAT WESTERN PLAiNs.-Tho recent
steamboat arrivals at st. Louis from the Upper
Missouri. give some idea of the vast extent Of
country drained by that mighty river aud Is tri-
butnrea. One boat started where the river WAS
narrowed down to only sufficient width to allow
nm ascending boat to wind in order to change its
direction. and then followed down the broaden
ing stream for $500 miles unit. ID mingles its
muddy waters with tho Mississippi, and in suff-
oient volume TO give color and character to that
great artery Of tho continent, even when by ma.
ny mouths il is swallowed in thu Gulf.
Colonel Galphin, who has well explored our
Great Western Plnins, stretching from the from
tier Of Kansas and tho heart of Nebraska to the
Rocky Mountains, in letter to the st. Louis
Democrat graphically sketches their character
istics. The Plains occupy n longitudinal paral-
Telegram of nearly n Thousand miles in width,
and extending from the Texan to tho Arc tic
ooast. present an area equal TO the twenty four
States east of the Mississippi. They havoa
slight slope from the west to the east, and n
bound ia rivers and streams. which serve. like
the Nile. to irrgale rather than drain the neigh
boring surface, having few aiiluents, and running
from west to east in shallow, broad beds, through
long, fiat, narrow bhsins.--They ARE destitute of
timber. even single trees being scarce, though
thickly clad with nutritious grasses, and swnr-
ming with animal life. Their soil is chiefly
fine calcareous mould, admirably adapted for
along the banks of the rivers.
Colonel Galphin describes the climate to be.
in many respects. like Egypt. rainless. favorable
to longevity, intellectual and physical deveope-
ment and s,pulative of high socin civilization
Storms are rare, except during the melting Of
snow upon the crest Of the Rocky Mountains
These plains commonly regarded as deserts, ir-
rncaimnblc he declares swarm with animal life;
aud he estimates the Buffalo which find their Iiv-
ing upon them at twenty millions. and other wild
animals at more than fifty millions, all ot which
subsst mainly upon the gramma or buffalo grass
which the dry atmosphere Grips into highly nu-
tricious hay. A million of Indians have, until
lately, subsisted altogether upon the game which
they furnished and they are capable of sus tain
ing an immense pastoral population Six tenths
of tho food of the human family, the Col. thinks.
is, or ought to be, animal, the result OF pastoral
agriculture, and as the Northwest Is now the
grnnary 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 and honey.
These plains, without single abrupt noun
tain timbered space, desert or lake, running
smoothly out to the navigabe Missouri, Missls-
sppi and st. Lawrence; and to the Texan coast.
not portion of whose whole sweep Of surface is
more than thousand miles from the best naviga-
tion, must become the pastoral garden OF the
world.
They are everyw4.ere adapted to sustain great
pastoral population. Adobe bricks for dwellings
impervious to heat or cold. can be made any
where; plaster, lime, clay and sand, exists be-
meath every acre; bituminous coal is in abundant
buffalo dung is scattered everyw where, and wood
fuel is found plentifully by digging for the trees
are stunted by the dry atmosphere, while the
roots spread out in all directions.
Mr.. Galphin does not claim for these vast plains
the cardinal basis of the future empire of com
me,ce and industry; but maintains, from their
ample dimensions and positions. their climate.
abundance of fuel. building material and animal
life that they not only adapted to be the home
of millions Of happy freemen, but that they will
be .the unsture field of the world"