Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-10-17
pHYsrcAL eroaRApHY or QUE coNrrNrNr.


PHYSICAL eroasArA 4 Or oualcosrrrnrr.
WILLIAM Gnpm, E8q, an enlightened citizen
of Missouri, has sent us three letters or essays en-
bracing an exposition Of the physical geography Of
the West, with view to the dissemination of .
popular acquaintance with our whole continental
| domain. We give the two first of these letters
to-day, and shall produce the remaining one in our
next, saais =
81 FOR THE NATIONAL ISrrLLIasNoER
The Great Vest Character of the Development
an Progress at the West.
There is radical misapprehension in the popular
mind to the true character of the Great Plains Of
America" complete as that which pervaded Europe
respecting the Atlantic Ocean during the whole historic
period prior to Columbus These plains not deserts
but the opposite and the cardinal basis of the future
empire Of commerce and industry now erecting itself
upon the North American continent. They are calca
reous and form the Pastoral Garden of the world Their
position and may be easily understood. The meri
dian line which terminates the States of Louisiana Ar
kansas, Missouri, and Iowa on the west forms their
eastern limit and the Rocky Mountain crest their west
ern limit. Between these limits they occupy longu-
width extending from the Texan to the Arctic coast
There is no timber upon them and single trees are
scarce They have gentle slope from the west to the
east, and abound in rivers They clad thick with
nutritious grasses, and swarm with animal life. The
soil is not slicous sandy, but is fine caloareous
mould. They smoothly out to the navigable rivers
the Missouri Mississippi and st. Lawrence and to the
Texan coast. The mountain towards the Pacific
form serious barrier between them and that
No portion of their whole sweep Of surface is than
thousand miles from the best navigation. The pros
pect is every whess gv aaslsting and graceful, be-
ing bounded, the ocean, by the horizon Storms
are rare, except during the melting of the SHOWS upon
the crest of the Rocky Mountains The climate is COM
paratively ranless; the rivers serve like the Ne to
rrgate rather than drain the neghborng surface and
have few afiuents. They aI from west to east.
having beds shallow and broad and the basins through
which they flow fat long, and The area of
the "Great Plains is Equivalent to the surface of the
twentyour States between the Mississippi and the At
lantic sea- but they one homogeneous formation
smooth, uniform, and continuous without single abrupt
mountain, tmbered space DESERT or lake. From their
ample dimensions and position they define themselves to
be the pasture fields Of the world Upon them pastoral
agriculture will become separate grand department of
national industry.
The pastoral characteristic being novel to our people
needs minute explanation In traversing the continent
from the Atlantic beach to the South Pass the point of
greatest altitude and from the sea- we cross
successfully the mbered region the prairie region of
soft soil and long annual grasses, and finally the Great
Plains The two first irrigated by the rains coming
from the sea- and drdba The last is rainless of
compact SOIL resisting the plough and therefore paso
ra The herbage is peculiarly adapted the climate
and the dryness of the soil and atmosphere and is pc
rennial 1t is edible and nutritious throughout the
year This is the gramma" or "buffalo grass" 1t
the ground inch height has the
leaf has he fuon ori
raj texture of negros hair During the melting of the
SHOWS In the immense mountain masses at the back of
the Great Plains the rivers swell like the Ne and yield
copous evaporation in their long snuous across
the plains; storm clouds gather on the SUBMITS roll
down the mountain fanks and discharge themselves in
vernal showers During this temporary prevalence of
moist atmosphere these delicate grasses grow seed the
root and are cured into hay upon the ground by the gr
dually returning drought 1t is this longitudinal belt of
perennial pasture which the buffalo finds his nter
ood dwelling without regard lattude and here
are the infinite herds of aboriginal cattle peculiar to
North America-buffalo wild horses, elk antelope
white and backailed deer mountain sheep the grisy
bear, wolves, the hare bsdger porcupne, and smaller
animals nnumerable The aggregate number of this cat
e by calculation from sound data exceeds one hundred
million No annual freA ever sweep the Great
Plains; these are confined to the Prairie REGION
The Great Plains also swarm with poultry-the turkey,
the mountain cock the prairie cock the sand hill crane
the curlew water fowl of every variety the swan goose
bran ducks; marmots the armadillo the pcary rep
tiles the horned frog of prey, eagles, vultures
streams abound in fish. pcgs and demi-wolves abound
The immense population If nomadic Indians lately
million in number have som immemoral antiquity sub
sisted exclusively upon these aboriginal herds being un
acquainted with any kind of agriculture or the habtua
of vegetable food orfrus. From this source the
Indian draws exclusively his food his lodge his fuel
harness, clothing bed, his ornaments, weapons, and
utensils Here is his soedependence from the beginning
to the end of his existence The innumerable carnive
rous animals also subsis 1pon them. The buffalo alone
have appeared to me as numerous as the American peo
n1a and 10 nhoh,f
country The buffalo robe at once suggests his adapta
bity to q winter climate.
The Great Plains embrace very ample proportion of
arabte soil for farms TIE "bottoms of the rivers
very broad and level having only few inches of eleva
ton above the waters, which descend by rapid and
even current They be easily and cheaply saturated
by all the various systems of artificial irrigation,
quieas artesan wells flooding by machinery Under
this treatment the Soils being auvia and cacareous
both from the suphate AID carbonate formations
prodigious yield, and pendent of the seasons
Every variety Of gran rass vegetable the grape and
fruits flax, hemp cotton and the fora under perpe-
ual and irrigated the root attain extraordinary
ygor, flavor, and beauty
The Great Plains abound in fuel and the materials for
dwellings and fencing Btunnous coal is every where
nterstratfed with the acareous and sandstone forma
tom 1t is also abundant in the anks of the mountains
and is every where conveniently accessible The dung
of the buffalo is scatted every where. The order of
vegetable growth being reversed by the aridty of the
atmosphere what show above the merest bushes rad
late themselves deep into the earth, and form below
immense arborescent gowth Fuel of wood is found by
digging Plaster and lime limestone, freestone clay
and sand, exist beneath almost every The large
and economical adobe brick, hardened in the sun and
without fire. superseds other materials for walls and
fences in this dry atmosphere and, in Syria and
Egypt ressts decay for centuries The dwellings thus
constructed are most healthy being impervous heat
oold damp, and wind.
The climate of the Great Plains is favorable to health
longevity intellectual and physical development and
smuative of an exalted tone of social civilization and
refinement The American people and their ancestral |
European people having dwet for many thousand years
exclusively in countries of timber and within the region
Of the maritime atmosphere where winter annihiates
all vegetation annually Ter half the year; where all ami
NAL food must be sustained fed and fattened by lage
with the plough where the essential necessities of ex-
istence food clothing fael; and dwellings, secured
only by constant and intense manual toll why to this