The Tiffin tribune. [volume] (Tiffin, Ohio) 1848-1859, 1857-10-30
The Great western Plains.

The treat western flalns.
The recent steamboat arrivals at St.
L L,uis from the upper Missouri, give some
idea of the vast xtent Of country drained
by that mighty river and It's tributaries.
One boat started where the river narrowed
down TO only sufficient width to allow an
ascending boat to wind in order to ohsngo
its direction, and then followed down the
broadening stream for $500 miles until Il
mnges its muddy waters with the Mis-.
sissippi, aud in sufficient volume to give
color aud character to that great artery Of
the continent, even where by many
mouths il is swallowed in the gulf
Col. Galphin, who has we'll explored
our Great Western Plains, stretching from
the frontier Of Kansas and the heart Of
| Nebraska to tho Rocky mountains, in
lotter to the st. Louis Democrat, graph.
cally sketches their characteristics. 'rhs
Plains occupy along parallelogram
! Of nearly thousand miles in width, and
Extending from tho Texan to the Arctic
coast, present an area equal to the TWEEN
ty-four States east Of the Mississippi
They have a slight slope from the West
to East, and abound in rivers and streams,
which serve, like the Nile, to irrigate
rather than drain the neighboring surface,
having few aflluents, aud running from
West to East in shallow, broad beds,
through long, fiat, narrow basins. They
are destitute Of timber, even single trees
being scarce, though thick clad with nu.
tritious grasses, and swarming with ami
NAL life. Their soil is chiefly fine cal
careous mould, admirably adapted for pas
turage, and good farming arabic 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
lphiyscal development, and stimulatiye Of
"a high social civilization. Storms are
rare. except during the melting Of snow
upon the crest of the Rocky Mountains.
These Plains, commonly regarded as des-
erts, irreclaimabe, he declares, swarm
with animal life and he estimates the
Buffalo which find their living on them
at twenty millions, and other wild animals
at more than fifty millions, all of which
lsubsist mainly on the gramma or buffalo
grass, which the drv atmosphere orisps
into a highly nutritious hay. A million
Of Indians have, until lately, subsisted
altogether upon the game which they
furnished, and they are capable of sus.
tanning an immense pastoral population.
SiX-tenths of the food ofthe human family,
the Colonel thinks is or ought to be, ami
NAL, the result Of pastoral agriculture;
and as the Northwest is the grauary Of
the world, so, he maintsas, will the Far
West furnish its supplies Of animal food
consisting Of meat, milk butter, cheese;
poultry, eggs. wool, and some honey.
These plains, without single abrupt
mountain, tmbered space, desert, or like,
running smoothly out to the navgable
Missouri, Mississippi and ST. Lawrence,
and 10 the Texan coast, not portion of
whose whole sweep Of surface is more than
a thousand miles from the best navigation.
must become the pastoral garden of the
world. They are everywhere adapted to
sustain a great pastoral population Adobe
bricks for dwellings, impervio1s to heat
or cold, can be made anywhere; lime. clay,
and sand exist beneath nearly every acre;
bituminous coal is abunda {, buffalo dung
is scattered everywhere, and wood fuel is
found plentifully by digging for the trees
are stunted by the dry atmosphere, while
roots spread in all directions.
Mr.. Gaphin docs not claim for these
vast plains the cardinal basis Of the future
empire Of commerce and industry; but
maintains. from their ample dimensions
and positions. their climate, abundance of
fuel, building material and animal life.
that they are not only adapted to be the
home of millions Of happy freemen. but
that they will be ''the pasture-feld Of the
world"