The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1869-06-12


Idaho, Utah, parts of Colorado
and New Mexico, and the whole
of Arizona, the aggregate area
being say eight hundred and fifty
thousand square miles, or equal
to eighteen States of the size of
New York. California, built up
from her gold mines, is destined to
prove the richest State in the
Union in her grain, fruits and
roots of all descriptions. Oregon
and Washington are rich in their
timber, arabic lands and fisheries.
Idaho has but little to depend
upon beyond the gold mines. Ne
vada literally overf1ows with sill
yer, and has also some of the fin
est timber and rock salt in the
world. The Mormons of the wa
tered valleys of Utah Ia Territory
generally desert) have made the
most productive farms and gar
dens this side of California, and
from their great Salt Lake, at no
distant day, millions of tons of
salt will be produced. In Arizo-
na "a gold and silver region) are,
on the banks Of the GiIa river,
some of the finest lands and the
ruins of some of the most ancient
cities on the Continent. They are
supposed to have been the cities
of the ancient Aztecs, the same
people whose splendid city of
Mexico of later date was the
wonder of Cortez.
All this great western section of
the United States. from the tier of
States on the west bank of the
Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean,
may properly be placed as part of
the Asiatic section of this Cont
nent, while the country from the
dividing line indicated to the At
lantic may quite as appropriately
be called the European section in
its prevailing natural features. In
our Asiatic section, as in Western
and Central Asia, we have grassy
plains and deserts and rocky
mountains, with occasional strips
along their sides of timber
and numerous streams, including
rivers of considerable length,
which have no outlet to the sea,
but are absorbed by the sands, or
emptying into isolated salt lakes,
are evaporated by the sun, ana
general dryness prevails over all
this Asiatic region. From a hun
dred miles west of the Mississippi
to the towering Sierra Nevada
chain, which follows north the
line of the Pacific coast, the gen.
eral level of the country is from
four to five thousand feet above
the sea, and from its altitude and
prevailing dryness it is among the
very healthiest regions in the
world. Like the Asiatic Caucas-
ian region, it is calculated to de-
velop the white man in his physi-
cal perfection the finest race of
men and the loveliest women on
the globe.
Ours is, indeed, a great country.
We are great with a population
inside of forty millions; but
the western section we have
been describing, with less than
three millions of souls, is capable
itself, with our modern appliances
of art, of sustaining a hundred
millions, and fifty millions may
be conveniently added to our
Southern States, with thir twelve
millions. The Pacific Railroad
opens these bonndless western
regions to the emigrant, and the
abolition of slavery and the es-
tablishment of equal rights opens
to him as invitingly, whether from
Europe or Asia, the golden gates
of the South. AS for the African,
there will be no more importa-
tions, and the living element of
the race on hand will gradually
fade away.-[N. Y. Herald.
~ Old Dicky s. is a very
wealthy but very illiterate East