Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-05-17

remaining continent, Africa, has one
river Of great length. the Nile, which
flows, too, through greater number Of
degrees of latitude than any other
river.
The Nile rises south of the equator, and
crossing it reaches at length. after trav-
ersing the torrid regions of Northern
Africa, the Mediterranean Sea. People
living in one part of the torrid zone are
not likely to need what is produced in
another part Of the same zone. The
Nile has q great many obstacles to con-
tend with that are peculiarly its own.
The desert, and its savage bands of rob-
bers, the terrible heat of the torrid zone,
the relatively small extent of country
drained by its stream, its lack of navi-
gable tributary streams-all these things
make the Nile Insignificant in point Of
commerce.
The Mississippi River flows through
about % degrees of latitude, counting
from the sources of the Milk River, q
branch of the Missouri, to the mouth at
the Southwest Pass. The climate at the
mouth is semi-tropical in character.
Opening upon gulf that washes wide
circuit Of tropical territory, and bears
on its bosom the coveted West Indies,
our RIVER may be said without
exaggeration to connect the torrid zone
on the south, with the coolest part of
the north temperate zone on the north.
Thus we have practically union of
whatever varieties of climate the habit
able portion of the earth affords. From
the extreme north, where the summers
are short, and the vegetable productions
and animals those of high latitudes, to
the gulf, where the fruits, spices, sac
charine plants, and drugs are found,
there is continual stimulus for trade and
interchange. Even, constant interim
grafton is invited by the facility of es-
Gaping the extremes of heat and cold,
by varying ones residence up and down
the river-living at st. Paul or Omaha
in the summer, and in New Orleans in
the winter. Unlike the Nile, the Mis-
sissippi spreads out gigantic branches
on either hand reaching to the
distant mountain ranges which form the
boundaries of this vast region. The
Ohio, the Upper Mississippi, the Mis-
souri,, the Arkansas and White, the
Red, the YazoO, the St. Francis-these
arms, like those of Briareus, grasp and
hold a region in which there is every
variety of soil and of atmospheric con-
dirion. According to the census Of
1870, the population of this valley was,
in round numbers, nineteen millions of
people, or one-haf of the entire popu-
latiOn of the nation. This section had
increased, during the previous decade,
four and q half millions, while the
States on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes
had increased only two and half mill
ions. The concentration of political
and social power in this valley is so
rapid that before the close of the pres
ent century we shall have two thirds or
three-fourths of the population of the
country, or, say fifty millions Of people,
. population nearly as large IS that of
Russia.
The function of this population in the
national development is to be unifying
and reconstructing one. Whereas the
States on the oceanic frontiers will
tend, and do tend, to develop differ
ences in social and political customs,
and in policies Of government, the CEN
trail region will develop harmony and
unite the differences created. For the
lines of commerce and of social inter
change here are in the direction of north
and south, while the lines of communi-
cation on the oceanic frontiers are di-
rected east and west. This is q very
happy circumstance for the strength and
stability Of our nation.-Prof. VIM. T.
Harris, in 81. Louis Exporter and I'M
porter.