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This collection of steamers brings together an immense concourse of drays, carts, wagons & every variety of pedestrians & freight. There is probably no busier scene in America in the same space, for two miles of forrest of smoke stacks is seen towering above the "arks" from which they seem to grow, all between this and the line of warehouses is filled with a dense map of apparently inextricable confusion, bustle, noise & animation, - more steamboats are probably seen here than at any port in the world, they being the only means of transportation to & from this place, but 'ere long the Railroads are destined to diminish their monopoly. -- One might find material for the study of the human mind within this space to occupy him for some time -- the "decks" of the steamers alone are a world in themselves, the immigrants, the boatsmen, & the variety of travellers. [left margin obscured] xxx the labouring class with team on these western waters are there seen in every xxx position & occupation. The upper & new portion of the city is regularly laid out with broad streets & the public buildings & private residences are many of them in very good taste --* (of the western states Illinois probably offers as great inducements to xxx agroculturists as any, as large a proportion of the land is arable & it affords crops of grain xxx corn of great yield-- Its surface is gently un dulated and is the first state where the praries are found -- Ohio produces grain, corn, and fruit & manufactures extensively, Indiana [&] Illinois grain & corn -- Kentucky ditto, tobacco & hemp, Tennessee grain & cotton & tobacco -- "Hog & Hominy" abound in Ohio, Indiana, & Illinois - Kentucky [unclear]