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69 on the right & left by 23,000 miles more of the natural vegetation of its great affluents. And the vast valley which this system of rivers opens to traffic & travel is so extensive & fertile that it cd support the whole population of Europe; & probably will support someday as large a population in far greater material well-being, & with far more highly cultivated intelligence.

   If every thing throughout this vast territory had been arranged

by the most intelligent of Mankind, with a view solely to the convenience of its inhabitants, we cannot imagine how it cd. have been made to contribute to those ends in a higher degree than it does at present. Not only is it capable of producing to a practically unlimited extend every plant that man cultivates, but it is also inexhaustibly rich in the precious & the useful metals, & in mineral fuel. The configuration too of the continent is such as to aid man in many ways in subduing & utilizing the soil; for on each side of the grand central valley rises a long range of Mountains, the one descending to the Pacific, the other to the Atlantic, which give birth to multitudes of rivers, which connect these vast districts with the two oceans, & supply harbours for carrying on intercourse with all the world.

  One of the causes that has most contributed to the wealth & commercial

aptitude of the inhabitants of the old country? is that the productions of no two districts in it are precisely similar. The districts for instance that breed cattle & sheep are not always those that fatten them, & never those that consume them. So with cereals, one district is good for wheat, another for barley, another for oats, another for beans & peas. Fish that