PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.

No parallel can be found in the world's history to the progress and the prospects of the GREAT WEST. Within the memory of living men, it was, for the most, an unbroken wild-the abode only of wild beasts, or of wilder men; and many of its most wealthy, prosperous, and inviting sections, scarcely twenty years since were untrodden by civilized feet. Now, in population, wealth, material progress, in the means of intercommunication, in liberal and permanent provision for the general and thorough education of its rising millions, she is without a rival. Her advancement, however, has but just begun. Her real greatness is yet in the future.

The West is the common center-the grand rallying ground of the world's emigrants-of its population, its labor, and its capital.

In view of what the West now is, and what each

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PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.

year is demonstrating she must become, who can estimate her future population, resources, and greatness?

The history of a region so vast, so rich, and so rapidly advancing, is one of the most interesting that can anywhere be found. In the work here offered to the public, the effort has been to give the rise, progress, and present condition of the States and Territories of the Great West.

This book also supplies a great deficiency in our literature. Most other books upon the West are confined to some limited range of country, and are filled either with adventures across the plains and over the mountains, or with details of mere local interest. But this takes a comprehensive view of the WHOLE WEST. It describes the earlier emigrations to the West, and presents a vivid picture of the modes of traveling, and of the difficulties and dangers of the way; it takes a comprehensive survey of the vast water communications which connect the West with all other portions of the continent; it contains a reliable account of the first explorations of the Mississippi valley, compiled from the original manuscripts of the explorers themselves, affording information which has never before been placed in the hands of the gen

PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.

eral reader; it brings the general history of the West down to the present time; it gives a sketch of the local history of the Western States and Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, together with such portions of their Constitutions and Laws as possess a general interest; it traces out the great thoroughfares by which the best regions for agriculture, commerce and mining may be reached, together with tables of distances; and gives an accurate account of the mines of Lake Superior. On the whole, it is a book to be read-interesting to the general reader, and valuable to the emigrant and traveler. It is written in a style at once sprightly and elegant; its details and its facts are often relieved by romantic incidents, and exciting and interesting adventures of Western Pioneer life.

The author possesses a rare experience of the West, having visited almost every part of it this side of the Rocky Mountains, to obtain a knowledge of the country, the progress of settlements, and the manners and customs of the people.