Another prairie bearing the same name (Union Prairie), lies in Schuyler county, four miles west of Rushville. Village Prairie, in Edwards county, two miles north of Albion, is about three miles long. Walnut Hill Prairie reaches from Jefferson into Marion county; it is four miles by three, some parts of it being fertile, others humid and level. Walnut Prairie, in Clark county, extends five miles by two, having a fertile, though somewhat sandy soil. Webb's Prairie, in Franklin county, fifteen miles north-east of Frankfort, has a fertile soil. Wood's Prairie, in Wabash county, ten miles distant from Mount Carmel, is very productive. Having enumerated above the prairies which are known by their own proper names, we cannot leave it unmentioned, that there are many others bearing indifferent names; Illinois having in general such an abundance of prairies, that nearly two-thirds of its area consist of them. In order to enable the reader to inform himself regarding the manner in which prairie and forest are distributed over the area of the State, we subjoin a prairie and forest map, wherein the counties are marked and designated. We repeat them here, in alphabetical order: 1. Adams. 2. Alexander. 3. Bond. 4. Boone. 5. Brown. 6. Bureau. 7. Calhoun. 8. Carroll. 9. Cass. 10. Champaign. 11. Christian. 12. Clark. 17. Crawford. 19. De Kalb. 20. De Witt. 21. Du Page. 29. Greene. 13, Clay. 14. Clinton. 15. Coles. 16. Cook. 32. Hancock. 33. Hardin. 34. Henderson. 42. Johnson. 48. La Salle. There are no mountains in Illinois; in the southern, as well as in the northern part of the State, there are a few hills; near the banks of the Illinois, Mississippi, and several other rivers, the ground is elevated, forming the so-called bluffs, on which, at the present day, may be found, uneffaced by the hand of Time, the marks and traces left by the water, which was formerly much higher, and gradually lowered; whence it may be safe to conclude, that where now the fertile prairies of Illinois extend, and the rich soil of the country yields its golden harvests, must have once been a vast sheet of water, the mud deposited by which formed the soil, thus accounting for the present great fertility of the country. In relation to the quality of its soils, Illinois is generally divided as follows: First, the alluvial land on the margins of the rivers, and extending with a breadth varying from half a mile or a mile to seven or eight miles. Wherever it is elevated, this country is of an extraordinary fertility; at those places where it is low, and consequently exposed to inundations, it is a very unsafe matter to attempt cultivating it. The most extensive tract of alluvial land is the so-called American Bottom, which was thus named at the time it formed the western boundary of the United States; it stretches from the junction of the Kaskaskia with the Mississippi, along the latter to the mouth of the Missouri, containing about 450 square miles, or 288,000 acres. Secondly, the table-land, fifty to a hundred feet higher than the alluvial land; this commences at the slopes, by which the latter is encompassed; it consists principally of prairies, which, according to their respectively higher or lower situations, are either dry, or humid and marshy. Thirdly, the somewhat hilly sections of the State, which, alternately consisting of wood and prairie, are on the whole not as fertile as either the alluvial or the table land. The soil of Illinois is unsurpassed in fertility by that of any other State, there being no room for doubt, that at the time it shall have been settled throughout its entire extent, the produce of its harvests will surpass that of many other States together. Where in the world could a fertility be found equal to that of the American Bottom, which, ever since it was settled by the French, about 150 years ago, has, without any manuring whatever, yielded, year after year, the most abundant crops of Indian corn? 19 STATISTICS. THE population of Illinois is returned, by the Census of 1855, at 1,300,251 souls; having, since the year 1810, increased as follows: What distinguishes the state of Illinois from the other states of the Union, is its gigantic growth in numbers, as upon instituting a comparison with those states, the ratio of the increase in the population of which has also been very considerable, will be placed beyond a doubt. The United States' Census returns the population of Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as follows: |