oken and hilly, I embarked upon another steam-ferry at
Louisiana, a rising and promising village, and landed upon the shores of
Illinois, where the level prairies would allow of more rapid travelling.

The state of Missouri, in point of dimensions, is the second state of
the Union, being inferior in extent only to Virginia. It extends from
36 degrees to 40 degrees 35 minutes North latitude, and from 89 degrees
20 minutes to 95 degrees West longitude, having an area of about 68,500
square miles. Its boundaries, as fixed by the Constitution, are a line
drawn from a point in the middle of the Mississippi, in 36 degrees North
latitude, and along that parallel, west to its intersection, a meridian
line, passing through the mouth of the Kansas. Thence, the western
boundary was originally at that meridian; but, by act of Congress in
1836, the triangular tract between it and the Missouri, above the mouth
of the Kansas, was annexed to the state. On the north, the parallel of
latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Desmoines, forms
the boundary between that river and the Missouri.

The surface of that portion of the state which lies north of the
Missouri is, in general, moderately undulating, consisting of an
agreeable interchange of gentle swells and broad valleys, and rarely,
though occasionally, rugged, or rising into hills of much elevation.
With the exception of a narrow strips of woodland along the
water-courses, almost the whole of this region is prairie, at least
nine-tenths being wholly destitute of trees. The alluvial patches or
river-bottoms are extensive, particularly on the Missouri, and generally
of great fertility; and the soil of the upland is equal, if not
superior, to that of any other upland tract in the United States. The
region south of the Missouri River and west of the Osage, is of the same
description; the northern and western Missouri country is most
delightful, a soil of inexhaustible fertility and a salubrious climate,
rendering it a most desirable and pleasant residence; but south-east of
the latter river, the state is traversed by numerous ridges of the Ozark
mountains, and the surface is here highly broken and rugged.

This mountainous tract has a breadth of from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty miles; but although it often shoots up into precipitous peaks,
it is believed that they rarely exceed two thousand feet in height; no
accurate measurements of their elevation have, ho