the Buona Ventura River. For two days I continued
my road almost always in sight of the stream, till at last, the ground
becoming too broken 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 deg. to 40 deg. 35' N. lat, and from 89 deg. 20' to 95 deg. W. long., 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 deg. N. lat., 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 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 t