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ILLINOIS.

Length, 380 miles, mean width about 156 miles. Area, 55,410 square miles, or 35,462,400 acres. Illinois, as regards its surface, constitutes a table-land at a varying elevation ranging between 350 and 800 feet above the sea level; composed of extensive and highly fertile prairies and plains. Much of the south division of the State, especially the river-bottoms, are thickly wooded. The prairies, too, have oasis-like clumps of trees scattered here and there at intervals. The chief rivers irrigating the State are the Mississippi-dividing it from Iowa and Missouri-the Ohio (forming its south barrier), the Illinois, Wabash, Kaskaskia, and Sangamon, with their numerous affluents. The total extent of navigable streams is calculated at 4,000 miles. Small lakes are scattered over various parts of the State. Illinois is extremely prolific in minerals, chiefly coal, iron, copper, and zinc ores, sulphur and limestone. The coal-field alone is estimated to absorb a full third of the entire coal-deposit of North America. Climate tolerably equable and healthy; the mean temperature standing at about 51° Fahrenheit As an agricultural region, Illinois takes a competitive rank with neighboring States, the cereals, fruits, and rootcrops yielding plentiful returns; in fact, as a grain-growing State, Illinois may be deemed, in proportion to her size, to possess a greater area of lands suitable for its production than any other State in the Union. Stockraising is also largely carried on, while her manufacturing interests in regard of woolen fabrics, etc., are on a very extensive and yearly expanding scale. The lines of railroad in the State are among the most extensive of the Union. Inland water-carriage is facilitated by a canal connecting the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and thence with the St. Lawrence and Atlantic. Illinois is divided into 102 counties; the chief towns being Chicago, Springfield (capital), Alton, Quincy, Peoria, Galena, Bloomington, Rock Island, Vandalia, etc. By the new Consti tution, established in 1870, the State Legislature consists of 51 Senators, elected for four years, and 153 Representatives, for two years; which numbers were to be decennially increased thereafter to the number of six per every additional half-million of inhabitants. Religious and educational institutions are largely diffused throughout, and are in a very flourishing condition. Illinois has a State Lunatic and a Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Jacksonville; a State Penitentiary at Joliet; and a Home for

Soldiers' Orphans at Normal. On November 30, 1870, the public debt of the State was returned at $4,870,937, with a balance of $1,808,833 unprovided for. At the same period the value of assessed and equalized property presented the following totals: assessed, $840,031,703; equalized $480,664,058. The name of Illinois, through nearly the whole of the eighteenth century, embraced most of the known regions north and west of Ohio. French colonists established themselves in 1673, at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and the territory of which these settlements formed the nucleus was, in 1763, ceded to Great Britain in conjunction with Canada, and ultimately resigned to the United States in 1787. Illinois entered the Union as a State, December 3, 1818; and now sends 19 Representatives to Congress. Population, 2,539,891, in 1870.

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INDIANA.

The profile of Indiana forms a nearly exact parallelogram, occupying one of the most fertile portions of the great Mississippi Valley. The greater extent of the surface embraced within its limits consists of gentle undulations rising into hilly tracts toward the Ohio bottom. The chief rivers of the State are the Ohio and Wabash, with their numerous affluents. The soil is highly productive of the cereals and grasses-most particularly so in the valleys of the Ohio, Wabash, Whitewater, and White Rivers. The northeast and central portions are well timbered with virgin forests, and the west section is notably rich in coal, constituting an offshoot of the great Illinois carboniferous field. Iron, copper, marble, slate, gypsum, and various clays are also abundant. From an agricultural point of view, the staple products are maize and wheat, with the other cereals in lesser yields; and besides these, flax, hemp, sorghum, hops, etc., are extensively raised. Indiana is divided into 92 counties, and counts among her principal cities and towns, those of Indianapolis (the capital), Fort Wayne, Evansville, Terre Haute, Madison, Jeffersonville, Columbus, Vincennes, South Bend, etc. The public institutions of the State are many and various, and on a scale of magnitude and efficiency commensurate with her important political and industrial status. Upward of two thousand miles of railroads permeate the State in all directions, and greatly conduce to the development of her expanding manufacturing interests. Statistics for the fiscal year terminating October 31, 1870, exhibited a total of receipts, $3,896,541 as against disbursements, $3,532,406, leaving a balance, $364,135 in favor of the State Treasury. The entire public debt, January 5, 1871, $3,971,000. This State was first settled by Canadian voyageurs in 1702, who erected a fort at Vincennes; in 1763 it passed into the hands of the English, and was by the latter ceded to the United States in 1783. From 1788 till 1791, an Indian warefare prevailed. In 1800, all the region west and north of Ohio (then formed into a distinct territory) became merged in Indiana. In 1809, the present limits of the State were defined, Michigan and Illinois having previously been withdrawn. In 1811, Indiana was the theater of the Indian War of Tecumseh, ending with the decisive battle of Tippecanoe. In 1816 (December 11), Indiana became enrolled among the States of the American Union. In 1834, the State passed through a monetary crisis owing to its having become mixed up with railroad, canal, and other speculations on a gigantic scale, which ended, for the time being, in a general collapse of public credit, and consequent bankruptcy. Since that time, however, the greater number of the public

works which had brought about that imbroglio-especially the great Wabash and Erie Canal - have been completed, to the great benefit of the State, whose subsequent progress has year by year been marked by rapid strides in the paths of wealth, commerce, and general social and political prosperity. The constitution now in force was adopted in 1851. Population, 1,680,637.

IOWA.

In shape, Iowa presents an almost perfect parallelogram; has a length, north to south, of about 300 miles, by a pretty even width of 208 miles, and embraces an area of 55,045 square miles, or 35,228,800 acres. The surface of the State is generally undulating, rising toward the middle into an elevated plateau which forms the "divide" of the Missouri and Mississippi basins. Rolling prairies, especially in the south section, constitute a regnant feature, and the river bottoms, belted with woodlands, present a soil of the richest alluvion. Iowa is well watered; the principal rivers being the Mississippi and Missouri, which form respectively its east and west limits, and the Cedar, Iowa, and Des Moines, affluents of the first named. Mineralogically, Iowa is important as occupying a section of the great Northwest coal field, to the extent of an area estimated at 25,000 square miles. Lead, copper, zinc, and iron, are also mined in considerable quantities. The soil is well adapted to the production of wheat, maize, and the other cereals; fruits, vegetables, and esculent roots; maize, wheat, and oats forming the chief staples. Wine, tobacco, hops, and wax, are other noticeable items of the agricultural yield. Cattle-raising, too, is a branch of rural industry largely engaged in. The climate is healthy, although liable to extremes of heat and cold. The annual gross product of the various manufactures carried on in this State approximate, in round numbers, a sum of $20,000,000. Iowa has an immense railroad system, besides over 500 miles of watercommunication by means of its navigable rivers. The State is politically divided into 99 counties, with the following centers of population: Des Moines (capital), Iowa City (former capital), Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington, Council Bluffs, Keokuk, Muscatine, and Cedar Rapids. The State institutions of Iowa-religious, scholastic, and philanthropic are on a par, as regards number and perfection of organization and operation, with those of her Northwest sister States, and education is especially well cared for, and largely diffused. Iowa formed a portion of the American territorial acquisitions from France, by the so-called Louisiana purchase in 1803, and was politically identified with Louisiana till 1812,

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