white male citizens of 21 years of age who have resided in the State six months next preceding the election. Illinois is entitled to 14 members of Congress, and 16 votes in the Presidential College of electors. HISTORY.-Illinois was first recognized as a distinct civil community when, in 1809, as a residuary remainder of the great North-western Territory, it was endowed with a Territorial government, under the designation of "The Illinois Territory," with Ninian Edwards as its Governor. Nine years later, having formed and adopted a constitution, it was admitted into the family of States; and, although the whole civil history of Illinois is contemporaneous with the lives of many persons still living, it is nevertheless true that her rivers and prairies had been diligently explored and graphically described long before the soil of Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana had been pressed by the foot of the white man. While the space occupied by this part of the continent was set down upon the maps as "unknown regions," and the world seemed profoundly asleep as to its magnitude or quality, the far-seeing Jesuits, regarding it from their cloisters in Europe, had a much clearer conception of its vast extent and ultimate importance. They accordingly inaugurated active operations to explore and subjugate that great Hesperian field. Within the space of thirty years, from 1512 to 1542, three several expeditions were fitted out under the auspices of Spanish Jesuits, to explore and appropriate this new world. These expeditions were severally under the direction of Juan Ponce de Leon, who was mortally wounded in a battle with the natives; Pamphito de Narvaez, who penetrated the interior and crossed the Mississippi River; and Hernando de Soto, who, after the most revolting cruelty and perfidy toward the natives, died of mortified ambition, on the 21st of May, 1542. These expeditions were projected from the Gulf of Mexico, and had for their motive the exploration of the country, and its subjugation to Spanish jurisdiction and the Roman Catholic faith. With the failure of De Soto, the career of Spanish conquest northward was effectually checked. Meanwhile, a like spirit of adventure was actuating Frenchmen of the same faith to prosecute like expeditions from the north. In 1535 James Cartier explored the St. Lawrence, and six years later colonized the region and called it New France; but no results of consequence followed for more than sixty years, during which period all efforts at colonizing America were suspended. In 1608 Samuel Champlain brought out a French colony, and laid the foundation of Quebec, and, five years later, of Montreal. He accompanied an expedition of the Algonquins against the Iroquois, on the shore of the lake that bears his name. The Algonquins were victorious, but, nevertheless, the Iroquois confederacy effectually barred the progress of the French traders and missionaries to the South, and directed their course toward the great Western lakes. In 1616, La Caron, a Franciscan, and companion of Champlain, penetrated the wilderness to the waters of Lake Huron, and labored for ten years as a missionary among the Indian tribes, esteeming "the salvation of a soul worth more than the conquest of an empire." In process of time changes were made in the government of the colony. New France passed to the company of the West

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Indies, and the Jesuit missions were taken in care by the new government, and Claude Allonez was sent on a mission to the far West. ing around the south shore of Lake Superior to the chief villages of the Chippewas, he established a mission, and formed an alliance with the Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, and Illinois against the Iroquois. The next year he learned from the Sioux of a great river flowing southward which they called Missippi, and returned thence to Quebec. He was soon followed by Marquette, Joliet, and others, stimulated by a relig ious zeal, love of adventure, and the exceeding beauty of the vast expanse over which they passed, until, on the 17th of June, 1673, floating down the Wisconsin, they entered the Mississippi, and pursuing the course of its channel passed the mouth of the Pekitanoni, or Missouri of our day, and of the Ouabouskigon, or Ohio, descended to the Arkamsea, or Arkansas, and being courteously received by the natives, retraced their way thence to the Illinois.

Robert Chevalier de la Salle, educated in a seminary of the Jesuits, and Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar of the Recollect Order, men of uncongenial spirit, though with similar objects in view, hearing of the partial success that had attended the expedition of Marquette, were soon on the ground to pursue the thread of discovery where it had been left by him. This they did until the 6th of April, 1682, when they had discovered the three passages by which the Mississippi discharges its water into the gulf. With religious pomp and ceremony, they took formal possession of the country drained by that mighty stream, in the name of "Louis le Grand, Roi de France et de Navarre, regne, le Neuvieme, Avril, 1682." This was a denouement somewhat different from what they had fondly anticipated, for it was the prevalent belief of that day that a passage through the American continent might be found to China and the East, and la Salle's mind was filled with the idea that the Mississippi River was the grand highway to that result. It was reserved to the last quarter of the nineteenth century to realize what was so fondly foreshadowed two hundred years before, by opening a great thoroughfare of nations across the American continent.

Having spent between two and three years, mostly in what is now the State of Illinois, Father Hennepin was detailed to accompany an expedition to explore a region of the upper Mississippi, and Sieur de la Salle went with another expedition to find, by way of the Gulf, the mouth of the Mississippi, in the prosecution of which enterprise he was, on the 20th of March, 1687, assassinated-the victim of a conspiracy among a portion of his own band. They had carefully explored the northern and central portions of Illinois, and made themselves familiar with the features and characteristics of that remarkable region of country. After a residence of eleven years in America, Father Hennepin returned to France, and in 1698 published in London two volumes, dedicated "To His Most Excellent Majesty William III, by the grace of God King of Great Britain," etc., the first of which is entitled "A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, extending above four thousand miles, between New France and New Mexico, with a description of the Great Lakes, Cataracts, Rivers, Plants, and Animals."

The second volume is "A Continuation of the New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, giving an account of the attempts of the Sieur de la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, the taking of Quebec by the English, with the advantages of a shorter cut to China and Japan." These volumes are replete with historic incidents, and their accounts so accurate as to serve for a passably good physical description of Illinois at the present day.

Chicago is the most populous and commercial city in Illinois, and the most remarkable in the United States-probably in the world-in respect to its rapid growth. It is situate on the south-western shore of Lake Michigan, and on both banks of Chicago River. Latitude 41° 52′ 20′′ north, and longitude 87° 35' west. It is built on an extensive plain, above inundation, and extending many miles south and west. The adjacent country for many leagues consists of beautiful prairie, arable and fertile. The Chicago River, with its north and south branches, (which unite about three-fourths of a mile from the lake,) separates the city into three portions. The main stream, flowing directly eastward, is from 50 to 75 yards wide, and from 15 to 20 feet deep, forming one of the best of natural harbors. The city is laid out in rectangular blocks, the streets conforming nearly to the cardinal points of compass. In 1832 it was an obscure hamlet a mere point of traffic with the Indians-its inhabitants not numbering above three hundred. In 1846 it numbered about 17,000; in December, 1853, 59,130; in August, 1856, 84,113; in October, 1862, 138,186; in October, 1864, 169,353, and in October, 1866, 200,418. Who will venture to compute its population or wealth when the great Union Pacific Railway, now rapidly progressing, shall be completed? It will then be an important point on that great highway of nations.

MISSOURI.

MISSOURI, one of the largest of the United States, and the first formed wholly west of the Mississippi River, is bounded on the north by Iowa, (from which it is separated for about 30 miles on the northeast by the Des Moines River,) and on the east by the Mississippi River, which divides it from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee;_ on the south by Arkansas, and on the west by Indian and Nebraska Territories and Kansas, from the latter two of which it is partly separated by the Missouri River. This State lies (with the exception of a small projection between the St. Francis and the Mississippi Rivers, which extends to 36°) between 36° 30′ and 40° 30′ north latitude, and between 89° 12' and 96° west longitude, being about 285 miles in its greatest length from east to west, and 280 in width from north to south, including an area of 67,380 square miles, or 43,123,200

acres.

RIVERS. Missouri enjoys the navigation of the two greatest rivers in the United States, if not in the world. By means of the Mississippi River, which coasts her entire eastern boundary, she can hold commercial intercourse with the most northern territory of the Union, with the whole of the valley of the Ohio, with some of the Atlantic States, and with the Gulf of Mexico. By means of the Missouri, her other great river, she may extend her internal commerce to the Rocky Mountains, besides receiving the products that may be furnished in future times by its multitude of tributaries. The Missouri River coasts the north-west of the State for about 200 miles, (following its windings,) and then darts across the State in a direction à little south of east, dividing it into two portions, of which about a third is north, and the remainder south of that river. The south shore is bounded in many places by bluffs of from 100 to 300 feet in height, while the north is often bottom lands, not generally liable to inundation. Both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers are navigable for large steamers far beyond the limits of the State, though the navigation of the latter is impeded by the swiftness of its current (twice that of the Mississippi) and by the shifting sands.

The Missouri River, which is the longest tributary stream in the world, has its source in the Rocky Mountains, latitude 45° north, longitude 110° 30' west. The springs which give rise to this river are not more than a mile from the head-waters of the Columbia, which flows west to the Pacific Ocean. The first 500 miles of its course to the Great Falls is nearly north; then inflecting east-north-east, it reaches its extreme northern bend at the junction of White Earth River, latitude 48° 20' north. After this its general course is southeast till it joins the Mississippi in about 38° 50' north latitude, and 90° 10′ west longitude. At the distance of 411 miles from the source of the Missouri, are what are denominated the gates of the Rocky Mountains. For a distance of nearly 6 miles, the rocks rise perpendicularly from the water's edge to a height of 1,200 feet. The river is compressed to a width of 150 yards, and for the first 3 miles there is only one spot, and that of but a few yards in extent, on which a man could stand between the water and the perpendicular walls. At a distance of 110 miles below this, and 2,575 miles above the mouth of the Missouri, are the Great Falls, where the river descends, by a succession of falls and rapids, 357 feet in 16 miles. The perpendicular falls, commencing down the stream, are, first, one of 87 feet, one of 19 feet, one of 47 feet, and one of 26 feet. Between and below these are continual rapids of from 3 to 18 feet descent. These falls, next to Niagara, are regarded as the grandest in North America.

The bed of the Missouri commences at the confluence of three small streams, about equal in length, and running nearly parallel to each. other-Jefferson's, Madison's and Gallatin's. The Yellowstone, 800 yards wide at its mouth, and probably the largest tributary of the Missouri, enters it from the south-west, 1,216 miles from its navigable Bource. The two rivers, at their junction, are about equal in size. Steamboats ascend to this point, and may ascend further, both by the

main stream and its affluent. Chienne River, 400 yards wide at its mouth, enters the Missouri from the south-west, 1,310 miles from its mouth; White River, 300 yards wide, enters it from the south-west, 1,130 miles from its mouth; Big Sioux River, 110 yards wide, enters it from the north-east, 853 miles from its mouth; Platte River, 600 yards wide, enters it from the south-west, 600 miles from its mouth, Kansas River, 233 yards wide, enters it from the south-west, 340 miles from its mouth; Grand River, 190 yards wide, joins it from the north, 240 miles from its mouth, and Osage River, 397 yards wide, flows into it from the south-west, 133 miles from its junction with the main stream. The Missouri is stated to be 3,096 miles long to its confluence with the Mississippi; add to this 1,253 miles, the distance its waters must flow, to reach the Gulf of Mexico, and we have an entire length of 4,349 miles. There is, however, reason to believe, that the early statements respecting the extent of this river and its tributaries were somewhat exaggerated. Throughout the greater part of its course, the Missouri is a rapid, turbid stream. No serious obstacle, however, is presented to navigation from its mouth to the Great Falls, a distance of 2,575 miles, excepting, perhaps, its shallowness during the season of the greatest drought, when steamboats meet with difficulty in ascending. The flood from this river does not reach the Mississippi till the rise in the Red, the Arkansas, and the Ohio Rivers has nearly subsided. Vast prairies, with narrow strips of alluvion skirting the streams, compose the Missouri basin, excepting the upper portion of the river, which flows through an arid and sterile region. The entire extent of area drained, is estimated at 500,000 square miles.

Among the affluents of the Mississippi in Missouri are the White and St. François Rivers, which drain large sections in the north part of the State, but are properly rivers of Arkansas. The Maramec, which enters the Mississippi twenty miles below St. Louis, has a course of about 180 miles. Salt River, which joins the Mississippi 65 miles above the confluence of the Missouri, runs for more than 260 miles with a gentle course through a tolerably fertile bottom land. There are other considerable streams flowing into the Mississippi both above and below the Salt, which afford extensive mill-power.

Of the affluents of the Missouri from this State, the most considerable are the Osage and Gasconade. The Gasconade is important chiefly for the supplies of timber which it furnishes, and also for its vast water-power for manufacturing purposes; its length is about 120 miles. The Osage rises in the plains between the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers, and flows in a general east-north-east direction about 400 miles, joining the Missouri River, near the center of the State; it is 375 yards wide at its mouth, and is navigable for light-draught steamboats through half its course. The Charitan, Grand, Platte, and Nodaway rivers are affluents of the Missouri, from the north, and each is navigable for some distance. The Grand spreads out into numerous branches, and drains a large section of the middle prairies.

GEOLOGY.-The range of the geological formations in Missouri is almost limited to those groups which are comprised between the lower