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has been called the "Switzerland of America," with its beautiful parks and mountain plateaus, some of which have an elevation of over six thousand feet above the level of the sea, but such is the aridity of the climate, that neither of these States, nor any of the States comprised in the belt lying west of the one hundreth degree of west longitude, can be made to subserve the uses of the husbandman without resorting to artificial means of irrigation.
This immense region is better known to scientific men in America than is generally supposed. Observations, made for many years by officers of the United States Army on frontier stations, have done much to throw light on this hitherto benighted land; and, prior to the late war, five surveys were made across the Rocky Mountains, at various points between the Mexican boundary and the British possessions. These different reconnaissances were made especially for the information of the Topographical Bureau.
The observations of each exploring party, noting daily the soil, climate, altitude and temperature of each locality passed over, with all the data pertinent to the different surveys made, have been carefully preserved in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington City.
I propose to read an extract from the report of Professor J. Henry, the learned secretary of this institution, made for the benefit of the Agricultural Bureau in 1856, and reported to Congress—and to be found in the Agricultural Report of that year, page 480. We commend this entire report to emigrants wishing to go to America:—"The general character of the soil between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic is that of great fertility, and, as a whole, in its natural condition, with some exceptions at the West, is well supplied with timber. The portion, also, on the western side of the Mississippi, as far as the 98th Meridian, including the States of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and portions of the territory of Kansas and Nebraska, are fertile, though abounding in prairies, and subject occasionally to droughts. But the whole space to the west, between the 98th meridian and the Rocky Mountains, is a barren waste, over which the eye may roam to the extent of the visible horizon with scarcely an object to break the monotony. From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the exception of the rich but narrow belt along the ocean, the country may also be considered, in comparison with other portions of the United States, a wilderness, unfitted for the uses of the husbandman; although in some of the mountain valleys, as at Salt Lake, by means of irrigation, a precarious supply of food may be obtained, sufficient to sustain a considerable population, provided they can be induced to submit to privations from which American citizens generally would shrink. The portions of the mountain system further South are generally inhospitable, though they have been represented to be of a different character. In traversing this region whole days are frequently passed without meeting a rivulet or spring of water to slake the thirst of the weary traveler. It is true that a considerable portion of the interior is comparatively little known from actual exploration, but its general character can be inferred from that which has been explored. As has been said before, it consists of an elevated swell of land, covered with ridges, running in a northerly direction inclining to the west. The western slopes, or those which face the ocean, are better supplied with moisture, and contain more vegetation, than the eastern slopes; and this increases as we approach the Pacific, along the coast of which, throughout the whole boundary of the United States to the Gulf of California, exists a border of land of delightful climate and of fertile soil, varying from 50 to 200 miles in width. The transition, however, from this border to a parallel district in the interior, is of the most marked and astonishing character. Starting from the sea coast, and leaving a temperature of 65 degrees, we may, in the course of a single day's journey, in some cases, reach an arid valley, in which the thermometer in the shade marks a temperature of 110 degrees. We have
