HOMES FOR IMMIGRANTS ON THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. WHY MANY IMMIGRANTS DO NOT LIKE TO GO TO THE WEST-VIEWS OF MANY OF OUR OWN PEOPLE ON THE SUBJECT-ARE THERE NOT HOMES FOR THESE ON THE ATLANTIC SLOPE?-ADVANTAGES OF THE EAST-WISCONSIN AND MICHIGAN- OHIO, INDIANA AND ILLINOIS - TENNESSEE- MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT-MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT--NORTHERN NEW YORK-LONG ISLAND-ADVANtages of New System of EnsiLAGE HERE AND IN NEW JERSEY— NEW JERSEY THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES-West Virginia-NORTH CAROLINA— OUR WESTERN EMPIRE; OR, THE NEW West Beyond THE MISSISSIPPI. PART I. OUR WESTERN EMPIRE. CHAPTER I. WHAT IT COMprehends—THE WEST BEYOND THE MISsissippi—Its AREA AND EXTENT-COMPARISON WITH OTHER EMPIRES-CLIMATE-MOUNTAINS— NATURAL PHENOMENA-SOIL-THE ALKALINE, VOLCANIC AND "BAD LANDS -PREDOMINANCE OF ARABLE and Pasture LANDS-NUTRITIOUS GRASSES IN THE GRAZING LANDS. "OUR WESTERN EMPIRE" is of greater extent than any other Empire of Christendom except Russia and Brazil, and in population, enterprise, and advantages for future growth is the peer of any; but it has no monarch, hereditary or elective, to rule its wide domain. It forms a large part-more than twothirds of the Great Republic of the United States of America, and over all its vast extent, an intelligent and industrious, moral and capable people rule themselves. Their chief magistrates, their governors and executive officers, are men of the people, selected by the people, for short terms of service, and replaced by others, when those terms expire. What, then, do we understand "Our Western Empire" to comprehend? All of that portion of the United States lying west of the Mississippi, and including the new Territory of Alaska. Its northern boundaries are the Arctic Ocean and Behring's Sea and Straits west of the 140th meridian; and east of that, British America; its western limit the Pacific Ocean; its southern, Mexico and the Mexican Gulf; its eastern, the Mississippi river 3 (33) from its mouth to the Canada line, and the west line of British America, above the fifty-fourth parallel. It has an area of 2,671,884 square miles, of which 577,390 or about one-fifth, belongs to Alaska. It extends over 42° of latitude, and in its farthest western boundary, "by Ounalaska's lonely shore," over 103° of longitude. Leaving Alaska out of the question, as a mere dependency, the remainder of "Our Western Empire" comprises 24° of latitude and 36° of longitude, having a breadth of nearly 2,000 miles from east to west, and a length from north to south of 1,700 miles, with an area of 2,094,494 square miles. The whole of Europe except Russia, including the great German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Republic of France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdoms of Turkey, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and the minor States and principalities, have in all only an area of 1,678,791 square miles, about four-fifths of "Our Western Empire" exclusive of Alaska, or including it, less than three-fifths. Its population is of course much less than that of the larger European States, though somewhat greater than that of the Brazilian Empire, and increasing at a rate never equalled in the world's history. No empire in the world has a greater diversity of climate; from the more than six months' winter of the northern border, and the mountainous regions, on some of which rest eternal snows, to the tropical heats of Arizona and Southern Texas, there is the greatest possible diversity of moisture and drought, of heat and cold, of moderate, equable and health-giving temperature, and of rapid change, and fickle, inconstant skies. Like other large empires, it has great diversities of surface. Three ranges of lofty mountains traverse it from north to south with their numerous outlying spurs, their broad plateaux and table-lands rising to a height of 6,000 to 9,000 feet, their mesas or isolated flat-topped mountain summits, their deep and terrible cañons, and their long valleys, sometimes narrow and precipitous, sometimes broad seas of verdure and flowers. These are: the Rocky Mountains, appropriately named "the backbone of the Continent," and occupying a |