Wisconsin has been equally fortunate in the numbers and the material of her foreign immigration.

The great European movement, which is likely to characterise the latter half of the 19th century, will consist, not so much in the improvement of the forms of social organization at home, as in the reproduction of her civilization under greatly improved conditions, by a massive emigration to the new world, whose broad surface of land still unoccupied, is demanding settlement and cultivation, with a voice now familiar to the ear, and attuned to the heart of Europe.

There is a Germany in America which is destined to be greater than the German's fatherland. Ireland is already Cis Atlantic, and regenerate.-The Scandinavian, with a remarkable power of assimilation, touches our shores and is American in thought, feeling and language.

From all these sources, Wisconsin is deriving large and steady accessions of numbers and of wealth, of enterprise and of cultivat ed intellect; not of those who drop down by accident within our borders, but of those who leave their native shores with no other intention than to find a home in Wisconsin.

Through those several channels of increase and progress, Wisconsin presented in the year 1850-the third of her existence as a Sovereign State and a member of our National Union—a population of 305,000 souls, a result absolutely without parallel in the settlement of States.

And it is equally true that the opening of her career as a sovereign State, has been from a point of nearer approximation to the standard of social maturity which prevails on the Atlantic border, and with far less sacrifice of the advantages and refinements of modern civilization, than has been true of other new States, whether of the North-West, or of other portions of the great valley.

It is, therefore, an interesting question, and one which has attracted attention, public and private, what are the natural capabilities of Wisconsin, which have made so broad and permanent an impression upon the mass of mind at home and abroad, as to bring to her shores so large a portion of the men and the capital that are annually seeking a home and investment in the West?

The answer to this inquiry naturally arranges itself under a variety of heads which will be very briefly considered.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION,

The State of Wisconsin comprises most of that portion of the original Northwestern territory which lies north of the parallel of Latitude 42° 30, and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river, and extending to Lake Superior on the north. A portion of this expanse of territory, lying between Green Bay and Lake Superior and to the north and east of Menomonee and Montreal riv

ers, is attached to Michigan; and another portion, west and north of the St. Croix and St. Louis rivers, to Minnesota.

The arca of Wisconsin, exclusive of the waters of Lake Michigan and Superior, comprises fifty-four thousand square miles, or thirty five millions of acres.

CLIMATE.

Included between parallels 42° 30, and 48° north, the climate of Wisconsin is of the same general character with that of New York and New England. The average annual temperature, however, of Wisconsin is not of so low a figure as that of the same parallels on the Atlantic border. The atmosphere is drier, more transparent and salubrious, and the whole area of the State is remarkably free from those causes of endemic disease which were by no means unknown in the settlement of western New York, which have been the misfortune of large portions of Michigan, and the scourge of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and, in part, of Iowa. Wisconsin is conceded to be the healthiest of the western States. Summers are adapted, in temperature and duration, to perfect all the products natural to the latitude, but are not oppressive. Its Autumns are proverbially delightful. Its Winters are close and uniform, but not harsh or generally severe.

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES, SOIL, &c.

Its

The limestone, underlying the coal fields of Illinois, forms the immediate basis of the alluvion of Southern Wisconsin. This geological district, in addition to that portion of the State which lies southerly of the valley of the Wisconsin river, comprises the whole of the slope towards Lake Michigan.

In many portions of this district the lime rock disappears, and the out-cropping sand stone furnishes a fine material for building. The lead bearing rock of the mineral region is a porous lime stone, prevailing throughout Grant, La Fayette and Iowa Counties, comprising four fifths of the "Lead District" of the Upper Mississippi; the remaining one fifth being in the States of Illinois and Iowa.

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Deposits of Iron ore, water lime stone, and beds of Gypsum, together with other varieties of minerals, are found in localities more or less numerous throughout the lime stone region.

All of that section of the State, which lies between Lake Superior on the North, and the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi, and the falls of the other rivers flowing southerly, is primitive in its prevailing Geological character; and it is within this primitive region, that the copper mines of Lake Superior are found-probably the richest in the world, and apparently inexhaustible.

In all that portion of the State, lying between the primitive region just described, and the lime stone formation of the South and

East, the transition sand stone prevails; interspersed with lime stone, and more sparsely, with rock of a primitive character. This formation comprises that section of country drained by the Wisconsin and other rivers tributary to the upper Mississippi, and below the falls of those streams. Within this Geological District, are found quarries of white marble, which promise to be abundant and valuable.

The character of the soil of Wisconsin is, of course, indicated to some extent by its geological features. The lime stone district of the State is overspread by a soil and subsoil similar to that which prevails in other portions of the great valley, and unsurpassed by any in fertility. It is the distinction of the mineral region of Wisconsin, that it is overspread by a surface of the very finest agricultural qualities; contrary to the general fact, that a mining district is worthless for the purpose of culture.

Proceeding northerly, and westwardly of the dividing ridge between the waters of Lake Michigan and those that flow into the upper Mississippi, the soil will be observed to become more sandy and porous; a character which will be found to prevail throughout the sand stone region above described. This portion of the State admits of easy cultivation. The soil is warm and highly productive, and the growth luxuriant.

FACE OF THE COUNTRY, SCENERY, &c.

The surface of Lake Michigan is about six hundred feet above the level of the Ocean. The surface of the State is every where undulating; not hilly, much less mountainous. Its average level

below Latitude 46° is about 250 feet above Lake Michigan; seldom falling so low as 100 feet and rarely rising above 400 feet. The highest of the Blue mounds, on the line between the Counties of Dane and Iowa, rises 1170 feet above Lake Michigan, and is perhaps the most elevated land in Wisconsin.

There is a remarkable depression in the surface of the country, running across the State, from Green Bay to the Mississippi, the bottom of which furnishes the channels of the Fox and the lower Wisconsin. The portage between these two rivers is less than two miles.

This portage is but 223 feet above the level of Lake Michigan; being the elevation of the dividing ridge, at this point, between the basin of the Lakes and the valley of the Mississippi. At the mouth of the Wisconsin, the western terminus of this depression is about 60 feet above Lake Michigan; that of Lake Winnebago, at the head of the rapids of the Fox being 160 feet.

From the North into this valley flow the upper Wisconsin, and the Wolf, and on the South the country rises to the level of the head waters of the Rock, 316 feet above the surface of Lake Michigan. Thence there is a gradual inclination of the surface south

erly to the line of the State; the elevation of which at the egress of the Rock is 128 feet above the Lake.

It is characteristic of the State, that the streams uniformly flow in beds but very slightly depressed below the general level of the adjacent country, and present no difficulty in the way of construction of roads of easy grade, transversely, as well as in the line of water courses. There is also, from this cause, much less to be apprehended from the sudden and destructive swell of the volume of water, from copious rains-two considerations, which they know best how to appreciate, who have dwelt where rivers and their branches make their beds in deep valleys, while the general elevation of the country is but a succession of intervening ridges.

Such being a general description of the surface of Wisconsin, the immigrant will not look for Alpine Scenery, or the bolder and sublimer features of the country of high mountain and deep valley. But in all that constitutes the beauty of the landscape, whether in the vestments of nature, or in those capabilities which cultivation can alone develope, Wisconsin is without a rival. Among her ten thousand undulations, there is scarcely one which lifts its crown above its fellows, which does not disclose to the prophetic eye of taste, a possible Eden, a vision of loveliness, which time and the hand of cultivation will not fail to realize and to verify.

The only forests, of a growth approximating towards that of Western New York, Pennsylvania and Northern Ohio, are found in a small portion of the Rock river valley, and in a narrow border on Lake Michigan, widening as it is traced northerly; evergreens becoming more freely interspersed, and finally predominating.

The evergreen growth prevails in the valleys of the streams of the sand stone district. The most extensive pinery in the State, is found on the upper Wisconsin. The same valuable growth prevails in the valleys of the Wolf, the La Crosse, the Black, the Chippewa, the St. Croix, and other streams penetrating the sand stone region.

Aside from these localities and the primitive region of Lake Superior, the elements of the Wisconsin landscape are the rolling prairie, the sparse wood-land, the opening, the natural meadow, and the lake. These, in their infinite variety of combination, and in their unrivaled loveliness, make up the natural scenery of the State. Three hundred and fifty thousand souls have, in a day as it were, found a happy home in Wisconsin. But her millions of acres, equally beautiful, and all untouched, are still courting the hand of cultivation, and the adornings of art.

EDUCATION.

The bounty of Congress has set apart the 16th Section of every township in the State for the support and maintainance of common Schools. From this source, nearly 1,000,000 acres will accrue to

the State, the proceeds of the sales of which are to constitute a permanent fund, the income of which is to be annually devoted to the great purpose of the grant.

This magnificent foundation has been wisely enlarged by Constitutional provisions, giving the same direction to the donation of 500,000 acres, under the act of 1841, and the five per cent. reserved on all sales of Government lands within the State. A still larger addition will accrue from the grant of the Swamp and overflowed lands, which the settlement of the country, the lapse of time, and easy processes of reclamation, will convert into the best meadow land in the world, and a large portion, ultimately, into arable.

For the support of a State University, seventy-two Sections of choice land, comprising 46,080 acres, have been already granted, and it is not improbable that this provision may be also enlarged by subsequent grants. If these trusts are administered with ordinary wisdom, the educational funds of Wisconsin, cannot be less, ultimately than $3,000,000 and may reach $5,000,000.

The University is already chartered and in successful operation. The school system has been wisely designed, and the progress of organization, under the law, keeps pace with the progress of settlement. There are already not far from two thousand five hundred school districts in the State. The annual income to be divided, has already reached $70,000, and will be greatly increased from year to year.

The system contemplates, by the introduction of union schools, to extend academic instruction to each town in the State.

In addition to this munificent public provision for common and liberal education, there are, in different parts of the State, educational incorporations, both academic and collegiate, founded on private subscription. The most promising of these are the College at Beloit, well endowed, and in successful operation and similar Institutions at Milwaukee, Racine and Waukesha in Eastern Wisconsin, and at Appleton, in the North.

Indeed, in none of the new States, even in the Northwest, will the means of education be more ample; and in none is there a more rational appreciation of the importance of this paramount public interest.

In Wisconsin, as in the other States of this Union, there is, and ever will be, an entire freedom of ecclesiastical organization, and an equal protection of every religious institution and arrangement, conservative of good morals, and protective of the highest and most enduring interests of man.

In consideration of all these elements of prosperity, economical and social, such as have never, till now, gathered around the opening career of a new political cómmunity, there is little ground for wonder that the early growth of Wisconsin has been without a parallel in the history of States; and it may be very safely assumed,