side of the Alabama river four miles from the town of Washington, and eight miles from Robinson Springs, a fashionable watering-place. It is on Autauga Creek, from which the county takes its name. Autauga,' in the English language signifies 'corn dumpling.' Autauga creek is a bold, clear stream supported by beautiful springs which rise aboui fifteen miles from its mouth. It is the most uniform stream in the world-neither depressed by a protracted drought, nor much swollen by heavy rains. It is, consequently, one of the best character for manufactories, for it can always be depended upon. The fall is pretty rapid, and the water can be worked over every half mile. The banks are bold, and the pine forest making up to the edge, so that there is no swamp near the creek. The woods abound with pine timber, the country healthy, the water good, navigation convenient, and every thing is favorable for the erection of extensive manufactories. The bed of Autauga creek is of a sandstone, generally reaching across — hence the foundation is superior for mills.

"Mr. Pratt's fortunes began to advance from this purchase. His improvements have been extraordinary, and one cannot realize they have been made in so short a period, save by the wand of an enchantress. He has also an interest in a large business house in New Orleans.

"The immense establishments at this place include a large cotton gin manufactory, which completes ten to twelve gins per week. They are shipped to New Orleans and Mobile, for the supply of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. The gins contain fifty saws each, of the value of $3 to $4 a saw. The steel plates for saws are imported from the North, but all the rest of the machinery is manufactured upon the place, in the extensive sawing, planing, mortising, grooving and other departments, conducted by water power. Several saw-mills are employed in getting out necessary lumber for buildings, &c. The Alabama iron we observed in use, in casting railroad axles, some of which it appears are contracted for in Prattsville.

"The cotton manufacturing establishment is a new addition to the premises. It has the power of 3,000 spindles, all of which were not adjusted when we were there. The cost of the machinery for this power is estimated by Mr. Pratt at $40,000, or over $13 the splindle. No part of this cotton establishment has been in operation six months. The persons employed are taken from the country around, men, women and children-families being preferred-who are furnished with houses at small rent and obtain their provisions at the shops and neighboring farms. Average wages $8 per month. There is no difficulty in getting operatives, who soon become expert in the business. Negroes have not been employed from the abundance of other labor.

"The Prattsville Factory, when in operation, will consume 1500 bales of cotton annually. The cotton is bought in the neighborhood. The cloth is of a coarse quality, for which a ready market is always at hand, at ten cents the yard

containing one half pound cotton. Purchases of cotton in the last season were made at nine and a half to ten cents.

"Mr. Pratt's enterprise displays itself in every manner. The town contains two school houses for the children of operatives, and two churches, Methodist and Baptist; two or three stores, a resident physician-but we believe not yet a lawyer-bad taste! A newspaper was seriously thought of when we were there. There are upwards of one hundred and fifty to two hundred hands employed, who receive their wages monthly. Their appearance is healthy and happy. Upwards of forty small buildings have been constructed by the proprietor.

“The private mansion at Prattsville is a splendid structure, with beautiful neighboring grounds. A fountain plays, and various shrubbery is scattered

around. The prospect from the building is imposing.

"We have not mentioned half the things at Prattsville worthy of admiration-the neatness, the system, the order, the extent. A single power working every thing-corn, flour, cotton, saw, and every other mill-the appended blacksmithing and carriage establishments, etc., etc.

"In manners the proprietor is unostentatious-simple and republican in his course of life. His energies are indomitable, and his industry knows no impediment or regards no toil. Night and day this man of enterprise may be found at his post. The interior of his mansion is adorned with a large hall and gallery of paintings. Thus are not the arts forgotten. A splendid picture of Rome and St. Peters adorns the hall, executed by our townsman, George Cook, of New Orleans. Mr. Clay appears as large as life, and we understand that Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster will be procured to adorn and illustrate in the same style the gallery.

"Prattsville is capable of employing with its water power, 30,000 spindles, and according to the estimate of its proprietor, $1,000,000 will create there a town of 3500 inhabitants, and give employment to them.

"We take leave of this interesting place with regret, our memories of it are so lively. May every fortune attend it in the future! We hope to see it for the south a great manufacturing Lowell, and to see many such Lowells among us. Here is an instance already of an immense fortune amassed by industry and energy in scarce the third of a generation. Who will imitate the example?"

The population of no other country would be more benefitted by the introduction of manufactures, than would the non-slaveholders of the south. The more fertile lands being almost exclusively in the possession of the slaveholders, the former labor under disadvantages from which there is scarcely a hope of escape by agricultural employment; and the establishment of manufactures would not only give them profitable employment as operatives, but would afford them a market for many agricultural products for which there is at present no demand. In support of these views, and as evidence that the south is becoming awakened

to this subject, we give the following extract from a highly intelligent and practical planter in Alabama :

"If I can get my affairs arranged so as to allow me the control of my time, it would afford me pleasure to write essays for your Journal. I desire to collect some statistics on the subject of cotton; the quantity grown in every county; the kind of labor employed; the ratio of increase; the number of hands engaged; the number of spindles now running, and their location; which will show their distance from the cotton-fields. I have long entertained the opinion that the spindles should be located in the nearest provision region to the cotton-fields; and the growers and spinners should be identified in feeling and familiar dealers with each other; and the result of this opinion when pursued, is, that we should have spindles enough in the Mississippi Valley to spin the cotton grown in it. The revulsions in trade in England, and the decline in cotton in the last ninety days, are strong proofs to my mind, that we should not allow any "foreign power” to have the control of the most powerful product of America. Yet we know that the cotton-growers themselves have been the most violent and influential opponents of this system. Cotton cannot be consumed till spun; therefore the holders of the spindles hold the power. Philanthrophy will hail with delight the union of the growers and spinners; for then, the naked will be clothed cheaper than at any former period of the existence of man."

The experiment of applying slave labor to the manufacture of cotton, was made some years ago, by Mr. William Doering, at Athens, Georgia, with eminent success; and there can no longer remain a doubt in the mind of any intelligent individual who is well acquainted with the mental and physical character of the black population of the United States, that slave labor can be made as efficient as any other in this important branch of industry.

Considering this fact as established, we conclude that Missouri possesses as many advantages for manufacturing cotton, as any other State of the Union. This is the true provision-growing latitude of the continent, and abounds in iron, coal and water-power; while it is accessible by navigation, open every month in the year to the introduction of the raw material from the plantations of the south.

The institution of slavery, which is generally considered as having retarded the increase of population in this State, may, nevertheless, be made the means of establishing manufactures at an earlier period perhaps than they could have been established without.

Slaves of the proper age may be considered as so much capital in hand; and as such might be advantageously invested in manufacturing stock, and while the profits of their labor would be greatly increased by transferring them from the farm to the cotton mill, the price of the fabric would be reduced to the consumer. Intending to discuss this subject more fully hereafter, we have merely suggested these hints at present for the reflection of our readers in the interval.

ART. VI.-THE COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES,

CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR IMPROVEMENT BY THE FEDERAL

GOVERNMENT.

"Let it be remarked, that the intercourse throughout the Union will be daily facilitated by new improvements."

"The communication between the Western and Atlantic districts, and between different parts of each, will be rendered more and more easy, by those numerous canals with which the beneficence of nature has intersected our country, and which art finds it so little difficult to connect and complete."-[James Madison's appeal in behalf of the Constitution of the U. S.

"Whenever the annual expense of transportation on a certain route, in its natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital employed in improving the communication, and the annual expense of transportation, (exclusive of the tolls,) by the improved route, the differ ence is an annual additional income to the nation.-[A. Gallatin's Report of 1808.

IN treating the subject of western commerce and navigation, especially in their relations with the Federal Government, we shall, for the sake of perspicuity, as well as convenience, divide it into several chapters.

The first, we will devote to a general view of the nature and extent of the country, including, of course, its navigable streams.

The second, will relate to its history, population, commerce and navigation. In the third, we will speak of the power and the duty of the Federal Government.

CHAPTER I.

When we speak of western commerce and navigation, we mean that commerce and that navigation, which appertain to the Mississippi river and its tributaries.

That river and its tributaries drain the great central valley of this continent, embracing twenty-one degrees of latitude, and fifteen degrees of longitude, twelve entire States, parts of three others, and two Territories. The States and Territories we include are, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wiskonsan, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas; parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia; and the Minesota and Missouri Territories. This valley comprises, within its limits, 1,200,000 square miles; 768,000,000 of acres, and half the population of the United States. The Rocky Mountains on the West, the line of the British possessions on the North, the Alleghanies on the East, and the Gulf of Mexico on the South, are, in general terms, the boundaries of this vast and magnificent area.

The great river of the valley takes its rise in about latitude 48 deg. north, and discharges its waters into the Gulf of Mexico in latitude 29 deg. 5 min. It flows through a channel 3,000 miles long. Its course is south, nearly 14 deg. east. Its width averages about half a mile. Its width does not increase with the volume of water, but is about the same at Galena, 1,600 miles above the mouth, as at New Orleans, where the volume is six times as great. It is 645 yards wide at Vidalia, Louisiana. It drains an area of 300,000 square miles. Its mean velocity at the surface, for the year, opposite Vidalia, is 1.88 miles per hour. Oppo

site St. Louis its velocity is about three miles per hour, and with a fall of about one foot in six miles. Its mean depth, per annum, across the entire channel, at the same place, (Vidalia,) is about sixty feet. At St. Louis it is about twenty-two feet. The mean velocity is reduced about fifteen per cent. by friction against the bottom. The total amount of water discharged, per annum, in cubic feet, is 8,092,118,940,000.* . About once in three or four years, the river is closed at St. Louis in the winter by ice, and it has been known to be frozen below the mouth of the Ohio. The season of highest water, above the mouth of the Ohio, is the spring, or first month of summer. The highest point, to which the water has been known to rise, was thirty-eight feet and one inch above low water mark, on the 27th of June, 1844. The obstructions in the river, dangerous to navigation, and requiring removal, are snags, sawyers, sunken logs, stumps, rocks, sand bars and wrecks of steamboats. These occur more or less frequently, from the mouth of the Missouri to New Orleans. The obstructions above the mouth of the Missouri, are the Upper and Lower Rapids. IT

The Lower, or Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi, are two hundred and four miles above St. Louis, and beyond the mouth of the Des Moines river, whence they derive their name. Commencing a little above Keokuk, the Rapids extend nearly up to Montrose, or old Fort Des Moines, opposite to which is the town of Nauvoo. The length of the Rapids is estimated at eleven miles, having a fall of twenty-four feet. Here' says Professor Nicollet, the Mississippi tumbles over ledges of blue limestone, at all times covered with more or less water, and through which many channels have been worn by the action of the current. During low stages of the water, the passage of the Rapids is very difficult, as well in consequence of the shallowness of the water, as the narrowness and tortuousness of the channel, so that the time of practicable steamboat navigation is shortened by nearly three months in the year, which is about the duration of low water in the river.' This, together with closing of the navigation by winter for nearly four months more, reduces the season of practical steamboat navigation to about five months in the year. A system of improvements was commenced by Capt. Lee, of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, under the authority of the Govern ment, and continued with satisfactory results until the appropriation was exhausted.

The Upper, or Rock River Rapids, so named from their proximity to Rock River, are fourteen to fifteen miles long, extending from Rock Island to near Port Byron on the left, and Parkhurst on the right side of the river. The fall, according to Capt. Lee, from the head to the foot of the Rapids, is twenty-five and three-quarter (251) feet, and very much of the character of the Lower Rapids. In consequence of the short turns and narrowness of the passes between the reefs, boats cross the current obliquely, and run great risk of destruction. Capt. Lee has demonstrated the practicability of removing these obstacles, so as to afford a *Prof. Forshey.