yellow color, and is similar to a very ripe musk-melon in taste and flavor. The tree is a perpetual bearer and yields enormous quantities of fruit, a single tree producing enough for a large family. The milky juice of the unripe fruit and the powdered seeds are a powerful vermifuge, but the most extraordinary property of the tree is that of rendering the toughest meat or poultry perfectly tender by steeping for a few minutes in the milky juice. The banana may be successfully cultivated as far north as Fernandina, and where once established, a plantation of this fruit needs no renewal, and one acre will produce as much food as fortyfive acres of potatoes. Figs, pomegranates, olives, and various kinds of berries are produced in abundance. South of latitude 28° north the date palm is grown with great success. Apples and pears have not been so successful. The peach, the nectarine, and the plum do well, and are less subject to disease and injury from insects than in the north. The grape grows luxuriantly and is found wild in many parts of the State. The black and white Hamburg, Muscat, and other foreign varieties reach the greatest perfection. The Scuppernong is most generally cultivated, and makes excellent wine. The guava, sugar-apple, alligator pear, plantain, and cocoanut are strictly tropical fruits, but they may all be raised without difficulty in the southern portion of the peninsula.

To the stock-raiser Florida presents every facility that could be desired. There is never any necessity for housing cattle, which will maintain themselves in good condition throughout the year entirely without care, fattening upon the many varieties of nutritious wild grasses that cover a large portion of the country. In the southern portion of the State the extensive savannas and moist prairies produce tall grasses which afford excellent pasturage. In the forest the oaks furnish an abundant mast upon which hogs readily fatten, these animals being found throughout the State half wild and generally in good condition. Sheep do well in Florida, furnishing a superior quality of mutton, although the wool is not of as fine a quality as in the North. The number of horses in the State in February 1869 was estimated at 7,000; mules, 6,600; oxen and other cattle, 170,600; milch cows, 81,000; and hogs, 103,500. The total value of the live stock was estimated at $5,007,939. Game, fish, and oysters exist in great abund ance. The oysters of St. Andrew's Bay and Indian River are celebrated for their size and quality. The bays, rivers, inlets, and lakes swarm with mullet, bass, sheepshead, trout, and many other varieties of fish. Deer, bears, squirrels, ducks, and turkeys are found throughout the State. Large quantities of sponge are annually gathered along the coast; and on the Gulf coast and among the keys, where the water contains a larger per cent. of salt than the ocean itself, there are excellent locations for the establishment of salt works.

Tallahassee, the seat of the State government, is situated in Leon County, twenty-five miles north of the Gulf. The city, occupying an elevated site, is laid out in rectangular blocks and contains the State-house, court-house, and Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches. The adjacent country is remarkably fertile, and is the most populous in the State. The city is connected by railroad with St. Mark's, Pensacola, and Jacksonville. The population in 1860 was 2,128.

Pensacola, the county seat of Escambia County, is on the western shore of Pensacola Bay. Its harbor has twenty-one feet of water on the bar, and is one of the safest harbors on the Gulf. The population of the city is about 5,000.

Key West, on an island of the same name, occupies an important po

sition in a military point of view. Its harbor is capacious and easily accessible for ships drawing twenty-two feet of water. The entrance to the harbor is defended by Fort Taylor, a large, costly structure.

St. Augustine, one of the largest places in the State, is situated on the north side of Matanzas Sound, about two miles from the sea. It is the oldest town in the United States, and has for many years been a noted resort for invalids. It is defended by Fort Marion, erected by the Spaniards more than one hundred years ago.

Appalachicola, Jacksonville, and Fernandina are among the other principal towns in the State.

During the year ending June 30, 1870, the lines of the public surveys were extended over 407,333 acres, making the total quantity surveyed in this State up to that date of 27,103,768 acres.

Of the entire area of the State, 37,931,520 acres, there remained unsold and unappropriated at the date above mentioned, 17,287,909.31

acres.

The Islands of Cuba and San Domingo may be regarded as a prolonga tion of the Florida Peninsula, from which they are separated only by narrow and comparatively shallow channels. The introduction into these islands of modern agricultural improvements, the opening of their mines, and the invigoration of their industries by American enterprise and a stable government, will bring the people of the West India group into intimate connection with the people of Florida by railroad communication, extending to the southern extremity of the peninsula and eastward through Cuba, Hayti, and San Domingo, which would be broken only by ferries across the Strait of Florida and the Windward Channel respectively. By such a line a vast commerce would be built up in the exchange of the manufactures and agricultural products of the more northern States for the tropical fruits, woods, and minerals of the southern portion of Florida and the islands in the vicinity; and over such a thoroughfare also would throng multitudes seeking the milder latitudes for the winter months, or the bracing climate of the North during the summer heats. As an indication of the future of the West India Archipelago, the following facts as to the commerce which existed there prior to the revolution in Hayti are presented:

The exports of the French portion of the island in 1789 amounted to $38,000,000, and the aggregate produce of the island, including the Spanish portion, was nearly $92,000,000, while its imports were no less than $50,000,000. Sixteen hundred vessels and twenty-seven thousand sailors were employed in conducting all the branches of this colonial traffic.

The island is as prolific now as it was eighty years ago, and with modern improvements in cultivation, new processes of manufacture, and under a sound and permanent government, a commerce of much greater extent and value could, beyond doubt, be created within a short period of time, while the more perfect utilization of the resources of the country would not only induce a vast immigration, thereby adding to the value of real estate in this beautiful garden spot, but would furnish attractive and lucrative employment to elements of its population now without permanent industries.

ALABAMA

is bounded on the east by Georgia, on the west by Mississippi, on the north by Tennessee, and on the south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, having a gulf coast of sixty miles. A part of the State, form

ing a narrow strip between Florida and Mississippi, extends to the Gulf of Mexico, in 30° 15′ north latitude, but the main body of the State lies between 310 and 350 north latitude, and from 85° 10′ to 88° 31′ west longitude, being 280 miles long, with a general breadth varying from about 140 miles in the north to about 200 in the south. The area of the State is 50,722 square miles, or 32,462,080 acres.

This State is of a level surface, except in the northern portion, which is mountainous, the Blue Ridge extending through it, but attaining here no great height. Declining generally from this region toward the south, the State presents a vast expanse of prairies with gentle swells, and reaching at length a point but little raised above the sea level.

The principal rivers are the Mobile, Alabama, Tombigbee, Chattahoochee, Black Warrior, and Tennessee. The last mentioned passes through the northern part of the State, with a circular sweep from east to west, receiving no considerable tributary on its southern side within Alabama, and flowing into the Ohio at Paducah, Kentucky. The other rivers mentioned flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly all the waters of the State fall into the Mobile River, by which principally the southern slope is drained into the Gulf. The eastern border is watered for several hundred miles by the Chattahoochee, a large stream, but having no considerable tributaries from this State. The Alabama and Tombigbee, both large rivers, form, by their junction, fifty miles above Mobile Bay, the Mobile River, which empties into that bay. A few miles below the junction the Tensaw issues as a branch from the Mobile, and reaches Mobile Bay at Blakeley, after having been augmented by another stream from the Alabama. The Tombigbee, coming from Mississippi, unites with the Black Warrior, which flows from Northern Alabama, and thus augmented, unites with the Alabama to form the Mobile. The Black Warrior is navigated by steamers for 285 miles, and the Alabama for about 300 miles, although with interruptions in the dry season. The Conecuh, Perdido, and Choctawhatchee are smaller rivers. Mobile Bay is the main outlet of the navigable waters of the State, being about thirty miles long and from three to eight broad, with fifteen feet of water at low tide at the main entrance. There is steam-boat navigation in the State for nearly 1,500 miles.

In the southern portion of the State is a region extending for 132 miles north from the Gulf of Mexico, and 40 from the Florida State line, across the State, and embracing an area of 11,000 square miles, which contains extensive pine forests, yielding excellent timber, tar, and turpentine, while on the lowlands along the rivers in the same district are found the different varieties of the oak and the cypress, noted for the durability of its timber. The soil in this region is naturally adapted to raising grapes, apples, peaches, and pears, and corn and cotton may be produced. It is also favorable for stock-raising, the pine forests affording natural pasturage for cattle. It is watered by the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, and there are also good railroad facilities. An abundant supply of fish and oysters is obtained from the waters of the Gulf and Mobile Bay.

North of this for about 102 miles on the western and 60 on the eastern line of the State is a section of country characterized by extensive prairies, an excellent climate, and rich soil, which is highly productive of cotton, corn, and provisions. This is one of the most fertile districts, most healthy and best adapted to agricultural pursuits of any in the South, while by its railroad and river facilities it has easy access to market. The land here will produce from 50 to 60 bushels of corn, or 800 to 900 pounds of seed cotton per acre; and tracts which, before the

late war, were held at from $30 to $50 per acre, may now be had at from $5 to $10.

For about thirty-five miles further north, across the State extends a section in which the soil is poor, but which is healthy, and where numer ous streams afford good water-power, favorable to manufacturing purposes, and with good railroad facilities.

In the northeastern part of the State is the mineral region, extending about one hundred and sixty miles in a south westerly direction, with an average width of eighty miles. Here are found white, black, and variegated marbles, soapstone, flagstones, graphite, or plumbago, and granite, with coal-fields, covering four thousand square miles, from one to eight feet thick, the coal being bituminous, and well adapted for generating steam, and for the manufacture of gas, coke, and iron. Near these coal-fields are extensive beds of limestone, sandstone, and iron ore. Throughout this mineral district there are numerous fertile valleys, in which wheat, corn, and cotton are produced, and which are well adapted to stock-raising.

The northwestern portion of the State is a stock and agricultural region, producing cotton, corn, grain, grapes, and stock, in which the climate is healthy, the soil rich, and before the war, cultivated lands were valued at from $30 to $50 per acre; now, for the same, the prices are from $5 to $10.

Alabama was originally a part of Georgia. The Territory of Missis sippi was organized in 1798, including the present States of Alabama and Mississippi. Florida then belonged to Spain, and intervened be tween the Territory of Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, excluding the former from the sea. In the war of 1812, the United States took possession of that portion of Florida lying between the Perdido and Pearl Rivers, and it was afterward united to Mississippi Territory. After General Jackson, by his decisive war with the Creeks, removed all ap prehension of Indian hostilities, the country fast filled up with popula tion until, being divided, a part was admitted as the State of Mississippi in 1817, the other portion continuing a Territory until 1819, when it was admitted as the State of Alabama.

The State is well provided with schools and churches, newspapers, periodicals, and institutions of public benevolence, the Federal Government having liberally appropriated from the public lands for the sup port of common schools and a State university, from which there has been realized, for the former purpose, $1,807,438 91, and for the latter, $300,000.

Among public institutions are the Alabama Insane Hospital, at Tusca loosa; the Medical College of Alabama, at Mobile; the Alabama Institu tion for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, at Talladega, and State University, at Tuscaloosa.

The railroads, completed and in prospect, present a very complete sys tem by which all portions of the State will be united with the general railroad system of the country, there being now in operation over 1,036 miles of road, the cost and equipment of which is estimated at $36,421,000. The principal city is Mobile, the only seaport of Alabama, being located on the Mobile River, near where it enters Mobile Bay. It was founded in its present location in 1711, and was incorporated as a city in 1819. In 1860, its population was about 30,000. The city is well built, with streets regularly laid out, paved and lighted with gas, and handsome public buildings. Mobile has an extensive trade and some manufac turing business. It exports lumber, turpentine, rosin, oil, &c., but cotton is the principal article of export.

travail de la pensée; elle satisfait beaucoup d'esprits, et M. Droz eût dû prévoir qu'en énonçant une affirmation opposée, il allait rencontrer des contradicteurs prévenus qui le condamneraient sans le lire. C'est en effet ce qui est arrivé, et ce titre peu habilement choisi a dû éloigner plus d'un lecteur. M. Droz a trop de sincérité pour avoir songé à être habile. Moi-même, je l'avouerai, je n'ai abordé qu'avec une sorte de défiance l'examen d'un travail que je voyais nécessairement consacré à la démonstration d'une proposition inscrite à l'avance. Mais à mesure que je poursuivais cet examen, j'étais frappé de la sagesse et de la modération des appréciations, et je me convaincais que ce n'est pas là le développement d'une thèse préconçue, que c'est au contraire l'investigation patiente et soigneuse d'où est résultée la conviction réfléchie de l'auteur. Le titre qu'il a adopté est donc la conclusion et non le but de ses efforts: distinction importante qui inspire une confiance entière dans la loyauté de l'écrivain et me semble caractériser l'originalité de son ouvrage. Il est rare de rencontrer une pareille sincérité et une raison aussi sereine, comme il est rare de rencontrer un style qui, sans ambitionner d'autre succès, soit aussi pur et aussi irréprochablement correct. Pour le fond et pour la forme, c'est le livre d'un sage, personnellement étranger aux passions dont il observe la marche, les comprenant toutefois, et n'oubliant jamais qu'il faut en faire acception pour avoir le droit de juger les événements et les hommes. Et il me paraît difficile qu'en le lisant avec des dispositions d'impartialité analogues à celles de l'auteur, on n'arrive pas à reconnaître avec lui qu'il eût été possible d'éviter la plus grande partie des malheurs qui ont souillé notre histoire.

Mais les hommes de notre génération sont-ils capables de cette impartialité sereine à l'égard de la Révolution? Nos luttes actuelles, si décolorées qu'elles soient, ne nous passionnent-elles pas tous, plus ou moins, au spectacle de celles de nos pères? Pouvons-nous, à l'exemple de M. Droz, nous retirer de la mêlée, et nous placer sur un tertre élevé pour contempler en observateurs, d'un regard calme et d'un esprit exempt de préventions, les mouvements de la terrible bataille? Assurément, du moins, il n'est plus permis de n'y voir, comme certains écrivains royalistes, que le génie du mal s'acharnant à détruire des institutions respectables, un combat de démons contre des anges, ou, comme certains écrivains démocratiques, qu'un su