After the discovery of a bear, the primary object of the hunter is to avoid his observation, until he comes within the reach of the rifle; and the second is to make sure work at the first shot. The savage beast, though usually inclined to avoid a rencontre with his human enemy at a season when his nature is tamed by full feeding on vegetables, is rendered bold and fierce by hunger, seems raised above all fear, and rushes even upon an armed man to devour him. Unlike most other wild animals, also, he is almost inevitable in the pursuit, when the hunter turns to fly. There is scarcely any surface, however yielding, over which his soft and spreading foot will not bear him; and he climbs the tree with far greater facility than the most agile man, following him to the extremity of the limbs, and falling, on occasion, more safely to the ground. But such men as the settlers of Indiana would seldom find themselves reduced to seek escape before the bear, even in the severest season. Having discovered his game, he resorted to all the arts which ingenuity and experience could dictate, until he found himself within rifle distance; and then, with unerring aim, he sent the fatal ball into the savage heart of the beast, which would gladly have found his way into the little log-house, and devoured the sleeping family and now the monster's flesh is to serve them for food, and his warm and shaggy skin is to shield them from the cold. : Many a scene like that represented in the engraving has been witnessed in the prairies of Indiana, which in winter present a dreary and chilling aspect, though in summer blooming in the richest fertility, enlivened with graceful deer, smiling with a thousand flowers, and resounding with songs of musical birds. The first newspaper in Indiana was published at Vincennes, the seat of government, sometime before 1810. In 1828 there were twenty-eight newspapers in the state. The historical society of Indiana was organized in 1820, and incorporated in 1831. LAWRENCEBURG is a small town on the bank of the Ohio, one mile below the mouth of the Great Miami. There are four churches and a courthouse, and the number of inhabitants is about 2,500. Three times a week stage-coaches depart for Cincinnati, Madison, and Indianapolis. MADISON.-This town, eighty-nine miles below Cincinnati, occupies a beautiful position on the bank of the Ohio. The surrounding country has fine hills, and the streets are laid out with regularity, and built with taste. There are ten churches, a courthouse, a markethouse, a bank, and a savings bank, and a population of about 5,000. The hills in the rear of the town rise to an elevation of two hundred and fifty feet, and there are several fine views from their sides and summits. Steamboats land at the wharves, stage-coaches run three times a week to Cincinnati, Louisville, and Frankfort, and the railroad forms a constant and easy communication with Indianapolis. NEW ALBANY, one hundred and forty miles above Cincinnati, and two miles below the falls, is the largest town in Indiana, containing six thousand five hundred and sixty inhabitants. The public buildings are nine churches, a bank, a male and a female seminary, a lyceum, and the theological college. The streets are from seventy to one hundred feet in breadth, and laid out with regularity. Much ship-building is carried on here. There are several large ship-yards; and from ten to fif teen steamboats are annually built, besides a considerable number of sloops and schooners. Besides several stageroutes, much travelling is performed on the river. EVANSVILLE, two hundred and thirtythree miles below Cincinnati, stands on an elevation on the bank of the Ohio, and contains several large manufactories, with ten churches, and several other public buildings. The population is two thousand five hundred. One mile distant from this place are The Pigeon Springs.-This is a favorite resort for visiters in the summer months. The waters contain muriate of soda, bicarbonate of iron, and magne sia, carbonic acid, and carburetted bydrogen gases, with nitrogen. Their medical properties are aperient, alterative, diuretic, and diaphoretic. BLOOMINGTON, forty-nine miles from Indianapolis, is situated at the head of a branch of White river, and contains nearly 3,000 inhabitants. It has five churches and the Indiana university. appears to have yet commenced. The traveller on some of the routes through Indiana, meets in succession with small communities which offer striking pictures of several distinct European nations, alternating with others marked with the peculiarities of the east and the south, the west, the middle and the northern parts of our own country. Cut-off River. This wild scene, rep- The history of New Harmony, already resented in the engraving, is on the given, presents a striking picture of one course of a stream of this singular name, community of a peculiar nature, and eswhich is a branch of the Wabash, flow-sentially different from any other within ing into that river at New Harmony. the limits of the state; but there are othThe banks are high, steep, and very ers, of different kinds, which are hardly remarkable for their picturesque char- more exclusive, and but little less af acter, being steep, and thickly grown fected by surrounding influences. Such with gigantic oaks and other trees of circumstances are unfavorable to some large size, while the surface is broken of the best interests of the state, and by rocks and ledges. The stream in must tend to retard such improvements some parts is beautifully variegated with as the public need. They may, persmall islands, which add a most pleas- haps, be best counteracted by the uniing character to the scene; while the versal diffusion of education, and prihigh, rude, and frowning banks, crowd-marily by the multiplication of good ed with thick, natural forests, give an public schools. Unhappily, Indiana has air of wildness and sublimity, strongly contrasting with the smooth surface of the stream; and the gentler aspect of some of the islets which seem to float on the water. Evergreen-trees are rare in these regions; but the catalpa-tree and plane, with the maples, rise from an undergrowth of pawpaws, spinewood, and redbud, presenting a rich variety of form and color, remarkably agreeable to the eye. not yet shown becoming zeal in this important department of public improvement; and she must expect to see some of her more sagacious neighbors leading the way in solid progress, in prosperity, wealth, and numbers, as well as in general intelligence, refinement, and power. She must, notwithstanding, continue to increase, and with rapidity. Her soil, situation, and various natural resources, will constantly attract new-comers, while Circumstances have led to some pe- they will well reward those who have culiarities in the settlements of large already adopted the land as their own. portions of Indiana. The cheapness of With the strong inducements which the the land attracted many settlers from state has to lay wide and deep the founPennsylvania and further south, as well dations of public intelligence and viras Germans and foreigners from several tue, and the strong stimulus offered by nations in Europe. These did not gen- the examples of some of her sister states, erally meet and mingle in one mass: it may be hoped that she will hereafter they were not drawn to particular points, become not less conspicuous for her patbut usually scattered and planted at dis- ronage of learning, than for her numertances from each other. Later immi-ous and superior natural advantages. grants, therefore, naturally obeyed the laws of affinity, and bent their steps to the neighborhoods where they found the languages or the customs in which they had been educated. Thus the process of amalgamation has not gone as far in this state as in many other newly-settled regions; and in some parts it hardly Certain it is, that whenever such a period shall arrive, Indiana will find her career attended with many facilities and improvements; and such of her citizens as may anticipate the change of public opinion, will find their active and persevering exertions rewarded by great and honorable and lasting results. acres of good land to their one; and, | No one of her sister states enjoys equal natural advantages; and with honesty and ability to direct her public affairs, which her citizens can supply, she will take a most honorable position. in productiveness, two acres of Illinois land are equal to at least three of their cultivated ones on the average, and with good husbandry will continue so for many years. And with such agricultural capabilities, unsurpassed by any other state or nation great or small, not a state in the Union, except a few small ones on the seaboard, possesses equal natural advantages for marketing its surplus. The mineral riches beneath the soil are perfectly exhaustless. No geological survey has been had, so that we know not what the resources in this respect may be. But coal mines, limestone, and granite, are found in all parts; lead in immense quantities at the north and south; iron at the north; salt springs at the south and centre; and potter's clay, waterlime, and various kinds of marble, in the different sections. In general it is well watered with springs and running streams, though some of the large prairies in the northern part are somewhat deficient in this respect. Even there, however, it is not common to find a section without a spring. Closely in connexion, come in the manufacturing advantages. The greatest lack of nature's bounties, and indeed the only one of consequence, is a limited supply of timber. This objection, however, lies only against portions of the north, and is easily remedied by culture. There is enough for present purposes. As yet the best can be bought in all parts of the state for from three to ten dollars per acre; and twenty to forty acres, well husbanded, suffice for a large farm. The future will take care of itself. Black-locust will grow in two years from the seed, to make fencing material; and if the fires on uncultivated prairie be kept down for a few years, the surface is speedily covered with a young forest growth. There will be more timber in Illinois twenty years hence than now. Illinois will be-must be-one of the noblest branches of the confederacy. A section is a square mile, or six hundred and forty acres. The public surveys divide the lands into townships six miles square, sections, quarter and half quarter sections. The "timbered openings" are most delightful to the eye, though the intimate combination of them all is requisite to satisfy the highest ideal of utility or beauty. Were Illinois all prairie, though inconceivably fertile, it would be uninhabitable by man, by reason of the lack of fuel, fencing and building materials; were it all timbered, there would be slender temptation to desert in its favor the more accessible new lands of Ohio and western New York. But this natural intermingling of grainfield and pasture, meadow and grove, is more inviting than any aspect worn by nature elsewhere. He who traverses this region will never again wonder at the mighty tide of emigration which sets with resistless, ever-increasing volume from the Atlantic westward. There is extreme difficulty in realizing that this adaptation is indeed the work of nature. Before and beside you rolls an "inland sea" of verdure and luxuriance-hundreds of acres of wheat, corn, and oats, darkly waving in early summer; while behind them stretch the immeasurable meadows, coeval with Eden, their untold wealth of herbage and flowers undulating in the fresh breezes like a gently-troubled ocean; and still behind these, at points not very far distant, and again far as the eye can reach, or farther, swells the graceful outline of the nearest woods, marking the winding way of some sluggish watercourse, or, more commonly, crowning some scanty elevation with the glossy foliage of the scattered oaks, beneath whose protecting shade a thick growth of clustering shrubbery, mainly oak also, commingled with hazel, repels the grass and withstands the fire of the prairie, maintaining a precarious and stationary existence. The little that man has yet done here blends so naturally and easily with the work of nature, that the forest outline seems the limit of his transformations. The open prairie, often dotted with extensive herds of cattle or |