ARIZONA TERRITORY is sandwiched between California and Nevada on the west, and New Mexico on the east, having Utah on the north, and Mexico on the south.

It is between 31° 37' and 37° north latitude, and between the meridians of 109° and 114° 25' west longitude from Greenwich. Its area is 113,916 square miles, or a little more than the united area of Michigan and Illinois. The north and west of the Territory are drained by the Colorado River and its principal tributaries, the San Juan and little Colorado, with their affluents. These rivers plough through the mesas or table-lands, in canons from 3,000 to 5,000 feet deep, and the lands through which they pass are dry, parched and sterile, except where they can be irrigated. A few artesian wells furnish a scanty supply of water, and among the ruins of the Aztec towns are large reservoirs for holding the rain water, which rarely falls. The southern part of the Territory is watered by the Gila and its numerous tributaries, and is more easily cultivated, as there is a large rainfall, and the banks of the Gila and lower Colorado are overflown in summer. The heat in summer in south and south-west Arizona is terrible, 120° and 126° in the shade, and 160° or more in the sun, is not an uncommon temperature in summer, but the winters are mild and delightful. On the table lands the temperature is pleasant during the year. Irrigation is necessary to agricultural production everywhere in the Territory, but it contains excellent grazing lands, and a sufficient amount of arable land to insure a sufficient supply of vegetables and cereals for the population. There is considerable timber on the Mountain slopes, and the various species of cactus attain great size there.

The mineral wealth of Arizona is enormous, gold, silver, quick-silver, platina, tin, nickel, very pure copper ores, lead, the best ores of iron, bituminous coals of excellent quality, salt, sulphur, gypsum and many of the precious stones, abound there. $500,000 of gold and $3,000,000 of silver were sent from this Territory in 1878, and that amount is constantly increasing with the increasing population. The Indians are no longer troublesome. For miners, engineers, or herdsmen, the Territory is very attractive, and intelligent farmers can do well there.

NEVADA was admitted as a State when its population was notoriously too small, and though the number of inhabitants is increasing, it is still below the quota for a member of Congress, though it is represented by one member in the lower house of Congress. It lies between the 35th and 42d parallels of north latitude, and between the 114th and 120th meridians of west longitude from Greenwich. Its area is 112,090 square miles, about the same as Arizona. Its mineral wealth surpasses that of any of the western States or Territories. In 1877 the yield of silver from the mines was $41,594,616; in 1878 $47,676,863. The silver mines are scattered over the whole State.

Its production of gold, mostly parted from the silver, is nearly 20 millions of dollars, and both gold and silver are increasing. It has also quick-silver, lead, copper, iron, antimony, sulphur, arsenic, graphite, borax, carbonate of soda, in immense quantities, rock salt, lignite or brown coal of good quality, &c., &c.

The climate varies with the latitude and elevation. The cold of winter is intense in the mountains and lofty valleys, the mercury falling to-10°-16°, and much lower in the mountains, and the heat in the summer, is equally intense, rising to 105° in June, but the nights in summer are cool; July and August are not so hot. In south-east Nevada, there is much less cold, and cotton and the sugar cane are both cultivated there.

The climate is generally healthy. The rainfall is larger than in the States and Territories lying east of it, but much of the land needs irrigating to be successfully cultivated. Much of the mountain slopes is well adapted to grazing, and the State has already a large amount of live stock, for its population. The sage-brush lands where irrigated, yield very large crops of the alfalfa clover, the cereals and vegetables. Provision was made in 1878 for irrigating more than 100,000 acres of these sage-brush lands.

The State has many lakes, mostly without outlet, the water in some is pure, in others brackish or alkaline, in a few salt. Pyramid Lake with its natural pyramid in the centre, the three Mud Lakes, Holloway, Humboldt, Carson, Walter's, Preuss, Franklin, Pahranagat, and on the border line of California, the beautiful Lake Tahoe, 1,500 feet deep, and 6,000 feet above the sea. Southern Nevada is a barren and desolate region, but has valuable mines. The Central Pacific Railroad crosses the State in a west-south-west direction, between the parallels of 41° 20' and 39° 30', and there are several local railroads. Nevada is a good Stae for miners, smelters, engineers, intelligent farmers, grazers, and enterprising mechanics.

CALIFORNIA has been so often described, that we can only speak of it now in reference to its adaptation to receive emigrants. It has a vast territory, extending from 32 28' to 42° north latitude, and lying between the meridians of 114° 30' and 124° 45′ west longitude from Greenwich. Recent surveys have reduced somewhat its supposed area, which was formerly stated at 188,980 square miles, but is now said, by the United States land office, to be 157,801 square miles, a territory about as large as that of the Kingdom of Sweden.

The climate varies through all the gradations of the temperate and semi-tropical regions The average mean temperature of the year ranges from 51° 5' at Humboldt Bay, and 56° 6′ at San Francisco, to 73 ̊ 5′ at Fort Yuma. The summer mean temperature has a range of 33 degrees between Humboldt Bay and Fort Yuma, while the winter mean varies but 145. The annual rainfall is equally varied, at Humboldt Bay, from 57 to 64 inches; in Klamath Co., from 81 to 110 inches, in Nevada Co., at latitude 39° 20′, 64 inches to 81 inches; in San Francisco, 20.79 inches; in Sacramento, 18.23; in San Diego, 10.43; in Fort Yuma, 3.24 inches. It is a land of lakes, rivers and mountains, with some of the most beautiful and fertile lands in the world, and some of the most desolate and forbidding. Its golden grain is famous the world over, and its vineyards and olive gardens, luscious fruits and abundant crops of every thing which will grow anywhere, are well known. About 50 millions of acres of its lands are arable, but they are mostly taken up in large ranches or plantations, though these are now being divided, in many instances, into small farms. For the most part, arable lands are too dear for the farmer of small means. Many of these large ranches are on unsurveyed lands, and must eventually come into market, when there will be a good opportunity for purchasing farms.

There are nearly 40,000,000 acres of grazing lands, and though stock-raising is generally carried out upon a large scale, it is possible for an intelligent stock grower to do well in the business. South-east California is a wild volcanic region, with its dry lakes covered with salt or bitumen, its vast sinks, many of them below the surface of the ocean, and its Death Valley, most appropriately named. It is now proposed, by a short ship canal, to turn the waters of the Pacific into this valley and render it habitable, where it is not submerged.

The mineral wealth of California is very great. Its production of gold and silver since 1849 has been nearly 700 million dollars, and it is still producing over 20 millions a year, mostly in gold, quick-silver to the amount of about 2,000,000 annually; copper, tin, coal, &c., &c., are also produced. Most parts of the State are easily reached by railroads and steamers.

California is a good State for artisans, gardeners, vine growers and dressers, and farmers who are content to be employed at first by others; miners, metal workers, machinists, and operators in woollen mills, &c., &c., but less so for those who wish to purchase farms.

OREGON, one of the two States lying on the Pacific. It is between the parallels of 42 and 46° 18' north latitude, and the meridians of 116° 33′ and 124° 25' west longitude from Greenwich. Its area is 95,274 miles.. About five-sevenths of its northern boundary is formed by the Columbia, or what is sometimes called the Oregon River, the largest river flowing into the Pacific Ocean, and at least threefifths of its eastern boundary is washed by the Snake or Lewis River, the largest tributary of the Columbia.

Most of the State is weil watered, mainly from the affluents of the Columbia and Snake, though the Klamath, a California river, rises in the State, and the Umpqua, Regue and other small streams fall into the Pacific. It is divided by the Cascade and Blue ranges of Mountains into three sections, known as Western, Middle, and Eastern Oregon. Western Oregon, that part lying west of the Cascades, a strip about 110 miles wide, though broken and hilly from the presence of the coast range, which is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height, is generally fertile, and the Mountains are clothed with heavy timber to their summits. The Willamette Valley, lying between the Coast and Cascade ranges, and containing about 5,000,000 acres, is exceedingly fertile and beautiful. The rainfall in Western Oregon ranges from 44 to 60 inches, the highest amount being reached at the mouth of the Columbia in the north, and near the Klamath Lakes in the south. The temperature is mild and delightful. The mean for the year being 52° 13', and the range very moderate. Middle Oregon is dryer, not so well watered nor so fertile. The rainfall is about 20 inches. The climate is agreeable, except in the south, where the high mountains make it sometimes excessively cold. Eastern Oregon is dry, but has many well watered and fertile valleys. The winters are cold, with deep snow. Western Oregon

is traversed for almost its entire length from south to north by the California branch of the Northern Pacific. The rivers abound with valuable fish. The salmon fisheries send out about $10,000,000 worth annually, mostly in cans, and canned beef is also largely exported. The agricultural crops are good, and command a fair price; wheat, oats and potatoes yield largely. The timber trade is very large, the finest trees of Oregon being very large, and the wood durable. Fruit is also largely culti vated. It is an excellent country for raising live stock, especialy cattle and sheep. The wool product of the State is considerable, and mostly consumed in Oregon wool len factories.

The mineral wealth of the State is very great, but not so fully developed as it should be. Nearly $2,000,000 of gold and silver, principally the former, are mined annually; other metals abound. Most of the mines are in eastern and middle Oregon, Miners, lumbermen, fishermen, herdsmen, and industrious, intelligent farmers, will find Oregon the best place for them. There is much Government land yet in market.

WASHINGTON TERRITORY is, except Alaska, the extreme north-western Territory of the United States, and Alaska is not as yet, in a condition to invite immigration. The Territory may be said in general terms, to lie between the parallels of 45° 30' and 49° north latitude, and between 117° and 1250 west longitude from Green. wich. The Columbia River, which drains about two-thirds of the Territory forms its southern boundary, for three-fourths of its width from east to west, and its western shores are washed by the Pacific, and the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia. The area of the Territory is 69,994 square miles. Western Washington like western Oregon, has much broken land, but the valleys, especially around both sides of Puget Sound, are very fertile, and the slopes of the mountains are heavily timbered, and valuable. There are 200 miles of railroad in operation in the Territory, and the Columbia River, Snake River and Clark's Fork are navigable, except at four points, throughout their entire course in this Territory.

The climate of Western Washington is much like that of England, mild and moist, the extreme heat of summer seldom exceeding 80 degrees F., and the nights cool and agreeable. The winters are so mild that it is seldom necessary to house the live stock. Mean annual temperature 52°, annual range only about 40 degrees. Rainfall 100 to 130 inches on the coast, 36 inches at Cascade Mountains; in Easttern Washington, from 12 to 24 inches. The summers in Central and Eastern Washington are dry and hot, winters much like those of Pennsylvania, cold, but not Bevere. Only about one-third of the public lands are yet surveyed. There is some gold in the Territory, but more coal, iron, and other minerals.

The coal in the Puyallup Valley is anthracite, of excellent quality, and a railroad now runs to the mines. There are other beds of both anthracite and bituminous coal, along the Cascade Mountains. The soil is, much of it, very fertile, and the finest trees are but little inferior to the giant sequoias of California.

The Territory is well adapted to the culture of the cereals, which can be brought to a good market, by the Columbia and Snake Rivers, which have now 500 miles of uninterrupted navigation. It is also a good region for wool growing and stock raising. The salmon and other fisheries in Puget Sound, and in the Columbia, are very profitable, A grand future awaits the citizens of Oregon and Washington,

HOMESTEAD FOR SOLDIERS.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Aug. 8, 1870.

GENTLEMEN :-The following is the twenty-fifth section of the act of Congress, approved July 15, 1870, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June 30, 1871, and for other purposes," viz. :

SEC. 25. And be it further enacted, That every private soldier and officer who has served in the army of the United States during the rebellion, for ninety days, and remained loyal to the Government, and every seaman, marine, and officer or other person who has served in the navy of the United States, or in the marine corps or revenue marine during the rebellion, for ninety days, and remained loyal to the Government, shall, on payment of the fee or commission to any Register or Receiver of any Land Office required by law, be entitled to enter one quarter section of land, not mineral, of the alternate reserved sections of public lands along the lines of any railroads or other public works in the United States, wherever public lands have been or may be granted by acts of Congress, and to receive a patent therefor under and by virtue of the provisions of the act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, and the acts amendatory thereof, and on the terms and conditions therein prescribed; and all the provisions of said acts, excetp as herein modified, shall extend and be applicable to entries under this act, and the Commis sioner of the General Land Office is hereby authorized to prescribe the necessary rules and regulations to carry this section into effect, and determine all facts necessary thereto.

By these provisions the Homestead Law of 20th May, 1862, and the acts amendatory thereof, are so modified as to allow entries to be made by the parties mentioned therein, of the maximum quantity of one quartersection, or 160 acres of land, held at the double minimum price of $2.50 per acre, instead of one-half quarter-section, or eighty acres as heretofore.

In case of a party desiring to avail himself thereof, you will require him to file the usual homestead application for the tract desired, if legally liable to entry, to make affidavit according to the form hereto annexed, instead of the usual homestead affidavit, and on doing so allow him to make payment of the $10 fee stipulated in the act of 20th May, 1862, and the usual commissions on the price of the land at $2.50 per acre, the entry to be regularly numbered and reported to this office in your monthly homestead returns.

Regarding settlement and cultivation, the requirements of the law in this class of entries are the same as in other homestead entries.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

JOSEPH S. WILSON,

Commissioner, Register, and Receiver.

THE WEST:

WHO SHOULD MIGRATE THITHER.

THERE have been in our country, as in other coun.ries of Christendom, periodical crazes-times when nations, states, and communities were completely under the influence of a single dominating idea, which, with the great masses of the people, drove out all other ideas and thoughts from their minds. Eating or drinking, waking or sleeping, they could think and talk of nothing else. These crazes sometimes seem very absurd to us, as we look back upon them; but at the time, they are intensely real. They may do some good: perhaps they always do; but they do much evil also. They may be industrial, scientific after the fashion of popular science, political, agricultural, educational, or religious; but whatever may be the subject of the craze, its effect is much the same.

THE MORUS MULTICAULIS CRAZE.

The Morus Multicaulis fever of 1835-38 was an example of the agricultural and industrial sort. Men of sound judgment and of good business abilities, were deluded into the belief, that by planting or starting a half-dozen or a dozen cuttings of a foreign shrub or tree they would speedily amass an immense fortune; that from these little sticks, not so large as a pipe stem, there would presently grow stately mulberry-trees, on which millions of silkworms to be somehow procured, would feast and form cocoons, which any girl could reel, and which would, by some hocus-pocus process, be transmuted into elegant dress-silk, dress-goods, velvets, satins, ribbons, and lace, all of which would be furnished without cost, to the fortunate possessor of the mulberryslips.

The whole thing looks supremely ridiculous to us now; but then, every man and woman invested all that they could earn, or beg, or steal in these precious twigs; and when the bubble burst, as it did in 1837, it involved millions of people in heavy, and some of them in ruinous losses.

THE SECOND ADVENT CRAZE OF 1843.

There followed this a religious delusion, the Second Adent craze of 1843, when people made up ascension robes, and some, in their zeal stole the mus lin which they used in their manufacture.

THE WESTERN CRAZE OF 1847-48.

A few years later there was an emigration craze. The West, which then meant Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri, and the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, was on every man's lips; tens of thousands of miles of railroads were projected, thousands of cities laid out on paper, stocks and bonds issued without stint, every kind of wild-cat paper issued as money, and the most fabulous stories told, of the fortunes amassed in a single day, by the advance in lands, city lots, and stocks. This craze, too, died out from sheer absurdity, but with frightful losses.