Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/548

Rh 524 MISMIS Florida at first extended eastward from the Mississippi river along the Gulf coasts, with its northern limit at the 31st parallel of north latitude. Soon afterwards the northern boundary was fixed at a line drawn eastward from the point where the Yazoo river unites with the Mississippi. Under British rule the Natchez country, which had been deserted since the massacre of 1729, and the southern part of the present State of Mississippi, rapidly filled with settlers, many of them emigrants from the Atlantic colonies. Cotton, indigo, and sugar were cultivated, and negro slaves continued to be freely introduced. During the revolutionary war of the Atlantic colonies, West Florida, being far removed, remained undisturbed until 1779. Spain and England being then at war, Galvez, the governor of New Orleans, aided by sympathizers with the revolutionary colonists, took possession of the whole of West Florida for the king of Spain. At the peace of 1783 England acknowledged the 31st parallel as the southern boundary of the United States, and ceded West Florida to Spain. The district between the 31st parallel and the parallel through the mouth of the Yazoo was therefore claimed by the United States and by Spain, the latter being in possession. After tedious negotiations the latter power relinquished the district in March 1798, and Congress at once formed it into &quot; the Mississippi Territory,&quot; which extended from the Mississippi river eastward between the two above-mentioned parallels of latitude to the Chattahoochee river. The State of Georgia claimed as a part of its domain all of the district east of the Mississippi river, and between the 31st and 35th parallels. In 1802 it ceded its claims to the Federal Government for certain considerations, and in 1804 Congress extended the limits of the Mississippi Territory northward to the 35th parallel. Nearly all of the Territory was then owned by the native Indians. The Choctaws occupied the southern part, and the Chickasaws the northern part of what is now the State of Mississippi. In 1812 the United States troops occupied Spanish West Florida, and the district east of Pearl river and south of lat. 31 was added to the Mississippi Territory. The Territory was divided by the present line between Alabama and Mississippi, and the State of Mississippi admitted into the Union in 1817. In 1830-32 the native tribes exchanged their lands for others west of the Mississippi river and were nearly all removed, and a rapid influx of settlers followed. In January 1861 the State seceded from the Federal Union, and, joining the Southern Confederacy, furnished a large number of troops during the civil war. It was the iield of many important campaigns, and suffered great losses. Exhausted by the conflict, and harassed by processes of political reconstruction, the State was in a deplorable condition for several years. But within the last decade an era of prosperity commenced, marked by a large increase in population and great activity in agricultural and other pursuits. Literature. GayamS, History of Louisiana ; Monettc, History of the Valley oj the Mississippi, Nuw York, 1846; Claiborne, Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State, Jackson, 1880; WaiH-s, Agriculture and Geology of 31 ssissippi, Jackson, 1854; Hilgard, Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi, Jackson, I860; Smitl), Outline of the, Geoloyy of Alabama, Montgomery, 1880; Wall, Handbook of Mis sissippi, Jackson, 1882. (U. B. F.) MISSOLONGHI, or MESOLONGHI (Meo-oAoyyiov), a city of Greece, the chief town of the nomarchy of Acarnania and ^Etolia, situated on the north side of the Gulf of Patras, about 7 miles from the coast, in the midst of a shallow lagoon, with a population of 6324 in 1879, is notable for the siege of two months which Mavrocordatos with a handful of men sustained in 1821 against a Turkish army 11,000 strong, and for the more famous defence of 1825-26 (see vol. xi. p. 125). Byron died there in 1824, and is commemorated by a cenotaph. Plate VII. MISSOURI, a Central State of the American Union, lying almost midway between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains, British America and the Gulf of Mexico. Its eastern boundary is the Mississippi, separating it from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. North and south its boundaries with Iowa and Arkansas respectively are mainly coincident with the parallels of 40 30 and 36 30 N. lat. ; but a small peninsula between the Mississippi and St Francois rivers stretches 34 miles farther south between Arkansas and Tennessee. The western border, with Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, is nearly coincident with the course of the Missouri to the junction of that stream with the Kansas, and then follows the meridian of 17 40 W. of Washington (94 43 W. of Greenwich). The area of the State is 65,350 square miles, the extreme length from north to south 282 miles, the extreme width 348 miles. Missouri is divided into a northern and southern portion by the Missouri river, flowing 400 miles in a generally easterly direction from its junction with the Kansas to the point 12 miles above St Louis where it unites with the Mississippi. Northern Missouri has a surface broken and hilly, but not moun tainous. It is mainly prairie land, well watered by streams, and fit for agriculture ; but there is a good deal of timber in the eastern parts, especially along the bold bluffs of the two great rivers. Southern Missouri is almost equally divided between timber land in the east and prairie in the west. In its south-western portion rises the table-land of the Ozark hills (highest point 1600 feet above the sea). The Osage, the Gasconade, and other streams flow north ward and eastward into the Missouri. The south-eastern lowlands form an undulating country, readily drained after rain, with fertile ridges generally running north and south, occasional abrupt isolated hills, forests of oak, hickory, elm, maple, ash, locust, willow, persimmon, pecan, chestnut, and cherry trees, and in the lowest parts swamps and morasses. High rocky bluffs extend along the banks of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Meramec river to Ste Genevieve, rising sometimes precipitously to the height of 350 feet above the water, and low bottom lands with many lakes and lagoons extend from Ste Genevieve to the Arkansas border. The south-east corner of the State is 275 feet above the sea, the north-east corner 445 feet, and the north-west corner 1000 feet. Climate. The climate of Missouri, lying as it does far from the ocean and unprotected by mountain ranges, is one of extremes in heat and cold, moisture and drought. The Ozark range is high enough to influence the climate locally, but not to affect that of the whole State. The mean summer temperature for the ten years 1870-80 ranged from 75 in the north-west of the State to 78 5 in the south-east ; but the thermometer has been known to rise to 104. The winter temperature averaged 33 S7 for the whole State, varying from 2S 5 in the north-west to 39 5 in the south-east. In some winters the temperature hardly falls to zero ; in others 20 below zero have been registered. The Mississippi at St Louis freezes over once in four or five years ; but this is partly caused by the accumulations of floating ice coming down from the north. The river has closed as early as the first week in December, and, again, has remained open until the last week in February. It is in cold seasons sometimes passable for the heaviest teams. The Missouri river is often closed during the whole winter. The mean annual temperature of the State varies from 53 to 58. The climate is, on the whole, dry ; for, in spite of the abundant rains, especi ally in the spring, evaporation is so rapid that the atmo sphere is rarely overloaded with moisture. April is the driest month. The greatest amount of rain falls in the south-eastern part of the State. An unusual amount of fair weather, prevailing clearness of sky, general salubrity of soil and climate, are chief among the natural advantages of this great State. Geology.- The stratified rocks of Missouri belong to the following divisions : Quaternary, Tertiary, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, and Archuean. The Quaternary system comprises the drift, 155 feet thick ; the bluff, 200 feet above the drift ; then the bottom prairie, 35 feet thick ; and on the surface the alluvium, 30 feet in thickness. Clays with strata of sands, marls, and humus form the alluvial bottoms of the two great rivers of the State, and make up a soil deep, light, and incomparably rich. Beneath the alluvium is found the bottom prairie, made up also of sands, clays, and vege table moulds. This formation is found only in the bottom lands of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and more abundantly in those of the former. Numerous and well- preserved organic remains are found in the bottom prairie,