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Vandalia.

- Well watered. Climate mild; winters short. Cattle thrive on the prairie for nine or ten months in the year.

Ramsey, Oconee. - Level and rolling prairie, interspersed with timber, and well watered. The Terrehaute and Alton Railroad passes through this section.

Pana, Tacusah. - Fine prairie; streams fringed with timber. The Terrehaute and Alton Railroad intersects at Pana.

Moawequa, Macon, Decatur. Rich prairie, well timbered, and watered by the Sangamon river, &c. The Great Western and the Indiana Central Railroad intersect at Decatur.

Maroa. Gently-rolling, rich prairie, well watered. Streams fringed with hickory, elm, walnut, and pawpaw.

Clinton, Wapellah, Elmwood. - Rolling, rich prairie, with groves of timber, watered by Sugar creek and the Kickapoo.

Bloomington, Hudson. A beautiful, fertile, and rolling farmingcountry, well watered, and supplied with timber. for settlement.

Highly adapted

Timber in groves.

The Peoria and

Kappa, Panola, Minonk. - Rich, rolling prairie. and on creeks. Watered by Panther creek, &c. Oquawka Railroad passes south of Panola. Wenona. - Level and rolling prairie, interspersed with timber, and well watered. Deep and rich soil. The Fort Wayne and Lacon Railroad intersects at Wenona.

Tonica, La Salle, Homer. The great belt of coal, passing through the centre of the State, is found extensively at La Salle, and ranges a long distance east and west. Junction of the Illinois Central and Rock Island railroads; also, intersection of the Illinois and Michigan canal.

Mendota, Soublette, Amboy. In Mendota, the junction of the Illinois Central, Military Tract and Aurora Branch railroads. High, rolling land, occasionally interspersed with timber. Good waterpower.

Dixon. Country well settled throughout. Excellent agricultural land, well watered by Rock river, &c. The Galena and Chicago Air Line Railroad intersects at Dixon.

Foreston. — High, dry, and upland prairie, well timbered and well

watered.

Freeport, Elleroy, Lena, Nora. - Magnificent farming-country, well watered. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad intersects at Freeport.

A rapidly

Warren, Scales Mound, Council Hill, Galena, Dunleith. growing country. Fine agricultural soil throughout the section. Galena is the centre of the lead region. Dunleith is the northern terminus of the road.

Through the above brief description, the reader may become somewhat acquainted with the general character of the country traversed by the Illinois Central Railroad, as well as with the peculiar qualities of the various sections of land brought into market by the Company. It remains still to be mentioned, as a striking proof of the extraordinary progress already made in the development and cultivation of these lands, that, in the year 1856, in the neighbourhood of Urbana alone, within a circuit of fifteen miles, about 20,000 acres were tilled and sown with wheat; which more than doubles the quantity of all the land together that had been previously broken up and cultivated in this region. It is further supposed, that, from the crop of 1856 alone, between 300,000 and 400,000 bushels of wheat will be sent only to the market at Urbana. From this we can form some idea of the rapid increase in the quantity of tilled lands throughout the whole of this rich and fertile country.

Lastly, the following table, which is constructed from data collected in January, 1856, shows the rapid growth and great strides towards municipal importance of the numerous towns and villages already founded in this bountiful territory, and which lie dotted along the line of the railroad and its branches, in the whole of the long distance between the beginning and the end. In fact, many of these places have during the last year doubled the number of their inhabitants; and, therefore, although these data have been so lately and carefully collected, they will enable the close examiner to form merely a reasonable conjecture of what is the present state of things.

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Table showing the number of inhabitants, houses, churches, &c., of the towns on the route of the Illinois Central Railroad, in 1850 and January, 1856.

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Table showing the number of inhabitants, houses, churches, &c., of the towns on the route of the Illinois Central Railroad, in 1850 and Jan., 1856.

Continued.

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BANKS.

THE banking system of Illinois is regulated by two acts of the Legislature, passed respectively on the 15th of February, 1851, and on the 10th of February, 1853.

The following are the principal enactments and provisions of these several laws:

No bank shall be organized with a less capital than $50,000; and stocks to be deposited to secure the circulation, &c. The amount of circulation shall in no case exceed the capital stock set forth in the certificate of incorporation; but the deposit of stock securities and the circulation may be increased from time to time, until they equal the maximum of the certified capital stock.

Bank charters shall not be granted for a longer period than twenty-five years.

All notes issued by the banks must be payable on demand, at the respective places where the banks are located, and be countersigned, numbered, and recorded by the register.

No bank shall be authorized to put into circulation a larger amount of notes than the amount of stocks deposited as security with the State auditor.

The stock thus deposited is intended, in the first place, for the redemption of the notes in circulation, provided the bank itself should fail to redeem them; and in the next place, they are made to subserve the purpose of liquidating all the liabilities of any bank thus failing. Each stockholder is also made individually liable in proportion to the full amount of capital stock owned by him.

If any bank shall refuse or neglect to redeem any one of its notes, and such fact be properly certified by an ordinary protest, drawn up and acknowleged by any notary public, it shall be the duty of the

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