[*The aggregate Representative population gives, as the nearest approximate ratio for 233 members, (the number fixed by law,) a ratio of 93,702; but this ratio gives only 220 members-leaving the remaining 13 to be assigned to the States having the largest residuary fractions. The States which thus gain a member are designated in the above table by a *.]

OF THE WORLD.-Europe, 238,473,957; Asia, 390,00 000; Oceanica, 20,000,000; North America, 35,000,000; 0,000. Total, 764,000,000.

tes the population of the world at 938,421,000, divided

POST-OFFICE STATISTICS.

In the year 1790, there were only seventy-five post-offices in the United States, or one to every 52,531 inhabitants. In 1800, there were nine hundred and three, being one to each 5,986 inhabitants.

In 1840, there were thirteen thousand four hundred and fiftyeight post-offices. In 1850, eighteen thousand four hundred and seventeen, being one to every 1,276 inhabitants. The length of the post-office routes in the United States is 178,672 miles. Cost of the service, 2,724,426 dollars. There are in North-Carolina, about eight hundred post-offices, 7,931 miles of mail-route, and the cost of the system, for the State, is about $154,311.

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.

MOUNTAIN REGION OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

You state that you have directed some attention to the sheephusbandry of the United States, in the course of which it has occurred to you that the people of the mountain regions of North-Carolina, and some of the other Southern States, have not availed themselves sufficiently of their natural advantages for the production of sheep. Being myself well acquainted with the western section of North-Carolina, I may perhaps be able to give you most of the information you desire. As you have directed several of your inquiries to the county of Yancey, (I presume from the fact, well known to you, that it contains the highest mountains in any of the United States,) I will, in the first place, turn my attention to that county. First, as to its elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow River, the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its centre, was about twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he found to be between two thousand eight hundred and two thousand nine hundred feet above it. The general level of the county is, of course, much above this elevation. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise above the height of six thousand feet. The climate is delightfully cool during the summer: there being very few places in the county where the thermometer rises above 80° on the hottest day. An intelligent gentleman who passed a summer

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in the northern part of the county (rather the more elevated portion of it) informed me that the thermometer did not rise on the hottest days above 76°.

You ask, in the next place, if the surface of the ground is so much covered with rocks as to render it unfit for pasture? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the county that I have passed over is too rocky for cultivation, and in many sections of the county one may travel miles without seeing a single stone. It is only about the tops of the highest mountains that rocky precipices are to be found. A large portion of the surface of the county is a sort of elevated table-land, undulating, but seldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one ascends the higher mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land containing several hundred acres in a body. The top of the Roan (the highest mountain in the county except the Black) is covered by a prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during the greater part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual, that persons ride to the top on horseback from almost any direction. The same may be said of many of the other mountains. The soil of the county generally is uncommonly fertile, producing, with tolerable cultivation, abundant crops. What seems extraordinary to a stranger is the fact that the soil becomes richer as he ascends the mountains. The sides of the Roan, the Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation of even five or six thousand feet above the sea, are covered with a deep rich vegetable mould, so soft, that a horse in dry weather often sinks to the fetlock. The fact that the soil is frequently more fertile as one ascends, is, I presume, attributable to the circumstance that the higher portions are more commonly covered with clouds, and the vegetable matter being thus kept in a cool, moist state while decaying, is incorporated to a greater degree with the surface of the earth; just as it is usually found that the north side of a hill is richer than the portion most exposed to the action of the sun's rays. The sides of the mountains, the timber being generally large, with little undergrowth and brushwood, are peculiarly fitted for pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many places as luxuriant as it is in the rich savanna of the low country.

The soil of every part of the county is not only favourable to the production of grain, but is peculiarly fitted for grasses. Timothy is supposed to make the largest yield, two tons of hay being easily produced on an acre, but herds-grass, or red-top, and clover, succeed equally well; blue-grass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably well. A friend showed me several spears, which he informed me were produced in the northern part of the county, and which by measurement were found to exceed

seventy inches in length; oats, rye, potatoes, turnips, &c. are produced in the greatest abundance.

The few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and are sometimes permitted to run at large during the winter, without being fed, and without suffering. As the number kept by any individual is not large enough to justify the employment of a shepherd to take care of them, they are not unfrequently destroyed by vicious dogs, and more rarely by wolves, which have not yet been entirely exterminated.

I have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, because some of your inquiries were directed particularly to it, and because most of what I have said of Yancey is true of the other counties west of the Blue Ridge. Haywood has about the same elevation and climate of Yancey. The mountains are rather more steep, and the valleys somewhat broader; the soil generally not quite so deep, but very productive, especially in grasses. In some sections of the county, however, the soil is equal to the best I have seen.

Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated-Ashville and Hendersonville, the county towns, being each about 2200 feet above the sea. The climate is much the same, but a very little warmer. The more broken portions of these counties resemble much the mountainous parts of Yancey and Haywood," but they contain much more level land. Indeed the greater portion of Henderson is quite level. It contains much swamp land, which when cleared, with very little if any drainage, produces very fine crops of herds-grass. Portions of Macon and Cherokee counties are quite as favourable, both as to climate and soil, as those above described. I would advert particularly to the valleys of the Nantahalah, Fairfield, and Hamburg, in Macon, and of Cheoh, in Cherokee. In either of these places, for a comparatively trifling price, some ten or fifteen miles square could be procured, all of which would be rich, and the major part sufficiently level for cultivation, and especially fitted, as their naturai meadows indicate, for the production of grass.

In conclusion, I may say that, as far as my limited knowledge of such matters authorizes me to speak, I am satisfied that there is no region that is more favourable to the production of sheep than much of the country I have described. It is everywhere healthy and well watered. I may add, too, that there is waterpower enough in the different counties composing my congressional district, to move more machinery than human labour can ever place there-enough, certainly, to move all now existing in the Union. It is also a rich mineral region. The gold-mines are worked now to a considerable extent. The best ores of iron