WISCONSIN, one of the United States of America, between lat. 42° 31' to 47° n., and long. 87° b' to 92° 54/ w.; 302 m. from n. to s., and 258 from e. to w. ; containing 53,924 sq. in., or 34,511,600 acres; is bounded n. by lake Superior and the state of Michigan, e. by lake Michican, s. by Illinois, and w. by Iowa and Minnesota, from which it is separated by the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. It is divided into 60 counties. Its chief towns are Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Racine, Janesville, Watertown, Madison (the capital), etc. Its chief rivers arc the Mississippi and its branches, Rock, Wisconsin, Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix, which drain four-tifth4 of its surface; the Menominee on the north-eastern border; Wolf and Fox, emptying into Green bav; and numerous small rivers emptying into lakes Michigan and Superior. Besides these great lakes and lake Winnebago, the whole state is studded with small, clear, and beautiful lakes, well stocked with fish. The country is a high rolling prairie, from 600 to 1200 feet above the sea, with no considerable mountains, but numerous hills or mounds. In the season, the rivers Fox and Wisconsin, emptying into the - Mississippi and lake Michigan, flow into each other. The geological formations extend only from the primitive to the Devonian. On lake Superior are prhaiitiverocks, granite, magnetic iron, quartz, slates, sandstone, drift, and beds of red clay and marl; sand stone cliffs on the Mississippi; the middle and southern parts of the state have the lower magnesian limestone, a belt of white sandstone with beds of shells, then the lead-bear ing group of upper magnesian limestone. Besides the great magnetic iron bed on lake Superior, and the rich lead region bordering on Illinois, copper is found in several places; zinc, some silver, plumbago, bitumen, peat, fine marble (some of light pink with red - veins, and blue and dove color), gypsum, and coal in small quantities. Of the curiosi ties are earthworks in the forms of men and animals; ancient fortifications; Devil's lake of 600 acres, on the summit of a mound 300 feet high; the precipitous shores of lake Pepin rising to 500 ft., 200 ft. being a perpendicular wall of magnesian limestone; the
high bluffs of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers; the falls of the St. Louis (320 ft. in 16 m.) and of the Menominee (134 ft. in 1+ in.) The climate is cold, the winters long and severe; but the state is considered one of the most healthy in the west. The soil in the n. is broken, with drift and boulders, covered with heavy pine forests, and not well adapted to cultivation; the middle and southern region, of prairies and park-like oak openings, is exceedingly rich and productive, raising great quantities of wheat, Indian corn, oats, barley, potatoes, tobacco, etc. Besides the great pine forests of the north, there are spruce, cedar, various oaks, hickory, birch, elm, sycamore, sugar-maple, etc. Of animals there remain the elk, deer, bear, foxes, wolves, beaver, gopher, etc.; and numerous birds and water-fowl, fattening upon the wild rice, on the margins of the numerous lakes. The chief manufactures are of iron, lumber, agricultural implements, flour, spirits, and malt liquors. The amount of wheat raised in 1873 was estimated at 26,322,000 bushels. The total valuation of property in 1875 was $421,285,359. In 1876 there were 2,565 m. of railway, and extensive lake and river navigation. State and gov ernment appropriations of land have richly endowed a state university at Madison, nor mal, high, and common free schools, and the usual state asylnms. The constitution and government closely resemble those of the older states. In 1878 the state debt amounted to $2,252,057; the state receipts in the year ending Sept. 30, 1878, were $1,120,837. Wisconsin was explored by the French missionaries in the latter part of the 17th c., and Indian trading-posts were also established; but the actual peopling of the state has been recent, and very rapid—a large proportion being of foreign birth—German, Nor wegian, Irish, Welsh, etc. It was organized as a territory in 1836, and admitted into the union as a state in 1848. Pop. '40, 30,945; '50, 305,391; '60, 775,873; '70, 1,054,670; '75, 1,236,729.