1 
 
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 Rnnk C6i- 
 
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T? T?^ [Tfl C^ Vr>l Tr> (^ 
 ON THE 
 
 JV^TUIi.lL, HISTORY 
 
 l^.- m^ £.Ji 
 AND ^-' 
 
 INTERNAL RESOURCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW~YORK, 
 
 BY HIBERNICUS, 
 
 S NEWYORK: 
 
 SOLD BY E. BLISS & E, WHITi^ 
 
 KO. 128 BROADWAY, 
 
 1822, 
 

NOTE. 
 
 The following Letters first appeared in the celumns of a 
 newspaper during the year 1820. They attracted much atten- 
 tion at that time, and were copied and read with great avidity. 
 They are evidently the production of no ordinary mind, and 
 hence curiosity was awakened to discover the learned traveller, 
 whose acute perception and just delineation had opened to our 
 view some of the hidden beauties of our state. It is not for the 
 publisher to say how far the opinion of the literary community 
 was correct in ascribing these letters to an eminent statesman, 
 whose researches in science might well justify such a suspicion. 
 They are now collected in a volume and offered to the public, 
 from a conviction that their merits entitle them to a form 
 £^dapted to the libraries of this reading people. 
 
n 
 
LETTERS OF HIBERMCUS. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW-YORK STATESMAN 
 
 June 9th, 1820. 
 Sir, 
 
 I SEND you extracts of letters which T have 
 received from a highly respectable foreigner, on 
 the subject of the Western and Northern Canals. 
 It appears that he is on a tour of observation — my 
 acquaintance with him commenced last autumn, 
 at Mrs. Mann's boarding-house in New- York, 
 and has since grown into intimacy. His letters 
 occasionally glance on subjects of natural science^ 
 sometimes on the peculiarity of our manners, and 
 the state of our social and political institutions. 
 They were obviously written in great haste, ex- 
 hibiting no marks of limce, labor, and probably 
 were never revised, corrected, or copied by the 
 writer. If these which I now send to you shall 
 be favorably considered, I shall, if I have leisure 
 
 furnish you with more. 
 
 B 
 
|:.£TTERS or HIBERNICUS 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Montezuma^ 26th May, 1820. 
 I ARRIVED here yesterday, my dear Sir, in the 
 packet boat Chief Engineer, which plies betweeji 
 this place and Utica, as consort to the Monteza- 
 ma. The latter is a boat 74 feet long and 13 
 feet wide, which draws, when not loaded, seven 
 inches of water, and when loaded eleven. These 
 passage boats take a trip and a half twice a week 
 between Utica and Montezuma on the canal. 
 The distance is about 96 miles^ and although the 
 whole voyage can be performed in 24 hours, yet 
 it generally takes nearly two days. They are 
 drawn by two horses at the rate of four miles an 
 hour, which are relieved by relays at the distance 
 of every twelve miles. The expense of a passage 
 from Utica to Montezuma is four dollars only, in- 
 cluding provisions and a birth for lodging ; and 
 I assure you that the accommodations are as 
 i^ood as can be found on board of the steam boats. 
 There is also a regular packet between Utica and 
 Rome, which takes a trip once a day. By a trip 
 T mean the voyage out and home. We passed 
 several boats, rafts, and scows on our passage. 
 Some were built on the canal, and others trans- 
 ported to it from the Mohawk and Seneca rivers* 
 
CANAL TRANSPORTATION. < 
 
 At Montezuma, a boat is now on the stocks, 0^ 
 still larger dimensions, and more accommodating 
 arransrements than the one of that name. The 
 whole expense of each of these boats, furniture in- 
 cluded, will not exceed 900 or 1000 dollars. 
 They are principalh^ designed, and partly owned, 
 by Colonel Tyler, of this village — a gentleman 
 who unites kindness of behaviour and benevolence 
 of disposition, with intelligence and enterprise^ 
 Although I am persuaded that the owners of these 
 vehicles of conveyance will be amply remunera- 
 ted for their public spirit, yet I am equally con- 
 vinced that the conveyance of passengers will be 
 principally by land, and of commodities by water, 
 after the prevailing curiosity to visit the canal is 
 gratified, hi the mean time, there will be a com- 
 petition between the carriers by land acd water, 
 for custom ; and a like competition between the 
 proprietors of stages and boats for passengers, 
 which will add greatly, by decreasing the price 
 of transportation, to the general benefit of the 
 country — and by good and easy accommodations 
 to the convenience of travellers. But as commo- 
 dities can be transported with more safety, cer- 
 tainty, and expedition, and at less expense on the 
 canal, and persons in the same way by land, a di- 
 vision of employment will finally and necessarily 
 take place, mutually beneficial to each, and in- 
 
S GANAL TRANSPOUTATIOJf, 
 
 calculably advantageous to the cardinal interesl:, 
 of the community. When the great six horse, 
 heavy teams are banished from use, the roads will 
 be improved. The tippling houses, which derive 
 iheir principal support from teamsters, will fall 
 into disuse. The good inns on the road will 
 meet with greater encouragement, because travel- 
 ling will increase with population and business. 
 The existing settlements and villages on the es- 
 iaii!.ished roads will continue to prosper, while an 
 immensfc mass of population will appear on the 
 banks of the cajials. 
 
 I am called off by Dr. Clark, (a very worthy 
 gentleman, who is settled ai this place) to visit the 
 salt works under his direction; but you shall hear 
 from me again very soon. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 HIBERNiCUS 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Ithaca^ 1st June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I HAVE this moment arrived in this place, by 
 water, from Montezuma. The Great Canal enters 
 the Seneca river by a lock ; and after this you 
 
WESTERN CANAL. <J 
 
 may either descend by water into Lake Ontario 
 by the way of Oswego, or you may proceed by 
 the way of Three River Point to the Oneida Lake, 
 and, pursuing the waters of Wood Creek, re-enter 
 the Great Canal a few miles west of Rome — thus 
 performing, in the latter case, a voyage of circum- 
 navigation round an immense island — or^'Oii may 
 ascend the Junction river, formed by the Canan- 
 daigua outlet and Mud Creek, as far as Lyons — 
 or you may proceed up the Seneca river to the 
 Cayuga lake as far as this place, which is distant 
 about tv/enty-eight miles from the head waters of 
 the Susquehannah — or you may continue your 
 course up the Seneca river through the locks and 
 canals of the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, 
 as far as Geneva, and from thence 40 miles to the 
 southern extremity of the Seneca Lake. Who 
 would have thought of such various and vast fa- 
 cilities of communication created by the Western 
 Canal ? From Schenectady to the south end of 
 Cayuga or Seneca Lakes, you may proceed by 
 an uninterrupted navigation to the extent of near 
 250 miles^ — which will be enlarged when the canal 
 reaches the Genesee river, forty miles through the 
 interior of the most fertile country in tlic world. 
 Imagination, in this case, lags behind reality, 
 and the utmost stretch of poetic vision becomes 
 embodied into oxistrnce. I passed from Monte- 
 
10 WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 zuma in a small boat to Cayuga bridge, where 1 
 entered a fine new steam boat called the Enter- 
 prise, of 120 tons, and 24 horse power, and arri- 
 ved in a few hours through a charming country 
 to this delightful village. The scenery of these 
 lakes is alternately picturesque, beautiful, and 
 sublime. Before the revolution of a century, this 
 country will become consecrated to classic inspi- 
 ration — " live in description, and grow green in 
 song." 
 
 But I shall waive digressions from my main 
 object, which was to afford you a distinct view of 
 the Great Canal. The whole extent of this stu- 
 pendous v/ork will be fi'om La!i.e Erie to Hud- 
 son's river, a distance on an air line of perhaps 
 280 miles— in the route of the canal, of about 
 363. This work has been distributed into three 
 great sections — —western, middle, and eastern. 
 The middle extends from Utica to Montezuma 
 on the Seneca river. It was supposed that the 
 extent of this section is 94 miles, but in arranging 
 the mile-boards it is found that it will be 96 • and 
 this miscalculation arose from summing up the 
 distances of the subordinate sections for execution, 
 without taking into the calculation the numerous 
 bridges, the aqueducts, locks, &:c. There is a la- 
 teral canal, from the main canal to tlie Salina 
 Salt Works, of one mile and fortv-tliree chains^ 
 
WESTERN CANAL. 11 
 
 and which cost $6,044 7. The width of the 
 canal on the water surface is 40 feet — at the bot- 
 tiDin 28, and lis depth Is four feet. The length 
 of a lock is 90 feet, and its width in the clear is 
 14. Vessels of 100 tons may pass through this 
 canal with ease, and will convey greater loads 
 than any of the Hudson sloops. One level ex- 
 tends ii'om seven miles east of Utica to near Syra- 
 cuse, a distance of €9 miles; and on the west 
 side of Genesee river, there is another level of 70 
 miles. Similar instances of extensive levels are 
 unprecedented as applied to any given canal. 
 There are on the middle section nine locks, and 
 a number of occupation and road bridges, waste 
 gates, safet}' gates, tumbling bays or Vv'eirs, cul- 
 verts, aqueducts, aqueduct bridges, embankments, 
 and deep cuttings, but not a single tunnel, dravv- 
 bridge, or reservoir ; and on the whole route I 
 observed but one artificial feeder, the canal being 
 abundantly supplied by natural streams. This 
 canal is constructed in the most solid and durable 
 manner, and the water which fills it is as copious 
 aiQd as perennial as tlie lakes and springs from 
 which it issues. This work was commenced at 
 the eastern end of the section, and as you proceed 
 to the west, you observe increased improvement, 
 arising unquestionably from augmented experi- 
 ence and deep reflection. The \ocl.s arc built ot 
 
i;>i WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 lime or sand stone, and are cemented by mortar 
 made of a calcareous stone found in various parts 
 of this country. I never saw better work, pro- 
 raising a longer uninterrupted duration. This 
 canal was commenced on the 4th of July, 1817j 
 and last autumn it was navigable. In twenty- 
 nine months this gigantic operatioa was comple- 
 ted. 
 
 The western canal, so far as finished, inclu- 
 ding the Salina canalj. is 98 miles long, 98 
 la the same period a canal from Lake 
 Champlain to Hudson river has been 
 constructed .24 miles long, 24 
 
 122 
 Thus these works have been made at the rate 
 of upwards of four miles a month, or fifty miles a 
 year. That part of the western section reaching 
 from the Seneca to the Genesee river, a distance 
 of 63 miles, and that portion of the eastern section 
 from Utica to the Little Falls, about 26 miles iu 
 length, making in the aggregate about 90 miles, 
 will be finished next year, which is at the rate of 45 
 >niles a year. On this part of the western section 
 (here will be 16 locks, and of the eastern at least 
 7 locks. After the year 1821, there will then re- 
 main to finish of the great canal, about 95 miles 
 in the western, and 75 in the eastern section ^ 
 
WESTERN CANAL. Jo 
 
 which can, as I understand, be easily eilected by 
 the first of December, 1823. Indeed, it is confi- 
 dently said, that with adequate funds, 100 miles 
 of iliis canal can be annually made. In the work 
 to be finished, there are more locks in proportion 
 to the distance, than in the middle section ; — while 
 the latter only has 9 locks, there will be 25 in the 
 western, and 56 in the eastern section. From 
 Lake Erie to the Seneca river is a fall of 194 feeX^ 
 and from Utica to Hudson river, a fall of 418 
 lL<^Q^i. But there is no magic in erecting a lock, 
 either as to time or skill. The great pressure of 
 water demands strength, and the massy weight of 
 the superstructure requires a solid foundation. 
 The larger the stones the better. In the locks 
 near Salina I saw sand stones which weighed four 
 tons ; they were moved by cranes and placed on 
 the walls willi as much ease as a man would 
 handle ;^ brick; and the lock at Montezuma was 
 constructed last year in six weeks. 
 
 The average expense of the middle section is 
 §11,792 per mile. The cost of the western is es- 
 timated at $10,944; and of the eastern, at 
 §21,096 per mile. Never has so much work been 
 done in so short a time, at so small an expense. 
 
 Twent}'^ miles west of the Genesee river, the 
 
 canal will strike the navigable waters of the To- 
 
 iiawanta creek, which discharges itself into Lake 
 
 B 2 
 
14 WESTERN CAI>?AL. 
 
 Erie. Before the final completion of this great 
 work, a person may therefore take a barge at 
 New- York, and pass by water into Lake Erie, by 
 an uninterrupted navigation. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Geneva, 6th June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 As I write without "reference to note or com- 
 ment," it is probable that I may commit some 
 trifling errors, and slide- into repetition. I aspire 
 to no higher honor than that of an old chroniclpy 
 by giving '^yoii a dull, but true account, of this 
 wonderful canal and wonderful country. I have 
 travelled from one end of Europe to the other, 
 and have seen much of the western world, but I 
 have never before witnessed such scenes and ope- 
 rations, as have been recently presented to ray 
 vision. 
 
 When I went on the canal, there were no fixed 
 days for the starting of the barges with passen- 
 gers : It appears from the advertisement which I 
 now subjoin, that they are regulated. I believe 
 that cheaper and more commodious travelling 
 cannot be found. For eight dollars you can go 
 
WESTERN CANxiL. i'J 
 
 in four clays 200 miles, without a jolt, or tlie 
 least fatigue, and employ the whole time in read 
 ing, writing, rational conversation, amusement, or 
 viewing the most interesting region of the globe. 
 The notice is as follows, to wit: 
 
 " Boats for the accommodation of passengeis 
 iOO miles on the canal, are now in operation by 
 the ' Erie Cacal Navigation Company.' They' 
 sail every JMonday and Thursday morning from 
 Utica, at 9 o'clock, and arrive at Canistotn, 
 (Lenox) at 7 p. m. proceed next day at 2 a. m. 
 and arrive at Montezuma at 7 p. m. 
 
 Returning — Sail from Montezuma on Mondays 
 and Thursdays, at 8 o'clock a. m. arrive at Syra- 
 cuse (Salina) at 7 p. m. proceed next day at 2 a. 
 m. and arrive at Utica at 6 p. m. Price of pas- 
 sage through the route, including provision and 
 lodging, §4. Way passengers tliree cents per 
 mile. A small advance to be made on t!ie price 
 of passage when tlie Toll and Lockage are esta- 
 blished. Baggage at the owner's risk. For pas- 
 sage apply to Doolittle Si Gold, or at the Stage 
 Office, Utica. To Richard Smith, innkeeper, 
 Montezuma, or to the captains on board." 
 
 Canlstota is about 36 miles from Utica, and 
 Syracuse the same distance from Montezum", 
 After leaving LTtica, you pass through a fine, fer- 
 tile, well cultivated countiy to Rome. The villa- 
 ges of Whitesborough and Oriskany intervene — 
 the former is a most elegant place ; the latter is 
 the seat of great hydraulic establishments. It Is 
 
16 WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 curious to observe the heterogenous collection ot 
 names of places derived from the aborigines, the 
 ancient Greeks, Romans, Jews, he. on the route 
 of the canal. You begin with Utica, and proceed 
 to Whitesborough, Oriskany, Rome, Oneida, Ve- 
 rona, Canistota, Macedonia, Jordan, Syracuse, 
 Bucksville, he, to Montezuma. Some of these 
 are villages which have sprung up with the canal, 
 and others will follow with such rapidity that I 
 have no doubt that both banks will, in the course 
 of a few years, exhibit one uninterrupted range of 
 compact population. Already have spacious ba- 
 sins for the accommodation of boats been esta- 
 blished. At Syracuse there is a dock, warehouses, 
 weighing machines, cranes, and all the other ap- 
 pendages of a great Establishment. At several 
 places [ saw boats on the stocks ready for launch- 
 ing. Sometimes the great western turnpike ap- 
 proaches within view of the canal, but generally 
 it is a few miles to the south. On this road there 
 are numerous villages and settlements, fine houses, 
 churches, academies, and other public edifices, 
 which instead of being affected by the establish- 
 ment of new ones on the canal, will derive addi- 
 tional aliment and support. In proportion to the 
 increase of population, will be the increase of con- 
 sumption. This will augment the demands for 
 subsistence and clothlDg— for the necessaries^ 
 
WESTERN UANAL. 17 
 
 i'Ointbrts, and luxuries of life. The country in- 
 tervening between the two great land and water 
 routes will be shortly settled, and the north side 
 of the canal to the Seneca river will be equally so. 
 On the south side of the middle section of the ca- 
 nal, there are two great turnpike roads, running 
 in the same direction, and the Cayuga, Owasco, 
 Skaneateles, Otisco, Cazenovia, and Little Lakes. 
 On the north side, the waters of the Seneca river, 
 Oneida outlet, Oneida lake, and Wood creek, 
 furnish a navigable communication with Lake 
 Ontario, or the Mohawk, and a great turnpike 
 road is now making : And there are besides, the 
 great lake Ontario, Oneida. Onondaga, and Cross 
 lakes. The west and the east will thus commu- 
 nicate by a great artificial navigation, by rivers 
 and lakes, and by three great turnpike roads. 
 The multiplication of these channels of connexion 
 will bind the most distant regions together by in- 
 dissoluble bonds. But the canal is pre-eminent 
 over all the others in the vastness of its usefulness, 
 and in the extent of its accommodation. 
 
 After leaving Rome, you pass into a great 
 swamp, covered with timber, and formed by the 
 recession of the waters of a vast lake, which has 
 now dwindled down into Oneida lake. This re- 
 gion extends 16 miles to Oneida creek, when you 
 pass into a cultivated country. The contrast is 
 
 #i 
 
18 WESTERN CANAL* 
 
 like passing from a half lighted room, into ait 
 apartment blazing with lamps. 
 
 After this, you continue your course through 
 a country generally unsettled, until you arrive at 
 Syracuse, opposite to Salina, and 61 miles from 
 Utica, where Judge Forman, a gentleman of 
 great intelligence and activity, is erecting a town. 
 The region west to Montezuma is of the same 
 character. When you pass Geddesburgh, the 
 Onondaga lake stretches out its waters to the 
 north, and as it were under your feet; a more 
 beautiful prospect my eyes never beheld. In this 
 region mighty deeds of valor have been perform- 
 ed. Here the great congress, parliament, or 
 wittenagemote, of tlie Iroquois, or Six Nations 
 assembled to deliberate on the concerns of the 
 federal republic. Here the Jesuits established 
 themselves, and encountered death and all its ter- 
 rors to establish the dominion of the cross. But 
 I am called off to witness a singular sight — a 
 great bald eagle chasing an osprey over the Sene- 
 ca lake — a great fish falls from the mouth of the 
 latter, and the imperial bird darts at the falling 
 fish with the rapidity of lightning, and grasps k 
 in his talons. 
 
AURORA— CAYUGA LAKE. 19 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Aurora^ 9th June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In passing from Aurora, along the eastern 
 bank of the Cayuga Lake towards the bridge, I 
 met with several objects of great interest, and I 
 much regretted that my time did not admit of a 
 visit to a distinguished naturalist of the society of 
 Friends, David Tho.mas, who lives in this vicini- 
 ty. Whether these interior lakes have been form- 
 ed I'rom the retreat of the ocean, and are in a state 
 of gradual subsidence ; or whether they have 
 been produced by springs and deposits of water 
 in great cavities, enlarging gradually their dimen- 
 sions b}'^ breaking dov/n the feeble barriers of 
 schist with which thev are surrounded, are still 
 points sub judice. As I proceeded on the banks 
 of this lake, which exhibit a grandeur and beauty 
 of scenery, far transcending any thing of the kind 
 I have seen in Europe, I frequently came to the 
 seats of ancient Indian nations, selected as such 
 for theirabundance of vegetable subsistence, fishes, 
 birds and beasts. I was utterly astonished when 
 I reached the Union Springs, formed by the junc- 
 tion of exuberant fountains springing up from the 
 earthj and forming instantaneously a water power 
 
20 UNION SPRINGS OWASCO LAKE. 
 
 for most hydraulic purposes. At this place valua- 
 ble mills have been erected by William S. Bur- 
 ling-, a very worthy and intelligent man, under 
 Vvhose auspices a pleasant village has been esta- 
 blished. 
 
 OwascoLake lies about 16 miles east of these 
 springs, and is at least 150 feet higher than the 
 Cayuga Lake — and as the intermediate country 
 reposes on lime stone, some suppose that Union 
 Springs are the out burst of a subterranean com- 
 munication. A similar opinion prevails about 
 the origin of the springs at Caledonia in Genesee. 
 The progress of time and inquiry will ascertain 
 the solidity of these speculations. 
 
 This is the finest wheat country in the world. — 
 The white bald wheat with r^d chaff is the princi- 
 pal grain, and ail the materials of a great hydrau- 
 lic establishment, can be brought to and sent 
 from the works by water. Gypsum lines ten 
 miles of the eastern bank of this lake. The Cocks- 
 comb plaster, a singular variety of marl, is to be 
 found in great plenty, and also inexhaustible 
 stores of the latter in its common state. 
 
 The Cayuga Lake abounds with fine fish, and 
 among others, with the white fish, or salmo clupea 
 formis of the celebrated Dr. Mitchill, who is cer- 
 tainly at the head of the American scavans. The 
 
AURORA, &iC 2i 
 
 salino salar is also found here and at least four 
 species of esox, or pike. 
 
 To the south you can approach by this lak^ 
 the head waters of the Susquehannah and Ohio. — ~ 
 To the north you can enter the great Lake Onta?- 
 rio. To the west you can visit the Seneca Lake, 
 and its connecting canal, and by diverging to the 
 east vou can navisrate the middle section of the 
 great western canal. 
 
 Such facility of navigation in connexion with 
 a rich soil, abounding with all the means of fer- 
 tilization, and producing the best fruit and grain, 
 with a healthy climate, and delightful scenery, 
 furnishes inducements for settlements almost 
 irresistible. 
 
 In future times, the metamorphoses of Ovid 
 will be re-produced in this romantic region. The 
 Fountain of Arethusa will yield its renown to the 
 exuberent Springs of Aurora ; and the license of 
 poetic imagination will spread its fairy enchant- 
 ments over the whole land. 
 
22 WESTERN CANATi. 
 
 LETTER v.. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In my voyage on tlie canal I met witn several 
 loaded boats and scows, ascending as well as dc« 
 ' scending, and also rafts. The facility with whicli 
 boats pass each other without interruption or delay, 
 strikes one forcibly at the first view. This canal 
 will make a great revolution in the internal trade 
 of the country, and in the balance of political 
 power. 
 
 One horse can draw as much on a canal, as 
 60 on a road. The expense of transportation will 
 be consequently greatly reduced. I saw an ad- 
 vertisement of Mr. Henry B. Ely, of Utica, 
 wherein he offers to forward goods on the canal 
 for 25 cents per Cwt. for 100 miles, including toll, 
 which is about five cents a ton per mile, at least 
 one quarter less than by land. But this I appre- 
 hend is too high ; the maximum cost ought not to 
 exceed three cents a mile per ton. I saw at Utica 
 a raft of 440 tons of lumber, which had been 
 floated on the canal for 20 miles, for about 50 
 dollars. It was drawn by four horses at the rate 
 of two miles an hour. The conveyance of this 
 timber by land would have cost at least 1600 dol- 
 lars. The price of wheat at Albany, is now about 
 
WESTERN CANAL. 23 
 
 87 cents a bushel, and the land Iransportation, at 
 any considerable distance, costs at least 44 cents. 
 A bushel of wheat can be conveyed on tlie canal, 
 when finished, from Seneca river to Albany for 
 six cents. 
 
 Gypsum is found all over the west ; you can 
 new buy it at Utica for ^1 50 to ^2 a ton. The 
 great country lying on the Hudson can be sup- 
 plied with this mineral for four or five dollars a 
 ton. Salt will also be sold at Albany for 25. 6cL 
 or 35. a bushel. 
 
 I enclose you a marine, or canal list, cut from 
 an Utica paper. The activity of business which 
 this communication has already created is per- 
 fectly surprising". 
 
 From the Utica Patriot, 
 
 CANAL NAVIGATION. 
 
 May 22, 1820, arrived, boat Montezuma, with 
 passengers, Engineer, Experiment, Western Tra- 
 der, and a Cayuga boat, with flour. 
 
 Departed, Montezuma, passengers, and a Gene- 
 va boat with goods. 
 
 23. Arrived, Traveller, and Experiment. 
 Denarted, boats Engineer, Newell, and Experi- 
 ment. 
 
 24. Departed, boats Western Trader, and Ex- 
 periment. 
 
 Arrived, Lady of the Lake, with stone, and 
 John Van Ness Yates, with 250 barrels of Hour, 
 from Seneca Lake, 
 
^4 
 
 WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 25. Arrived, Experiment, passengers, Lady of 
 the Lake, stone, Anne Maria, with salt, from 
 Salina. 
 
 Departed, Experimerit, Anne Maria. 
 
 26. Arrived, boat Montezuma, with passen- 
 gers, his excellency the Governor, and Gen. Van 
 Rensselaer. 
 
 27. Arrived, boats Traveller, Clinton, and the 
 Western Trader. 
 
 28. Arrived Engineer. 
 
 Departed, the Experiment, passengers, for 
 Montezurrfa, 
 
 29. Departed, boat Montezuma, with passen- 
 gers, commencing her regular trips. 
 
 30. Lady of the Lake, one scow, with stone. 
 3L Arrived, two Cayuga boats with flour. 
 Departed, Engineer, passengers. 
 
 June 1. Two boats from the Seneca Lake, do. 
 
 2 The Canistota and John Van Ness Yates, do. 
 
 Arrived, Montezuma, with passengers. 
 
 3. Arrived, one boat from Cayuga Lake, with 
 pork. 
 
 Departed, one boat for Geneva, and the pas- 
 sage boat Experiment. 
 
 5. Departed, the Montezuma, for Seneca river, 
 with passengers. 
 
 At Montezuma, I was regaled with most excel- 
 lent fish of the esox genus ; and at Syracuse and 
 Rome, on my way up, I had fine salmon. I shall 
 on a future occasion, speak of the fishes of the 
 west : The fish markets of the cities on the 
 Hudson will be greatly improved by the canal. 
 New species will be brought down in ice in a 
 
WESTERN CANAL, 2<i 
 
 perfect state of preservation, and the epicures of 
 the south will be treated with new and untried 
 dishes of the highest flavor. 
 
 The west is the favorite region of the peach 
 and the plum. And these and other kinds of 
 fruits of the very best quality will be conveyed on 
 the canal 1 have seen in various places, a plant 
 of fine appearance, which I am told produces ex- 
 cellent fruit of the size and color of a small orange. 
 It is, if I mistake not, the podophyllum peltatum 
 and is commonly called mandrake, or May apple. 
 This country also contains different species of 
 wild plums of fine quality. The opening of 
 a market for grain will prevent its conversion 
 into ardent spirits — the curse of morals, and the 
 bane of domestic felicity. Whiskey now sells for 
 eighteen cents a gallon. What a temptation to 
 inebriety ! a man may now keep constantly drunk, 
 fort hree or four shillings a week. Nothing but a 
 heavy excise can banish the use of this deleterious 
 poison. 
 
 Cattle which are fattened for the market can be 
 transported on the canal with less expense and 
 with more celerity, (and without any diminution 
 of flesh) than by driving. 
 
 In one word, new uses and striking advantages 
 will daily present themselves to observation from 
 This great operation. It is alleged that the canal 
 
26 WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 will make a good ice road in winter, but I have 
 no faith in this opinion. The use of it for such 
 purpose will be but short. It \^ill be in use for 
 vessels about ten inonths in a year; and what is 
 not a little extraordinary, it freezes later, and 
 thaws sooner, than natural waters. The philoso- 
 phy of this fact I will endeavor to develope on 
 some future occasion, but such you may rely on 
 it is the case. When the Onondaga Lake, wiiich 
 lies below the canal, was closed up with ice last 
 spring, the latter was open and navigable. By 
 the continual passage of boats in winter, the canal 
 can be prevented from freezing; and when frozen, 
 a vessel may open its way by placing stampers 
 for breaking ice at its head, as I have seen in the 
 Forth and Clyde canal, where they are worked 
 hy the steam engine that propels the barge. 
 
 LETTER VL 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Before leaving London I bought '' An account 
 of the Great Western Canal of New-York, with 
 an illustrative map," which was reprinted at that 
 great literary mart, and when I arrived here, the 
 great outlines of the country and of the canal 
 
WESTERN CANAL. 27 
 
 were rcimlliar to my mind. Actual inspection lias 
 exceeded the most sanguine anticipation. Some- 
 times I think that I am in the region of enchant- 
 ment, and that the magical operations of eastern 
 fiction are acted over again in this country. Two 
 canals of 124 miles, uniting to a certain extent 
 the great fresh water seas of the interior, with the 
 ocean; and all this done without noise, and as it 
 were without effort, in less than two years and a 
 half, must shut the mouth of scepticism, and excite 
 universal astonishment. The more I examine 
 into this subject, the mora important consequen- 
 ces do I observe. The men who are the prlmwri 
 mobile of this sclieme, appear to understand the 
 genuine sources of national wealth, and the ortho- 
 dox principles of political economy. Internal 
 trade is the great substratum of riches. It excites 
 ail kinds of industry, sharpens the faculties, and 
 multiplies the exertions of man ; and inland navi- 
 gation is the lever of Archimedes, which will set 
 in motion this world of occupation and exertion. 
 
 Both sides of the canal are in fence. This is 
 necessary in order to protect the bank from cattle, 
 and the farms from depredations. I was shewn 
 at Whitesborough, a fence, the materials of which 
 were conveyed from Canasaraga last fall, on the 
 canal. Twenty-two hundred cedar rails were 
 transported with one horse, two men, and a boy ; 
 
28 WESTERN CANAL. 
 
 and it took in going and returning, three days, a I 
 $2 per day; in the aggregate, §9; while by land 
 it would have employed 40 wagons two days, 
 which at §2 per day, would have cost §160. 
 
 I am of opinion that the salt of Salina can be 
 sold at Albany, when the canal is finished, for 31 
 cents a bushel. At Salina it can be purchased for 
 25 cents a bushel, and the expense of conveyance 
 will not exceed six cents. The principal cost now 
 is the barrel, but when conveyed in bulk, this will 
 of course be done away. I saw a salt boat build- 
 ing near Syracuse, which was intended to convey 
 1600 bushels in bulk. 
 
 In like manner gypsum can be got at Utica for 
 %2 a ton, and delivered at Albany for $1 J or $2 
 more. This source of fertilization will be diffused 
 through this channel over the whole state. I have 
 much to say on this subject, and I am now con- 
 sidering whether it will be best to prepare it by 
 calcination or grinding before transportation, or 
 transport the raw material. Suppose that 100,000 
 farmers should each save twenty dollars a year in 
 gypsum, and ten dollars in salt, by means of the 
 canal, here would be an annual saving of three 
 millions of dollars, a sum more than sufficient in 
 two years to make the whole canal. And this is 
 a very moderate calculation. Salt is essential to 
 the health of cattle, and the consumption of this 
 
' GTPSUJi, SALT, Lc, 29 
 
 article for that purpose, for the table, and for pre- 
 serving fish and meats, is immense. Gypsum 
 rises every year in public estimation, and I am 
 told that during the late war, the farmers of Sara- 
 toga and Dutchess counties would go to the gyp- 
 sum beds of Madison and Onondaga counties for 
 a supply, a distance of 150 or 200 miles. To 
 shut out the foreign suppl}^ of gypsum and salt, 
 would be a great saving to the public in every 
 sense of the word : and this will be most effectu- 
 ally accomplished. 
 
 A horse can easily draw 25 tons on a canaL 
 This would take at least 20 teams for land trans 
 portation. The conveyance of commodities by 
 water will supersede the use of an animal for 
 draught, which is the most voracious and waste- 
 ful of the graminivorous class of brutes. Two 
 beneficial consequences will result, and in a most 
 extensive manner. 1st. The diminished demand 
 of horses for domestic accommodation, will enable 
 a greater exportation to foreign markets : and 2d. 
 Their place will be supplied by neat cattle, sheep, 
 swine, and poultry, which will be increased in 
 proportion to the augmented stores of grain and 
 grass for their benefit. It has long been anxious- 
 ly desired by good agriculturists to substitute the 
 ox for the hoi'se in farming, and though this has 
 
 partially succeeded in the eastern states, yet the 
 
 C 
 
oO MAPLE SUGAR. 
 
 horse is almost exclusively used for the couvey- 
 ance of couimodities a distance. 
 
 Every diminution of expense in transportation, 
 will add so much to the profits of the farmer and 
 manufacturer. Hence manufacturers will be en- 
 abled to sell their fabrics at a low price, and to 
 this canal I look for the resurrection and firm es- 
 tablishment of the manufacturing interest of the 
 State. 
 
 I saw for the first time the famous acer saccha- 
 rinum, or sugar maple. It grows spontaneously 
 like all other trees of the forest, and is a most 
 beautiful and stately tree. It is said that each 
 tree will produce from three to five pounds o^ 
 sugar. An acre will contain 30 trees, and a tree 
 will be fit for use in 1 5 years, and will probably 
 continue so for two centuries. An orchard of 
 ten acres would produce annually two hogsheads 
 and a half of sugar, which can be made as good 
 in all respects as the produce of the cane or the 
 *weet beet. I speak from ocular observation and 
 irom taste. Mon. Le Ray, a very respectable 
 and sensible land holder in Jefferson county, 
 shewed me at Washington-Hall, in New-York, a 
 sample of maple sugar, which I have never seen 
 excelled, and which was raised on his estates in 
 that county ; and I have been told by Mr. George 
 Parish, a most accomplished and public spirited 
 
WESTERN CANAL. 31 
 
 gentleman, from St. Lawrence county, that the 
 inhabitants of that region not only supply them- 
 selves with maple sugar for domestic uses, but 
 have a surplus for market. This was reiterated to 
 me at Ulica lately, by Judge Ogden of the same 
 county, and by Judge Church of Alleghany, gen- 
 tlemen of great worth. A plantation of maple 
 trees of ten acres, besides being highly ornamen- 
 tal and beneficial for pasture — besides the use of 
 the decayed trees for fuel, and the acquisition of 
 excellent syrup, vinegar, and molasses, and a suf- 
 ficiency of sugar for family purposes, will yield a 
 profit of $200 annually to the proprietor ; and 
 these operations are carried on in the month of 
 March, continue but a short time, and interfere 
 " with no other business. The forests of the north 
 and west will supply the other parts of the state 
 with the best of sugar and molasses through the 
 great canals. 
 
 LETTER Vn. 
 
 Genevttj June^ 1820. 
 31y Dear Sir, 
 
 Just before you afrive at Syracr?e, 61 miles 
 from Utica, you meet with the two first locks on the 
 canal. Here are three which let you down intc 
 
32 Water cement. 
 
 the Salina Plain. These locks are made of lime 
 and sand stone. Both abound with marine exuviae' 
 and organic remains. I never saw more substan-' 
 tial erections. The water cement made use of is 
 derived from a mixture of sand and a meagre 
 lime stone found all over this country, and is said 
 to be superior to any hydraulic mortar ever used. 
 I had at Utica an account of this discovery from 
 a Dr. Bartow, one of the agents of the Canal 
 Board, a gentleman, who possesses a great fund 
 of information, which he was by no means parsi- 
 monious in imparting. 1 spent three hours very 
 pleasantly with the Doctor at the great Utica Ho- 
 tel. He informs me that on a chemical analysis, 
 it is proved that the component parts are not the 
 same with the Septarium, Lias, or Aberthiaw lime^V^ 
 of Great Britain — that he and Mr. White', one of 
 the Canal engineers, had originated and matured 
 ihe discovery, and that it had been successfully 
 tried in cisterns as well as locks, and found to 
 unite stones as firmly and solidly as if they had 
 been originally joined by the hand of nature. 
 
 The Doctor states the constituents to be as fol- 
 lows : to wit, 
 
 35 parts carbonic acid, 
 25 lime, 
 
 15 silex, 
 
 16 alumine. 
 
o ■> 
 
 GEOLOGICAL. i>0 
 
 2 water, 
 
 1 oxide of iron. 
 
 After the process of calcination, it is to bs 
 ground, and tiien mixed with an equal weight of 
 clean sand, which will be twice as bulky as the 
 lime, and it must be mixed with clean water, and 
 as little as possible. 
 
 I am told that a great limestone ridge runs 
 through the whole of this country, east and west— 
 that north of it a ledge of gypsum commences } 
 also a range of salines — and that on the borders 
 of the gypsum and salt regions, there is a tier of 
 lime stone alternating with sand stone, and full 
 of organic remains ; adjacent to which the water 
 lime is found — and that this valuable fossil is in 
 great abundance over a line of country of at least 
 100 miles extent. The most eastern salt spring 
 as yet discovered is about 25 miles west of Utica ; 
 at the same distance g} psum commences. This 
 affinity between salt and g3psum exists all over 
 the world. I find the geology of this country 
 most extraordinary ; it is sui generis. In using 
 the technology of Werner, I beg you to under- 
 stand that I am no disciple of his school. I adopt 
 it to explain my ideas in conformity to received 
 and general nomenclature. We are yet in the 
 horn book of this science. The lapse of ages will 
 accumulate facts for the formation of systems,-— 
 
o4 GEOLOGICAL. 
 
 This earth is undoubtedly a wreck of a former 
 world ; a new combination of old materials. Fire 
 and water have been the principal agents in ac- 
 complishing this work; and changes are constant- 
 ly going on, sometimes with slow, at other times 
 with rapid, and alw^ays with unceasing steps. 
 
 To adopt the language of Werner, this country 
 of the west is entirely of secondary formation. — 
 Here are no primitive or transition rocks, unless 
 a few scattered ones, which have been either 
 brought from a distance by water, or ejected by 
 volcanoes from the bowels of the earth — and 
 which may therefore be considered as exotic sub- 
 stances. I have as3Ttseenbut shistic, calcareous, 
 and siliceous rocks, besides gypsum ; with the 
 exception of a few of granite at Montezuma, one 
 of which is very large. The existence of these 
 primitive substances in this country, is a great 
 curiosity. These rocks may have been convened 
 here from the rocky mountains, from Labrador, 
 or the country north of Lake Superior. But I 
 have much to say on this subject, which I shall 
 reserve until I see more of this country. In Europe 
 all the three great formations run into each other, 
 or are in a state of close approximation. In this 
 I'egion the secondary predominates over the whole 
 western counu'y. This then is ihehabitat of coal ; 
 here it must be found of the best quality, and most 
 
COAL. Jo 
 
 abundant quanilU'. Further west. In Ohio and 
 Pennsylvania, it lias been discovered, and I am 
 confident that It exists in the vicinity of this canal. 
 The reasons which induce this opinion are vari- 
 ous and conclusive, and 1 shall now enamcrale 
 some of them. 
 
 Coal is composed of charcoal, or carbon, bitu- 
 men, some portion of eartli, and generally a small 
 quantity of metalic matter. When it exists w ith- 
 out bitumen, it is termed anthracite or glance coal. 
 All the western coal contains bitumen, and erent - 
 rally speaking, the coal found east of the moun- 
 tains is without it. 
 
 Coal is found in hilly situations, under strata of 
 grit, which is a compound of sand and clay, or 
 under schistus which is an indurated clay, splitting 
 into la\'ers and forming either slate, or a substance 
 called shivers, according to its fracture. Coal 
 frequently alternates witli strata of grit, stone and 
 schistus. Its roof is generally composed of shale ; 
 and although in the island of Great Britain it is 
 not intermingled with lime stone, which generally 
 forms the outlines of coal fields, yet on the conti- 
 nent they are often found in company. 
 
 Discarding the th€orles which have been stated 
 respecting the origin of coal, whether of mineral 
 or vegetable derivation, it is suiucient merely to 
 state facts in order to sustain the opinion which I 
 have advanced on this subject. 
 
36 COAL. 
 
 Coal is classed by geologists among the secon- 
 dary rocks or substances, and is found in regions 
 of secondary formation arranged in horizontal 
 strata. The whole western country is of this 
 character. 
 
 Again. — Its accompaniments, shale and sand 
 stone are the principal rocks, besides lime and 
 gypsum. 
 
 Black shale which burns in the* fire, and which 
 derives its color from the bitumen with which it is 
 impregnated, is to be seen in various places. 
 
 Bituminous springs and oil stones exist in this 
 country. 
 
 Hydrogen gas, or burning springs, are also 
 found in this region, issuing from strata of schist, 
 and are of the same nature, in several respects, 
 with the gas obtained from the distillation of coal. 
 Sir Humphrey Davy ascribes the quantity of gas 
 thus spontaneously extricated, to the consolidation 
 of this coal, effected under a great pressure ; and 
 even when this substance owes its origin in some 
 measure to other causes, it is in a degree always 
 identified with coal. For the inflammable gas of 
 
 marshes consists of hydrogen and charcoal. 
 
 Whenever I see this gas in a state of ignition, or 
 issuing from the earth in its usual state^I set down 
 its origin in some measure to coal. 
 
COAL. 3? 
 
 Again. — The prevalence of sulphur and salt in 
 the shape of springs, and of gypsum in the form oi 
 quarries, demonstrate the existence of coal. They 
 are invariably companions. Providence dispen- 
 ses its bounties in a remarkable manner. These 
 invaluable fossils, coal, salt and gypsum, are 
 always found in the same region. The great 
 ranges of hills in Canasaraga, Onondaga, Ontario, 
 and Genessee, are ramifications of the Alleghany 
 mountains, the seat of coal in Pittsburgh. 
 
 One of the richest salt mines in England, was 
 discovered by digging a canal. The western 
 canal in its windings round hills, in the deep cut- 
 tings v.'hich it produces, and the extensive explo- 
 rings and examinations which it occasions, will 
 undoubtedly bring to light great mines of coal, 
 more valuable than the precious metals of Peru, 
 and the precious stones of Golconda. The places 
 to look for this important mineral, are deep ra- 
 vines, formed by floods ; the vallies at the foot of 
 high hills, and vertical sections produced by the 
 overflowings and abrasures of streams. 
 
 Thin laminse of coal have been seen in various 
 
 places — and the Indians say that they have found 
 
 Ji re-stone in the woods. The moment coal is 
 
 discovered within fifty miles of the canal, what 
 
 sources of wealth will immediately be developed^ 
 
 Deprive Great Britain of its coal, and yov^ ruin 
 
 C 2 
 
3S GENEVA. 
 
 the kingdom. Give it to the proud republic of 
 New-York, and she will soar on eagle wings above 
 all competition. 
 
 I write from recollection, for I travel without 
 books — my general statements are correct, altha' 
 1 may err in some details^ 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Geneva, June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I LIKE the air and scenery of this place so much, 
 ihat I cannot leave it without regret. The spacious 
 hotel is replete with accommodations. The village 
 bangs over the pellucid lake, which stretches like 
 a mighty river towards the south, and the eye is 
 lost in tracing its extent. The aquatic birds 
 which frequent this lake are objects of considera- 
 ble interest to me, and the fishes which inhabit its 
 waters are equally so. I have however to grope 
 my way in the dark without any assistance. Na- 
 tural science has no hold of the affections of this 
 community. Its very terms are unknown to most 
 members of the learned professions. Here and 
 there some illustrious exception may be seen, but 
 then an attack is immediately made by the wit- 
 lings, the poetasters and the sciolists of the country. 
 
BIRDS. 3D 
 
 wlio unite to run down merit which they cannot 
 imitate. Dr. Mitchill's honours of this kind are 
 as numerous as the documents of his scientific 
 merit, and Dr. Hosack has been assailed by the 
 low buffoonery of literary punchinellos and shal- 
 low-pated coxcombs. When in company with 
 the savansof my native country, the fame ofRush, 
 Mitchill, Hosack, Bigelow, Belknap, Barton, 
 Wistar and Walsh, were familiar to me — but I 
 never heard of the names ofVerplanck and Pauld- 
 ing, of Searson, of Duer, of Minshull, or of Dr. 
 Henry, until I landed on the American shores. 
 
 The common names of European birds are 
 applied without discrimination to American ones, 
 and this has created endless confusion. It is vain 
 that 1 look for our quail^ our patridge, our wood- 
 cock, our pigeon, our swallow, our robin, our 
 goldfinch, he. There is' nothing of .the kind to 
 be seen. I am pointed to birds of, those names^ 
 but here the resemblance ceases. The English 
 snipe is the same in Europe and America, and 
 probably many aquatic birds, but that snipe is 
 the only one in which I have ascertained u G'om= 
 plete sameness. 
 
 When on the caiaal in the night I was serenaded 
 by some unknown nocturnal bird. It had four 
 distinct notes — its song was protracted and as 
 melodious and sweet as the nightingale ; but it 
 
40 »ifti)S. 
 
 was not the same bird. The next mornhig the 
 whole feathered tribe sung in dehghtful concert, 
 and saluted the orient monarch of day with more 
 charming music than ever 1 heard in European 
 forests. And this was continued after we had 
 entered a gloomy swamp. A remarkable bird 
 was visible in the wood, eclipsing all its kind by 
 xhe splendour and beauty of its plumage. It was 
 entirely of a deep red color, with the exception of 
 black on its wings. It was the Tanagra Rubra, 
 or Red Tanager, the most beautiful bird in Ame- 
 rica. It appears inclined to solitude, and its two 
 Botes, chip churr, constantly repeated do not cor- 
 respond with its magnificent attire. I had previ- 
 ously seen the Loxia Cardinalis with its crested 
 head and scarlet plumage, butit is not to be com^ 
 pared with the Red Tanager. There is a bird 
 called the Oriflus PhajnidTus, or Red winged black 
 bird which is'the exact reverse of the Tanager in 
 dress and appearance, and I also saw abeautiful bird 
 of small size with black plumage, and white on its 
 wings, called the Bob Lincoln. I am persuaded 
 that there are many birds, particularly small ones, 
 which are non-descripts. I was told of a bird 
 which is heard in the night time in the month of 
 March, and which has never been seen. It is cal- 
 led the Stake Driver from the noise it makes, 
 and is continually flying from tree to tree. It is 
 
BIRDS, 4i 
 
 Undoubtedly a nocturnal bird of the Picus tribe. 
 I was told by an old countryman of mine, who 
 lives in a district called the Royal Grant, that he 
 had heard the nightingale, but this I am persuaded 
 was a mistake. It was, he said, a night bird very 
 small, and never distinctly visible. Dr. Mitchill 
 told me he observed notes which he took to be the 
 nightingale's one night at Wood Creek, but this 
 I believe was the same song which I heard on the 
 canal. 
 
 There are four species of swallows here, the 
 same number as in Great Britain, and I believe 
 they go by the same bames, although specifically 
 distinct. 
 
 Hirundo Rustica House Swallow. 
 
 Hirundo Pelasgia Chimney Swallow. - 
 
 Hirundo Purpurea Martin. 
 
 Hirundo Riparia Bank Swallow. 
 The Chimney Swallow is different from its 
 congeners ; it has no furcated tail. It is a wild 
 bird, and nestles in chimnies and hollow trees. 
 I hear it descend the chimney of the room in 
 which I sleep every night ; its operations are 
 incessant, and its chattering never ending, I 
 have reason to think that there are more species 
 of swallows in this country, than those enumera- 
 ted. The Caprimulgus Virginianus or Whip 
 Poor-will, is a very singular bird» It is unknoWYi 
 
^^ SULPHUR SPRIXCS. 
 
 to Europe; its wide mouth shews that it denv^ 
 its food from insects, and its crv in the night 
 altliough the call of love, tends to inspire melan- 
 choly. 
 
 es 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Suljyhnr Sj)rings, near Geneva, June, 1S20. 
 I^Iydear Sir, 
 
 I arrived here a few days ago. On my 
 approach, my olfactory nerves were greeted by 
 a sulphurous smell, like the fabulous exhalations 
 of the Stygian Lake. The accommodations are 
 bad, the country delightful, the springs curious, 
 though not uncommon. A spring rises from the 
 earth and immediately forms a small stream. In 
 its ascent it passes through sulphur, and receives a 
 strong impregnation. The water being saturated 
 with this substance, deposits a concrete sediment. 
 Whether it can be turned to a useful account, I 
 cannot decide. I have much to say on these 
 phenomena. 
 
 Besides the usual loss of water by soakager 
 leakage, and wastage, on the canal, a considerable 
 quantity will be spent in evaporation. In some 
 countries the evaporation exceeds the rain. 
 In others itflUls short, particularly in Great Bri- 
 
RATS, 4S 
 
 *taln. The former I am inclined to believe to be 
 the case in this state, but of this I am not certain. 
 The waters of these western streams have a self- 
 puddling power. Thej^ are saturated with lime, 
 gypsum, and vegetable and mineral decomposi- 
 tions, and their depositions will gradually fill up 
 the leaks and fissures in the canal. You know- 
 that a canal has been cut through the bog of Allan 
 in Ireland at an inunense expense, and which is 
 perfectly water tight. The comparative facility 
 of making the western canal in the worst places is 
 obvious. The freshets of spring and autumn— 
 the heavy rains and snows of winter — and the 
 operations of frost, have exhausted, the last season, 
 all their powers against this communication, and 
 it has stood the shock at a trifling expense. In 
 some places there is quick sand, which ever shift- 
 ing and sliding, requires strong protection against 
 Its ravages. 
 
 I presume you know that moles and rats are so 
 injurious to canals in England, that rat catchers 
 are employed to extirpate them. I have seen 
 already in some places the holes of these animals ; 
 I do not know whether the brown, gray, or Nor- 
 way rat, the mus decumanus of Linnaeus and mus 
 sylvestris of Pennant, or the black rat, mus rattus 
 of Linnaeus, have extended their migrations as far 
 as this part of the country. They both follow 
 
44- BAT is. 
 
 settlement!^, and are great travellers, and l^presume 
 that they have already established themselves in 
 this region. Both are supposed to have been 
 brought to England originally from India or Per- 
 sia. The Norway rat, notwithstanding its name, 
 is quite unknown in Scandinavia. He made his 
 appearance in the Pive- Islands in 1768, arriving 
 upon the wreck of a Norway ship, and according 
 to Pennant was first seen in England about the 
 year 1728. He has made a national conquest of 
 the black rat, and wherever he has taken his resi- 
 dence, has quite extirpated it. Accoi dingto Pen- 
 nant, the black rat was indigenous in Eng- 
 land, while Shaw supposes that he was derived 
 from Asia. Pennant says that both rats and 
 mice were unknown to the new world before it 
 was discovered by the Europeans, and the first rats 
 it ever knew were introduced there by a ship from 
 Antwerp. Shaw says that the black rat was im- 
 ported into South America in 1554, and is suppo- 
 sed to be a native of North America. I have 
 seen in the city of New-York both the Norway 
 and the black rat, and wherever they go they will 
 do mischief. Taking up their habitation in 
 houses adjacent to the canals, they will perforate 
 the banks for drink and food. 
 
 The mus amphibius, or water rat which bur- 
 rows in banks about ponds and ditches, is a stilJ 
 
RATS- 45 
 
 more dangerous enemy. It iuliuulu Europe, 
 northern Asia, and North America, according to 
 Linnaeus. I have seen it in remote parts of the 
 Country, and it is a deadly foe to canals and mill 
 ponds. So far as I can judge from a hasty glimpse 
 in the boat, I have also seen the mus busarius 
 which was some time ago discovered in the inte- 
 rior of Canada, and which from the magnitude of 
 the claws of its fore feet, is formed for burrowing 
 in the ground. It is thus described in the fifih 
 volume of the Transactions of the Linnsen Socie- 
 ty — " Mus ciner^is, cauda tereti brevi subnuda, 
 
 geniis saccatis, unguibus palmarum maximis 
 fossoriis." 
 
 But afresh water lobster, a species ofcray fish 
 which I have not yet seen, is said to be peculiarly 
 dangerous to mill dams by its perforations ; It 
 inhabits the Genesee river in great abundance, 
 and is seen in many other streams. If it establish- 
 es itself in the canal, it will do great injury. 
 
 The most formidable foe still remains to be 
 noticed. The mus zibethicus, muskrat or mus- 
 quash : 1 have already seen his holes on the 
 banks of the canal. He is next to the beaver, the 
 greatest architect of the brute kind. He builds 
 his house on bogs, in summer, of reeds, and aban- 
 dons it in winter, when he lodges in holes. He 
 also makes a hole in the side of a pond, or brook. 
 
46 FISHES. 
 
 leading immediately into tbe water, from whence 
 it rises gradually to a dry place, where he lies in 
 security. In winter, when the v/ater is frozen, 
 muskrats go under the ice and prey on the fish. 
 They are very destructive to trout, which is alrea- 
 dy in the canal. This animal is so useful to the 
 furriers, that a law has been enacted against kil- 
 ling il, between the first of May and the first of 
 November, except in canals and null ponds. I 
 am sure that its ravages on the canals, unless res- 
 trained by severe vigilance, will greatly exceed all 
 its benefits in making hats. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 1820. 
 My dear Sib, 
 
 " Of all minerals, said Bacon, there is none 
 like the fisheries." And I assure 3^ou that these pre- 
 cious commodities abound in the western waters. 
 
 The ticamang, or white fish are taken in great 
 numbers about the falls of St. Mary's at the foot 
 of Lake Superior, particularly in the autumn, 
 when that fish leaves the lakes and comes to the 
 running and shallow waters to spawn. It weighs 
 from four to sixteen pounds. So says Mackenzie 
 the Scotch traveller ; and Mr. Rathbone, a very 
 
FISHES. 47 
 
 intelligent gentleman of New-York, has assured 
 tne, that at certain seasons the Indians collect in 
 vast multitudes at these falls to catch Cnh. Be- 
 sides the white lish, there are the salmon trout, 
 and several kinds of sturgeon and pike, and fresh 
 water herring, and a number of other kinds. 
 Whether these fishes were originally marine ani- 
 mals, I cannot say. Fresh water fish will some- 
 limes live in salt water, and vice versa. The 
 lake of Lentini in Italy, is stocked with a sea fish 
 called the cefalo, a species of mullet caught in the 
 Mediterranean, and thrown into the fresh water of 
 the lake, where they not only live, but increase 
 greatly in size, and improve in ilavor, and are a 
 considerable article of luxurv in the island. The 
 lake has no communication with the sea, and is 
 chiefly filled with rain water. Many fish run up 
 from the ocean into fresh waters to spawn, and 
 perhaps some fresh water fish go to the ocean for 
 ihe same purpose. The fishes of the lakes can 
 however have the benefit of the salt water if they 
 see fit, as those waters abound with salt springs. 
 Ives informs us that at certain places in the Red 
 Sea, divers go down several fathoms, and bring 
 up fresh water, which is found in holes or little 
 natural wells. In this case the fresh water fish 
 may live in the ocean. I have no doubt but that 
 fishes can generally accommodate themselves to 
 
48 FISHES. 
 
 the fluid in which they swioi, whether saliue oi- 
 fresh. 
 
 I find all the country supplied with a hard dried 
 cod from New-England, which must drain it of 
 considerable money. I am somewhat surprised at 
 this, as it is so replete with fine fishes of its own. 
 West of Lake Erie, the waters contain the common 
 salmon, in great numbers. The last year the 
 fisheries in Sacket's Harbor and Chuumont's Bay 
 produced the following : 
 
 Siscoes or lake herring, 4,000 barrels, 
 at $7 per barrel, $28,000 
 
 White fish, 1200 barrels, at 9 dollars, 10,800 
 
 Salman trotit^ 400 do. at 14 do. 5,600 
 
 $44,400 
 The distance comprised is less than twenty 
 miles, and the quantity is exclusive of the abun- 
 dance distributed fresh in the country contiguous 
 to the fishing grounds. 
 
 Judge Bates, one of the canal engineers, told 
 
 me that 1000 barrels of eels are caught at the 
 
 Oswego falls, and 500 of other fish, at $10 
 
 per barrel, $15,000 
 
 As much at other places on that river, 15,000 
 
 $30,000 
 
FISHES. 4S 
 
 It is not too much to say, that the western fish- 
 eries, from the falls of St. Mary's to Lake Cham- 
 plain, can be made to produce a million of dol- 
 lars annuall}'. 
 
 Along the canal I have been regaled with the 
 salmon and pike in great perfection. The salmo 
 fario, or common trout is visible in various places 
 in the canal. 
 
 The science of ichthyology is pregnant with 
 instruction and amusement. The migration of 
 ifishes,^,their occasional appearance and absence 
 their habits, he. are subjects of interesting inqui- 
 ry. The most remarkable circumstance in their 
 natural history is their 6A;i ^ y i i! i iii)i3 hngmvky t amd rapid 
 grovjth. A salmon weighing 7| lbs. was taken 
 on" the 7th of February at Warrington, (Eng.) 
 and marked with scissors on the back fin and tail, 
 and turned into the river, and was again taken on 
 the 17th of the following March, and was then 
 found to weigh 17j lbs. Some of the salmon, (I 
 mean the salmo salar of Linnaeus) stay in the 
 western lakes all the year. But these may perhaps 
 be considered estrays. The history of this fish is 
 involved in much obscurity, and so indeed is that 
 of all erratic fish. Pennant says, that every spe- 
 cies of salmon is found in the rivers of Kamtschat- 
 ka. It is observed that each shoal keep apart 
 from others of different species, and frequently 
 
3PfsHES. 
 
 pre<e-aseparatenver,„otwithstandi„g,,e.„„u.,.s 
 may oe almost contiguous. Every species of 
 salmon dies ,n the same river or Jake i„ which it 
 IS born and t. which it returns to spawn. I„ 
 t!.e tWd year, n,ale and female consort together 
 
 and the latter deposits its spawn in a hole Led' 
 w.th^ Its tail and fins in the sand. A fish of a 
 
 year s growth continues near the place, guards the 
 spawn and returns to the sea with the new born 
 fry .„ November. The salmons of Kamtschatka 
 spawn but once in their lives; those of Siberia 
 and Europe, the rivers of which are deep, and 
 abound w.th insect food, are enabled to continue 
 the first great com^and-of nature, frequently du- 
 nng the period of their existence. The common 
 salmon of the ,vestern waters spawn, it is said 
 t» .ce a year ; also the brook trout. Linn^us 
 enumerates between forty and fifty different spe- 
 cies of the salmo. I have reason to believe that 
 there are several in this country. Besides the 
 common salmon, the salmon trout, and the brook 
 trout, there are, I think, different species of trout 
 m nvers and lakes, which are confounded under 
 the general name of salmon trout and common 
 trout. I have seen two kinds of the common 
 trout which are considered as of the same species 
 but which are specifically distinct. One species 
 generally inhabit streams, although they go into 
 
PISHES. 51. 
 
 the shallows of lakes in the fall and conceal them- 
 selves in the grass. They^have red spots on the 
 bod}^, and square tails. The other kind have 
 yellow spots and forked tails, and never leave the 
 lakes. I am told that Oneida Lake is filled in 
 July with a small substance called lake blossom, 
 which is undoubtedly the exuviae or ova of in- 
 sects. I have seen on the Lake Baikal, the great- 
 est lake of the old world, vast quantities of the 
 skins of the onischus trachurus, a species of insect 
 which abounds on the rocky shores of the lake, 
 and is the food of the salmo lenok and sig. The 
 salmo salar and its congeners is probably attracted 
 into these lakes by the vast quantities of insects. 
 I have heard a great deal of the Oswego basse^ 
 or black basse ; it is said to be the most delicious 
 fish of the west. It is of the perca genus. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Lake Baikal, of which I wrote to you in a late 
 letter, is a vast distance from the sea. It is 125 
 leagues long, and about six in breadth. A species 
 of seal inhabits it, which was originally a sea 
 animal, but which is now naturalized to fresh 
 
52 FiSHES, 
 
 water. Indeed I b.!ieve that the great western 
 lakes of America, contain a large quantity of salt 
 water in particular places, which may be sufficient 
 for the support of marine animals. One of the 
 old French writers in Canada says, that a seal 
 was at one time seen near Montreal. The harbor 
 of New-York abounded with this animal in an- 
 cient times. Robin's reef was at one period their 
 place of rendezvous, and derives its appellation 
 fronr the Dutch word for it. 
 
 The conveyance of fish from one region to 
 another, is not a new idea. The carp was trans- 
 ported to England from Spain. According to 
 Bloche, the sterlet, or accipenser ruthenus was 
 transported from the Volga into the lake Maelar, 
 by Frederick I. as was the loche, cobitisbarbatula, 
 out of Germany, by the same monarch. Several 
 little lakes, called by the Americans, ponds, have 
 been stocked with a fine species of esox, called 
 pickerel. How easy would it be to bring the 
 European carp into this country. The gold fish, 
 a beautiful little carp from China, adorns the par- 
 lours of many American ladies. The most remote 
 and sequestered pieces of water without outlets or 
 inlets abound with finny inhabitants, How did 
 they come there ? is a natural question, upon 
 which I have often pondered. 
 
FISHES. 
 
 1. They may have been left after the retreat of 
 the waters of the general deluge. 
 
 2. The ova of fishes may have been drawn Into 
 the atmosphere with exhalations, and conveyed 
 to a great distance, 
 
 3. Dead fishes may have been accidentally 
 dropt into those waters by birds of prey, and on 
 the decomposition of their bodies, the contained 
 ova ma}^ have produced fish. 
 
 4. It is well known that whirlwinds catch up 
 water, and carry away with it at the sam,e time^ 
 fishes, to an amazing distance. Great shoals of 
 herrings have been found on the highest mountains 
 of the Feroe Islands. 
 
 5. Aquatic birds convey the ova of fishes taken 
 in as food to difierent places. 
 
 The vast fecundity of fishes is astonishing^ 
 Their powers of production transcend their pow- 
 ers of destruction. A single ovary of the large 
 cod has been known to contain nine millions of 
 eggs. 
 
 I expect great changes from the junction of the 
 western and eastern waters on the subject offish. 
 Already have several kinds penetrated through 
 the canal at Rome into the Mohawk river. 
 
 1. The pickerel of the western lakes has made 
 his appearance there. 
 
 r> 
 
54 FISHES. 
 
 2. A new kind of sucker, called the black suck-^ 
 
 er. 
 
 3. The catfish of the lakes. 
 
 4. A chub, or dace, of a silver colour, and 
 which sometimes weighs 4 lbs. Great destruction 
 has been made of this fish by the improper use 
 of coculus indicus in catching it. I accidentally 
 met a German from Schoharie county, who was 
 bound to the Oneida Lake for catfish to stock his 
 
 pond. 
 
 The canal will bring the western fishes into the 
 eastern waters. At first, worms and insects will 
 supply them with food ; their amazing fecundity 
 will fill the streams with eggs and young— cannibal 
 like they will subsist on each other, and in pro- 
 portion to their multiplication will be the demand 
 for, and the supply of subsistence ; but as the lat- 
 ter will probably exceed the former, new and 
 abundant fisheries will be brought into operation 
 The more, my dear sir, I see, and the more I 
 think, of the canal, the more thoroughly am I 
 convinced of its astonishing blessings. Nature 
 has poured down her benefits on this favored land 
 —and the mighty genius of enterprise has brough^ 
 them to perfection. 
 
 O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint. 
 But alas ! faction is at work to undermine the 
 boon of heaven, and the gifts of Providence. 
 
CANANDAIGUA. 55 
 
 LETTER xrr. 
 
 Canandaigm, June, 1820. 
 
 Mr DEAR Sir, 
 
 I HAVE met in this place vlih many gentlemen 
 of high standing and distinguished talents. Per- 
 haps no village in America can boast of a bright- 
 er constellation. Here are Gideon Granger, Mj- 
 roH, Holly, a most indefatigable and eminent 
 member of the canal board-Nathaniel Hcvell 
 chief justice of the county-John Greig, an emi- 
 grant from Scotland-several clergymen, physi- 
 cans, barristers, farmers, merchants, &c. who are 
 all distinguished as men of information and pub- 
 lic spirit. The gentlemen whom I have mention- 
 ed by name are men of uncommon endowments 
 and high acquirements ; and you can never rise 
 from their communion, without increasing your 
 stock of useful information. Hospitality is the 
 order of the day in this village. The ladies are 
 elegant in their manners and appearance, and 
 converse well and with great facility. 
 
 r have been in other places of a different des- 
 cnption, where a cold and icy distance prevail^ 
 and where hospitality is arrayed in frowns. This 
 difference of manners must arise from the influence 
 
DO CANANDAIGUA. 
 
 ll of a few commanding minds ; and I assure you 
 
 that it sheds a lustre not only on the intercourse 
 of polished life, but by a natural association of 
 ideas, brightens the scenery and heightens the 
 beauties of the country in the view of the travel- 
 ler. 
 
 This western region is peopled by emigrants 
 from different parts of the United States and 
 Europe. If in the evolutions of good fortune, it 
 should so happen, that a number of meritorious 
 persons should settle in a particular place, carry- 
 ing with them the excellencies which distinguish 
 their native country, then a most felicitous state of 
 society must be formed. This is the case with 
 the population of Canandaigua — and the virtues 
 and good qualities which flourish in this delight- 
 ful village, are communicated to the whole sih- 
 rounding country. 
 
 Although there are no privileged orders in this 
 representative democracy, yet there are distinct 
 classes in society, which derive their existence from 
 a difference in education, cultivation, and refine- 
 ment. In cities, towns, and villages, the leading 
 members of the learned professions, the principal 
 merchants and agriculturists form a distinct asso- 
 ciation — and it is sometimes amusing to perceive 
 the efforts of the novi homines to elevate themselves 
 into this class, which is considered the first or 
 
AMERICAN CHARACTER. 57 
 
 iiighest. Among these stern republicans, I have 
 seen a great deal of family pride, and it is certaiii- 
 \y a natural propensity in the common people to 
 regard with respect the descendants of those illus- 
 trious men who have been the benefactors and the 
 ornaments of the couiUrv. I have sometimes 
 been amused with the adoption of an appellation 
 which I at first misunderstood. When I heard 
 some of the lowest orders of society styled men of 
 family, what, thought I, can this mean ? What a 
 nomen generalissimum for all kinds of folks — but I 
 was soon undeceived ; by a man of family is 
 meant, in common parlance, not a man of dis- 
 tinguished family, but a man having a fajnily. In 
 every state there are great families. In every 
 city, town, village, and district, there are great 
 families, and the invidious airs of self-importance 
 which some of the imbecile members of the would- 
 be-patricians take upon themselves, is often retali- 
 ated and punished by the rising up of new claim- 
 ants to superiority, who bear away the honors of 
 a fastidious aristocracy. In the middle ranks in 
 villages, the bar keeper is an important personage 
 and so is the mistress of the school, who is gene- 
 rally a well educated, well-behaved young woman. 
 They set the fasliions for their associates, and give 
 the tone to opinion. In some places the stage- 
 
^8 A3IERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 driver is a leading beau, and the keeper of the 
 turnpike gate is a man of consequence. 
 
 In the American character, I have witnessed a 
 singular presentation of lofty independence and 
 imafTected civility. Travel where you will you 
 will never be treated with inattention or rudeness. 
 Men, woraenj and children, are courteous to the 
 passing stranger. Ask as many and what ques- 
 tions you please, and you will be answered to the 
 full extent of their information — but then they will 
 expect reciprocity. You will be assailed by a 
 prying curiosity which investigates your name, 
 your business, and your destination. You will 
 be treated with perfect equality ; and it will be 
 expected from you to listen with patience to tedi- 
 ous narratives and multifarious speculations. 
 
 I never saw the elements of common education 
 more generally diffused, and better understood. 
 Every one can read, and write, and cypher — can 
 read his bible, his catechism, and his psalm book, 
 {n the nooks of the most common log house, you 
 will see such books as the Young Man's Best 
 Companion, Bunj^an's Pilgrim's Progress, Her- 
 vey's Meditations, Robinson Crusoe, and Tom 
 ./ones. The aspirants after higher knowledge are 
 few in number and not very ardent in the pursuit. 
 But I can assure you that many places are hon- 
 ored by the residence of truly scientific men, 1 
 
EDUCATION. 09 
 
 was much pleased with several of the savans of 
 New-York, and among others with my distin- 
 guished countryman, Dr. MvNevin, and a Quaker 
 gentleman of the name of Griscom. In Albany 
 there is Dr. Beck ; In Utica, Dr. Coventry, and 
 in many other villages, men whose scientific ac- 
 quirements are truly respectable. 
 
 In one word, Jonathan is a sensible man, of 
 good morals, respectable habits, and civil man- 
 ners. His wife is a good, tidy housekeeper, and 
 makes a kind affectionate companion for life. 
 His daughters are excellent young women, beau- 
 tiful, fascinating, and well informed- — but, like the 
 scenery of their native land, a little romantic with- 
 al. His sons are smart young men, capable of 
 great things, and fully sensible of it — infected with 
 national vanity — know a little of many things, but 
 not an entirety of any thing. Now and then a 
 promising genius appears among them who im- 
 mediately becomes the hopes and the spoiled child 
 of the family. Jonathan traces up his genealogy 
 to John Bull, looks upon him with great respect 
 and sends his most promising children to John for 
 a transatlantic education. These boys come back 
 some of them loaded with science, some with fop- 
 pery, some with affectation, some complete dan- 
 dies, and greater fools than when they left home. 
 Now and then a Jefferson, a Mitchill a Hosack, 
 
60 TITLES. 
 
 a Walsh, a Rush, and a Franklin, appear ; but 
 alas, such men are few, when compared with the 
 ephemeral fops that infest the literary world of 
 America. But in defiance of prejudice I must 
 however say, that Jonathan has as much native 
 intellect, and as good morals as John Bull, and 
 better manners, without any surly pretensions to 
 superiorityo 
 
 LETTER XIIL 
 
 Canandaiguttj June, 1820. 
 Mr DEAR Sir, 
 
 It is not a little extraordinary to observe the 
 strong propensity of this republican people tbr 
 titles and for claims to high distinction of family. 
 Tlie foundation of their government is the equal- 
 ity of human rights. " All men (says their cele- 
 brated declaration of independence) are created 
 equal," and yet we perceive a continual aspira- 
 tion after the gewgaws and mummeries of aristo- 
 cratical governments. The golden eagle which 
 adorns the buttonholes of the heroes of the revolu- 
 I lion, is a favorite addition to their exalted merits. 
 
 Titles abound to superfluity. Every governor is 
 styled Eocctllcncy whether he preside over a state 
 or territory. IJJ.s Honor and the Honorahhy are 
 
TITLE??- 6i 
 
 applied to deputy governors, Speakers of Senates 
 and General Courts, Chancellors, the members of 
 the higher Judicatories, Members of Congress and 
 State Senators ; and now and then you observe 
 the Worshipful members of Corporations and 
 County Courts dropping their appropriate titles, 
 and taking a seat among the Ilonorables of the 
 land. Esquire is applied, to the magistracy in 
 genera], and to the members of the bar. Some- 
 times His Excellency and The Honorable are in- 
 vested with this magnificent appendage in order 
 to lengthen out an Alexandrine line of mighty 
 honors. Everj^ man who practices physic or sur- 
 gery, or undertakes to tinker in any way the hu- 
 man body, is called Doctor, Even the village 
 ^apothecarj' and culler of simples ; and then Gen- 
 tleman is most liberally applied to t^ Dii minorum 
 of this title-loving people, v.'ho seem to be anxious 
 to keep constantly out of view the distich of old 
 Chaucer, 
 
 " When Adam delv'd and Eve span. 
 Then there was no gentleman." 
 
 Mr. Granger informs me that at the first esta- 
 blishment of the present national government a 
 strenuous attempt was made to introduce high 
 sounding titles. It was proposed to style the Pre- 
 sident, His Serene Highness — the Vice President, 
 His Highness — Senators, The Right Honorable-^ 
 
62 TlTt-ES^V 
 
 Representatives, The Honorable, he. &c. For 
 the honor of the country, this ridiculous effort was 
 overruled by the good sense of the nation. Draw- 
 ing rooms, levees, regulations of rank and pre- 
 scriptions of etiquette, are however, permitted to 
 disgrace the government ; and questions of high 
 import, and of great pith and importance, with 
 respect to precedence, are debated with wonder- 
 ful zeal and astonishing ability. Shall the wife 
 of the President return visits — shall the wife of a 
 Secretary pay the first visit to the wife of a mem- 
 ber of Congress — shall the Secretaries outrank the 
 Senators — shall clerks and the wives of clerks 
 visit the President's drawing room — are questions 
 which have been discussed in solemn council, and 
 which have employed every tongue and every 
 mind in the sublime Bagdad of America. A lit- 
 tle more than two hundred years have elapsed 
 since the first settlement of this country ; and as 
 a generation averages but thirty-three years, few 
 families here can boast of more than five genera- 
 tions ; and yet our ears are saluted in all quarters 
 with panegyrics on great families, who have come 
 perhaps 
 
 " From Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where." 
 
 1 assure you that I feel infinitely disgusted at 
 this ridiculous apery of nobility. I have seen 
 
TITLES. 63 
 
 enough to know, that the true noble is the noble of 
 nature, and that the really great man is the man who 
 stands on his own legs, not on the crutches of his 
 forefathers : who relies on his own intellectual 
 and moral powers, without any wish to climb into 
 consequence over the tomb-stones of a venerable 
 ancestry. 
 
 " Nam g-enus et proavos et quse non fecimus ipsi 
 Vis ea nostra voco." 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood, as undervaluing 
 the advantages of a respectable family. What I 
 censure is the absurd pretensions of little m^n to 
 resolve themselves into great men b}^ a species of 
 genealogical alchymy. It is not a little amusing 
 to see the efforts of a novus homo, (as styled by the 
 old Romans) to attain the 'vantage ground of hon- 
 our, formerly occupied by the ancestors of these 
 pretenders — and the ridiculous counter exertions 
 of this factitious nobility in endeavoring to bar- 
 ricade the advances of their antagonists by a line 
 of genealogical trees. I accidentally lit on a rare 
 book in five octavos, in petto, styled Alden's 
 Epitaphs, he, where I found the lineal and col- 
 lateral consanguinities and affinities of some 
 families arranged with so much precision, and 
 their remote ramifications laid down with such 
 perspicuous delineations, thatl was almost tempt- 
 ed to believe that I had stumbled on the British 
 
64 TITLES, 
 
 Peerage. Ages, marriages, children, iiames, site% 
 professions, offices, follow each other in the true 
 nobility style. 
 
 "'* Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, 
 
 That thou may'st be by kings or w s of kings j 
 
 Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race. 
 
 In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece ; 
 
 But by your father's worth if your's you rate, 
 
 Count me those only who are good and great. 
 
 Go ! if your ancient but ignoble blood, 
 
 Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, 
 
 Oo ! and pretend your family is young, 
 
 ^or own your fathers^'have been fools so long. 
 
 What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards .'' 
 
 Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards." 
 
 When I was on the canal, I frequently associa- 
 ted my views with moral considerations, and stray- 
 into allegorical representations in the John Bun- 
 yan style. When I saw some boats ascending the 
 locks — others descending, and many keeping on 
 in the even tenor of their way, I witnessed a true 
 picture of human sooiety- — which constantly exhi- 
 bits the rise and fall of individuals, and a vast as- 
 semblage of contemporaneous, concurrent and 
 counteracting exertions to attain felicity and glo- 
 ry. With most men it is much easier to pull 
 down those above them, than to ascend to the 
 same level. The political ostracisms of the Gre- 
 cian democracies, and the banishment of illustri- 
 ous men in the Roman republic, are a severe 
 
CANANDAIGUA. 65 
 
 Satire on human nature. I have often traced a 
 resemblance between the ancient Athenians and 
 the modern French — lively and full of mind, 
 adoruing the v^'orld by the works of art and the 
 productions of genius — but yet cherishing a per- 
 sonal vanity, which constantly puts them in a 
 belligerent state with men of superior merit, and 
 a national vanity which creates the same collision 
 with all other nations. At one time the Grand 
 Monarque, and at other times, the grand Nation — 
 the Grand Emperor — the Grand Consul — and 
 always, the glory and the greatness of the world. 
 
 LETTER XIV„ ' 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 1820. 
 
 My Deak. Sir, 
 
 In every country or village inn, the bar room 
 is the coffee room, exchange, or place of intelli- 
 gence, where all the quidnuncs, newsmongerSj 
 and politicians of the district resort, and where 
 strangers and travellers make their first entry- 
 Neither my taste, my habits, nor my convenience 
 will admit of gorgeous or shewy equipments, and 
 when I therefore take my seat in the caravanse- 
 ras, there is nothing in my appearance to attract 
 
65 CANANDAIGUA. 
 
 particular attention. Many a person with whom 
 I have held conversations, has undoubtedly for- 
 gotten the subject, as well as the company. In 
 the desultory and rapid manner in which such 
 conferences are generally managed, a stranger is 
 liable to mistake names and titles of office. 1 
 have no doubt but this has been my case frequent- 
 ly : I may have styled a major a colonel, and a 
 sherifl' a judge, and if so, I assure you without 
 the most distant idea of giving offence. 
 
 " Curs'd be the verse however sweet it flow, 
 Which tends to make one worthy man my foe ', 
 Give virtue scandal, innocence a fear, 
 Or from the meek ey'd virgin draw a tear." 
 
 Volney told me in Paris, that he travelled all 
 over the west on foot. My countrymen Dr, 
 M'Nevin and Dr. Goldsmith, perambulated a 
 great portion of Europe ; and Wilson, the father 
 of American Ornithology, was almost always a 
 pedestrian traveller. How cautious ought peo- 
 ple to be when in company with strangers. 1 
 have heard folly from the mouths of lawgivers, 
 and ribaldry in the conversations of the notables 
 of the land. Unnoticed, unobserved, reclining on 
 my chair in the bar room, I have seen human na- 
 ture without disguise — the artificial great man 
 exhibiting his importance — the humble under- 
 strapper listening like a blacksmith to a tailor's 
 
Parties. 6'7 
 
 news — the oracle of the place mounted on his 
 tripod, and pronouncing liis opinions with solemn 
 gravity. O ! ifl iiad been recognized as a tra- 
 veller from the eastern world — a keen observer 
 of iiuman nature — and a recorder of what I saw, 
 1 Immbly hope that much nonsense would have 
 been spared, and many improper exhibitions pre-^ 
 vented ; but then I would have seen man at a 
 masquerade. I now derive light from my ob-^ 
 ;,curity, and observe this world as it is. My plain 
 dress, my moderate expenditures, my unobtrusive 
 behaviour, avert particular remaik. It is only in 
 the society of such men as I meet with in this 
 place, that I am considered as of the least impor- 
 tance. The prevalent conversations all over this 
 federal republic, are on the subjects of political 
 excitement. After some sage remarks on the 
 weather, which compose the exordium of all con- 
 versations, the man of America, like the man of 
 Athens, asks, Whai neivs ? It is needless to say, 
 that I have steered entirely clear of political and 
 theological strife. I hardly understand the no- 
 menclature of parties. They are all republicans, 
 and yet a portion of the people assume the title of 
 republican, as an exclusive right, or patent mono- 
 poly. They are all federalists, that is, in favor 
 of a general government — and yet a part arrogate 
 to themselves this appellation to the disparage- 
 
08 FARtlE?, 
 
 meiit of the others. It is easy to see that the dir- 
 ference is noiniiiai — that the whole controversy 
 is about ollice, and that the country is constantly 
 assailed by ambitious demagogues for the purpose 
 of gratifying their cupidity. It is a melancholy, 
 but true reflection on human nature, that the 
 smaller the diiTerence the greater the animosity. 
 Mole hills and rivulets, become mountains and 
 rivers. The Greek empire was ruined by two most 
 inveterate factions, the Prasini and Vineti, which 
 originated from the colour of livery in equestrian 
 races. The parties of Guelphs and Gibbelines, 
 of Roundheads and Cavaliers, of Whigs and To- 
 ries, continued after all causes of difference were 
 merged. I have often asked some of the leading 
 politicians of this country, what constituted the 
 real points of discrimination between the Repub- 
 licans and Federalists, and I never could get a 
 satisfactory answer. An artful man will lay hold 
 of vjords if he cannot o{ things, in order to pro- 
 mote his views. The Jansenists and the Jesuits, 
 the Nominalists and the Realists, the Sub-lapsa- 
 rians, and the Supra-lapsarians, were in polemics 
 what the party controversies of this people are in 
 politics. If you place an ass at an equal distance 
 between two bundles of hay, w ill he not remain 
 there to all eternity ? was a question solemnly 
 propounded and gravely debated by the school- 
 
PARTIES. 69 
 
 men. The motive to eat both, some contended, 
 being equal, it was impossible for the animal to 
 come to a conclusion. He would therefore re- 
 main in a state of inaction, for ever and for ever. 
 This problem, so puzzling to scholastic philoso- 
 phy, would at once be decided by the ass, and 
 the experimenium crucis would efTcct^ially silence 
 every doubt. It is impossible for a mdn, how- 
 ever quietly disposed, to act the supposititious part 
 of the scholastic ass, and remain neutral between 
 the parties, or bundles of hay. He must in truth 
 participate in one or in both, and as it respects any 
 radical difference of principle, it is very immate- 
 rial which he selects. There are some pendulum 
 politicians who are continually oscillating between 
 parties, and these men in endeavoring to expiate 
 their former oppugnation by fiery zeal, are mere 
 iire-brands in society. In order to cover their 
 turpitude, they assume high-sounding names, and 
 are in verity political partizans, laying claim to 
 be high-minded, and like Jupiter on Olympus, 
 elevated above the atmosphere of common beings. 
 And what adds infinitely to the force of these pre- 
 tensions, is to find the most of these gentry to be 
 the heroes of petty strife, and the leaders of village 
 vexation, the fag ends of the learned professions, 
 and the outcasts of reputable associations. I ot"- 
 ten think of the observation? of the honest old 
 
70 NOCTURNAL SCENESi 
 
 traveller, Tournefort, when I see the inordinate 
 violence of tliese high-minded gentlemen. *' The 
 Turk, (says he) take 'em one with another, are 
 much honester men than renegadoes ; and perhaps 
 it is out of contempt that they do not circumcise 
 renegadoes : for they have a common saying, 
 that a bad Christian will never make a good 
 Turk." 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 1820. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Every country strikes a traveller by the appear- 
 ance of some strange phenomena or uncommon 
 exhibitions — and the novelty of the spectacle im- 
 presses him sometimes so deeply, that he is apt to 
 over-rate its importance. In travelling on the 
 canal, I heard for the first time, the sounds and 
 cries of strange anin)als, and perceived sights 
 which I had never witnessed betore. 
 
 The country appeared in the nighttime full of 
 sparks of fire in continual motion. It was easy 
 to understand that these were the phosphoric emis- 
 sions of insects on the wing. T accordingly caught 
 some of the strangers and found them to be a spe- 
 cies of lampyris ; I believe the lampyris corrusca 
 
NOCTURNAL SCENES. 71 
 
 ofLinncens. This insect does not existin Europe 
 but is to be found in Japan. The lampyris noc- 
 tiluca, or glow worm, is quite a different animal? 
 and is the same in this country as in Europe : 
 The female is apterous, while the male is of the 
 coleoptera order, having four wings, and the up- 
 per wings crustaceous. The female emits the 
 light, and the male is guided by ittoits paramour. 
 This anomaly is striking. As the female has no 
 wings and is confined to the earth, nature has fur- 
 nished her with a lamp to direct her winged part* 
 ner to the nuptial couch.* 
 
 Next to the fire fly, the most striking nocturnal 
 object is the rana pipiens or bull-frog. The roar 
 of this animal is unknown to a stranger. He is 
 unknown in Europe — and a repetition of the 
 coarse and lugubrious cry of these animals, res= 
 
 * The following- lines from Southej's Madoc contain an excel' 
 lent description of the American fire fly : 
 
 Soi rowing- wc beheld 
 
 The night come on ; but soon did night display 
 More wonders than it vcil'd : innumeroas tribes 
 From the wood-cave swanu'd, and darkness made 
 Their beauties visible : one while they stream'd 
 A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed. 
 Their gorgeous coloi's from tlie eye of day i 
 JVotv nwlio)iIess mid dark, eluded search, 
 Self-shrouded : and'anon, starring fhe ah^, 
 Hoi€ iil-e a skowerofjire. 
 
T2 NOCTURNAL SCENERY. 
 
 ponding as it were to each other, like the alter- 
 nate crowing of village cocks, is calculated to 
 make a strong impression. Whether this is the 
 call of love, the shout of superiority, or the cry of 
 battle, I do not know ; but if this be a fighting 
 animal, I should think that these tremendous sounds 
 must be the heralds of approaching battles. In 
 countries surrounded by steep hills, the bull is 
 made extremely ferocious by the echo of his own 
 bellowing : In this case the bull-frog must be 
 sufliciently excited by the noise of hundreds of 
 antagonists in every considerable collection of 
 water. In addition to this I sometimes heard the 
 noise of the rana arborea, or tree-frog ; and a 
 sound like the noise made by the cat-gut of a 
 tiddle when tried by a musician. This proceeded 
 from a frog which I saw frequently on the canal 
 and which in my opinion is a non-descript, as I 
 do not believe it to be the rana boans, or croaking 
 frog of Europe. 
 
 The interest of this nocturnal scenerv was G:reat- 
 ly heightened by the melancholy cries oi the ca- 
 primulgus virginianus. Its name, whip-poor-will . 
 is derived from its noise, which is undoubtedly the 
 signal of assignation. It differs specifically from 
 the European goat sucker. The Indians consider 
 it a bird of evil omen, and that if light on a house, 
 the death of some of the inhabitants is inevitable. 
 
INSECTS. 7L» 
 
 I also heard from marshy or watery places a 
 mixed sound or concert, which was incessant and 
 unvarying — neither pleasant nor disagreeably 
 but increasing, upon the whole, the solemnity of 
 an American night by the variety of its music. 
 This I was told was the work of frogs or toads — 
 but of this I must confess that I entertain doubts. 
 May it not have proceeded from animals of tiie 
 lacerta kind ? 
 
 On the canal I saw in the day time continual- 
 ly on the wing, and in pursuit of prey, a species 
 of libellula, or dragon fly, which is vulgarly cal- 
 led the devil's darning needle. The female drops 
 her eggs into the water, which are hatched into 
 larvae, or caterpillars — and they continue in that 
 and the pupa state two years before they emerge 
 complete insects. This ravenous insect is in turn 
 preyed upon by hir undines. The martin or hi-, 
 rundo purpurea, feeds its 3^oung with it, and the 
 ground below its cage is covered with its mutila- 
 ted wings and members, scattered about like the 
 broken remains of dead bodies in the den of 
 Cyclops. The curious insect which prepares a 
 place of deposit for its ova by rolling dung into 
 balls, is sometimes to be found in this country, 
 and its unremitting industry in its dirty operations, 
 reminds one of the incessant abuse of the scurrilous 
 blockheads which infest the republic of letters. 
 
74 
 
 *^ WOOD. 
 
 LETTER XVL 
 
 Canandaigua^ June, 1920. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 All wood that is susceptible of a fine pollsli, 
 will make good furniture, and where the texture 
 is compact, and the grain fine and concentrated, 
 a polish can be made, an almost invariable ac- 
 companiment. I have been not a little surprised 
 at the extravagance of the Americans in import- 
 ing mahogany, satin wood, &:c. for cabinet work, 
 when they have as good, if not better materials at 
 home. Ifind cabinet makers in full employ all 
 over this country, and it is an occupation which 
 deserves encouragement. It adds greatly to our 
 comfort to sit down at a table which reflects like a 
 mirror— and I always judge of the house-wifery 
 of the lady of the mansion, by the appearance of 
 the side board and tables. A man of observation 
 will form a judgment in this respect by a single 
 glance, apparently without taking any notice, and 
 certainly without a scrutinizing stare : All young 
 ladies that are candidates for matrimony ought 
 to understand that they cannot place too much 
 
WOOD. 75r 
 
 stress upon observances of this nature. No man 
 who has any regard for his own comfort, will 
 marry a woman who does not pay attention to 
 cleanliness and neatness, which indeed were so high- 
 ly prized by the Stagyrite, that he arranges them 
 in the class of semi-virtues. 
 
 " E'en from the body's purity, 
 
 Tlie nimd receives a secret sympathetic aid." 
 
 But to return to my subject. I went yesterday 
 to a cabinet maker's shop, and I was surprised at 
 the variety and elegance of the furniture, chairs, 
 and side boards, tables, book cases, and bureaus, 
 of walnut, maple, and wild cherry, which would 
 with a competent polish excel the furniture made 
 of imported wood. 
 
 In the first place, a species of the acer, or maple, 
 which grows all over the country, is the material 
 from which some of the best cabinet ware is made. 
 This wood In growing, frequently receives a cu- 
 rious kind of contortion, from which it derives its 
 denomination of curled maple, and it sometimes is 
 shaped into a formation singularly elegant, called 
 hir ds ey e, (rom its appearance. Independently of 
 its uses In this respect, this maple transplanted 
 into the court yard, and along the fences, in rows 
 or in clumps, makes a beautiful ornamental tree. 
 
 The juglans nigra or black walnut grows to 
 an immense size and makes fine cabinetwork. 
 
T6 TREES. 
 
 The nut is a fine addition to the taLle. The prunuj^ 
 virginiana, or wild cherry, is equally good, if not 
 superior ; and nothing but attention to polish is 
 wanting to render furniture of this kind equal to 
 any imported. The berries of this tree put in 
 spirits make a salubrious drink. I have no doubt, 
 but that other wood of excellent adaptation to the 
 purposes of furniture, will be discovered. Maho- 
 gony was not introduced into use until 150 years 
 after the first settlement of Jamaica. 
 
 Pownall, in his topographical description of 
 North America, states it as the opinion of his friend 
 Mr. Pratt, that the juice which can be drawn by 
 incision from the poison vine Is that material which 
 the Chinese aiid Japanese make their verjuice with. 
 This is the rhus miscrocorpar of Pursh, and is pro- 
 bably confounded with the rhus vernix which is 
 adjudged to be the true varnish tree described by 
 Kiempfer in the Amaenitates exoticse by the name 
 of sitz-dsin, and which grows all over this coun- 
 try as well as in Japan. 
 
 In a word, my dear sir, the people of America 
 are furnished, by the bounty of heaven, with every 
 accommodation and comfort, and with a copious 
 supply of the utile dulci. Their artisans are inge- 
 nious and industrious — their materials for fabrics 
 abundant in quantity and good in quality. Why 
 then should they resort to tht^' workshops oi^ 
 
MANIfERS. 77 
 
 Europe ? Why should they seek for the materi- 
 als of manufactures in foreign countries ? It is as 
 absurd as for a man to look for happiness in ta„ 
 verns, bagnios, and gambling houses, when he has 
 a lovely wife, promising children, and every com- 
 fort at home. 
 
 1 have received but one letter from you since 
 my arrival in this place. Hence I infer, thougl; 
 perhaps unjustly, that my communications are 
 iminteresting to you. Shall I be more sparing of 
 them in future ? T submit to your reprimand, 
 because I deserve it, about my noticing the litera- 
 ry Jack puddings and Charlatans of the day. 
 They are really hors de combat in every respects 
 
 '' Sons of a day, just buoyant on the flood, 
 Then numbered with the puppies in the mud." 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 18^h. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In borrowing a sentence from a living author 
 of some note, I think that its application to this 
 country is peculiarly felicitous. " In the remotest 
 village there is a nucleus round which the capa- 
 bilities ofthe place h^ay chrystalize and brighten." 
 
 la every place there is a brilliant star, if not a 
 
 E 
 
78 MANNERS. 
 
 constellatioiij of enlightened men — men who de- 
 Vo:e themselves to the " silent progress of stud}'^, 
 and the placid conquests of investigation." It is 
 pleasing to observe the respect with which these 
 men are treated by their fellow-citizens. Moral 
 and intellectual strength and beauty are in this 
 country the companions of political importance and 
 influence. This I admit is not invariably the case. 
 Some persons of uncommon worth and extraor- 
 dinary endowments are now suffering a political 
 ostracism ; and there are now many men high in 
 oflice who answer the description ofCicero — " Ad 
 honores adipiscendos etadrempublicam gerendam 
 iiudi veniunt, nulla cognitione rerum nulla scien- 
 lia ornati." In Europe the partition wall between 
 the different classes is maintained and fortified by 
 the habitudes of society. The great man there 
 always travels in his own coach or barge, and if 
 he voyages on the sea, he takes the whole cabin 
 to himself Here the head men, or primates of 
 the country, travel with their families in stage 
 coaches, in steamboats, and in canal barges, and 
 think it no degradation to sit down at the public 
 table, and to converse kindly and familiarly with 
 all. The consequence of this ^felicitous commu- 
 nion is a growing and expanded improvement in 
 the decorums of life, and in the progression of 
 mlud. Prejudices are removed — animosities are 
 
MANNERS. 79 
 
 softened — and the links which connect the chain 
 of Imman society are strengthened and brightened 
 
 Much of the happy state of this great communi- 
 ty may be justly imputed to the influence of the 
 female character. A late traveller says that the 
 United States are governed by an oligarchy of 
 Gazette editors. In no country are the former 
 held in higher respect, and I intend no ofience 
 when I contradict this assertion and say that a 
 gynecocracy prevails : Go into the most common 
 farm house, and converse with the sons and daugh- 
 ters of the family, and you will find something 
 that pleases in the manner of the latter, while the 
 former frequently require the ascendancy of an 
 Iphigenia to polish the bluntness of their de- 
 meanor. 
 
 I frequently spend whole days in traversing on 
 foot this beautiful country, chequered with enclo- 
 sures — crowned with trees — filled with houses — - 
 teeming with vegetation, and smiling with plenty ? 
 and when I reach the hi^h hills of Bloomfield, I 
 appear to breathe a balirtier air, to behold a sere- 
 ner sky, and enjoy a brighter sun. But in my 
 peregrinations I never lose sight of man — I look 
 at him in all his varieties and aspects — in his insu- 
 lations and in his associations. The women of 
 this country, after performing the labors of the 
 day. amuse themselves in the afternoon by giving 
 
80 RIDING. 
 
 or receiving visits, and you invariably see them 
 as \'ou pass their houses at that time, clothed in 
 neat and decent attire. Groups of children are 
 to be seen at the doors, rising in regular gradation, 
 like the steps of a pyramid, enjoying the smiles of 
 parental affection, and eyeing the passing travel- 
 ler. When I view these scenes of domestic bliss, I 
 feel something come over my heart which draws 
 tears from my eyes. These excellent women 
 have never visited the Castle of Indolence — they 
 know not the place where 
 
 *• Languid beauty keeps her pale fac'd court." 
 
 And they dread those associations, 
 
 <* Where fajr is cast the distaff, spinning wheel, and loom, 
 
 Where the sole labor is to kill the time ; 
 
 And labor dire it is, and weary wo, 
 
 Or saunter forth with tottering steps and slow." 
 
 When I render the just tribute of applause to 
 the general character of this interesting people, I 
 cannot conceal my disapprobation of some noxious 
 habits which generally prevail. In my whole 
 tour I do not think I have seen more than three 
 travellers on horseback, and those wore umbrellas 
 over their heads : It seems that a scraggy, ricket- 
 ty, one-horse waggon, has been substituted — that 
 it was introduced by a General a {ew years ago, 
 who was too fat to be an equestrian. Of all exer- 
 cises-, riding on horseback is the most healthy and 
 
ORNlTfiOLOGT. Si 
 
 li^ahly. A favourite author says, " I consider 
 the absolute resignation of one's person to the 
 luxury of a carriage, to forebode a very short in- 
 terval between that and the vehicle which is to 
 convey us to the last stage." The Americans are 
 not an effeminate people, and it is to me passing- 
 strange that they should give in to such degenerate 
 habits. 
 
 When a stranger alights at a tavern, he fre- 
 quently witnesses a rapid collection of idlers in 
 the bar room, who congregate together like birds 
 of passage in autumn, to gather news, to kill time, 
 and to drink whiskey. I have not been able to 
 restrain my indignation at such an inexcusable 
 waste of time. Whenever T see it I augur ill of 
 the morals of the place, and when I do not observe 
 it, I mentally exclaim : — '* This village is devoted 
 to industry and temperance" — and I frequently 
 am induced to spend some time in it, when I 
 almost invariably find that my judgment is correct. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 # 
 
 Canandaigua^ June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 At the house of the respectable and worthy Mr. 
 Greig of this town, I met for the first time with 
 
S2 ORNITHOLOGY. 
 
 the ornithology of Alexander Wilson, in nine 
 quarto volumes, and need I say that I am delighted 
 with it beyond measure ? He preserves a due me- 
 dium between the dry technology of the Swedish, 
 and the poetical delineations of the French school. 
 Mark Catesby published two volumes in folio on 
 the natural history of America, and George Ed- 
 wards I think, seven in quarto. Wilson has far 
 exceeded both, in the correctnets of his delinea- 
 tions, in the beauty of his colouring, and in the 
 number of his descriptions. He has figured and 
 described 278 species — 56 of which were non- 
 descripts. 
 
 The biography of this man would " point a 
 moral and adorn a tale :" He had passed through 
 all the vicissitudes of humble life — a weaver and 
 a pedlar, and finally a village schoolmaster. In 
 all situations respectable, and poising himself by 
 the power of great talents, he stood upright while 
 the wheel of fortune revolved under him. 
 
 What posthumous honors have been paid to this 
 great man— what monument has been erected to 
 perpetuate his name .? None — none ; and if he 
 were now alive, he might say with the old "Roman, 
 '* Malim ut de me quaerant homines, quam ob rem 
 Catoni non sit posita stat«a, quam quare sit po- 
 sita. 
 
ORNITHOLOGY. 83 
 
 Catesby and Edwards made the etchings of 
 their figured subjects — Wilson performed tho 
 drawings and the colourings of his — in all respectr, 
 he is superior. 
 
 I am happy to agree with this great naturalist 
 about the brumal retreat of the swallow. He 
 scouts the idea of their retiring into the bottom of 
 rivers and lakes so generally credited by the dis- 
 ciples of Linnaeus. In addition to the swallows I 
 mentioned to you before, he has described a green, 
 blue, or white-bellied swallow, under the name of 
 hirundo viridis. He calls the barn swallow hi- 
 rundo Americana, and seems to think that the 
 American bank swallow, or sand martin, (hirundo 
 riparia) is the same as the European. Myriads 
 of swallows, says a late traveller, are the occa- 
 sional inhabitants of Honduras. This is a key to 
 the whole mystery of their winter quarter^. 
 
 The second volume of the Harleian Miscellany 
 contains an essay written seriatim, to prove that 
 the moon is the hybernaculum of birds of pas- 
 sage. 
 
 The following text from Jeremiah is the ground 
 work ofe- this strau2:e hvpothesis. " The stork in 
 the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the 
 turtle, and the crane, a!tid the swallow observe the 
 time of their coming." He says that " divers of 
 these fowls which make such chansres, and observe 
 
84 ORNITHOLOGY. 
 
 their seasons, do pass and repass between this 
 and the moon, which is the nearest concrete or 
 earthly body of the planets. 
 
 That no man has seen the birds out of their 
 seasons, and therefore he concludes they are no 
 where on this earth, for de non entibus et non ap- 
 parentibus eadem est ratio. 
 
 That wood-cocks, upon a change of wind to 
 (he east, about All-Hallows tide, will seem to 
 come all in a night, for though in the former 
 none are to be found, yet the next morning the}- 
 will be found in every bush — that then its flesh is 
 abort and tender, whereas, after it eats, it is stringy 
 and of a fibrous flesh, as other of our fowls are. 
 
 The storks in Holland all collect in Harlem, 
 near where they continue some days, and then as- 
 cend in a spiral flight out of sight. 
 
 That the word in heaven I^ias reference to the 
 place of flight. 
 
 He reckons a bird going at the rate of 125 
 miles an hour, can get to the moon in two months 
 — that a.^ter getting up a certain distance, they 
 may be in a kind of sleep which may supersede 
 the use of food. % 
 
 But if the moon is too far, he concludes that 
 there may be some concrete bodies at a much less 
 distance, or ethereal islands invisible to us,, and 
 ret no further off than these birds mav convenient- 
 
OREITHOLOGY. 85 
 
 ty arrive to. " This I do suggest, (says this 
 great phiXosopher) because it is as hard for me to 
 persuade myself that they come from any other 
 part of the earth, as it is to persuade another that 
 they come from the moon, and therefore if the 
 moon will not be allowed, some other place must 
 be found out for them." 
 
 This lunar doctrine is an excellent satire, altho' 
 not intended, on the hypothesis of submersion — 
 both are equally unfounded and equally ridicu- 
 lous. The swallow is the swiftest bird that flies 
 — a mile a minute is a reasonable calculation. — 
 In two days your swallows can reach Africa, but 
 I do not believe that they extend their tour be- 
 yond Spanish America, and the opposite islands. 
 
 Have you ever seen the beautiful ode of Ana^ 
 creon on the swallow "? Will you accept of it in 
 translation ? 
 
 " Once in each revolving year, 
 Gentle bird we find thee here. 
 When nature wears her summer vest. 
 Thou com'st to weave thy simple nest ^ 
 But when the chilling- winter lowers, 
 Again thou seek'st the genial bowers 
 Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 
 Where constant hours of verdure smile." 
 
 Edwards has given a delineation of the Canada 
 goose at large. Catesby has figured the head 
 
 E 2 
 
86 DOGS. 
 
 nearly to the size of life. Compare them with 
 Wilson's, and what a difference in his favor. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Canandaigua, June, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 A DOG was pointed out to me, as an Indian dog 
 which had a peculiar conformation. It had a 
 wild aspect — a long, flat head, slender muzzle, 
 erect ears, coarse hair, and a long, meagre body ; 
 and if I might venture to give an opinion from 
 appearances only, i would «ay that the Indian 
 dog was originally a hybrid produced from the 
 union of a wolf and a fox. The internal struc- 
 ture of these animals is similar to that of the dog, 
 and there is a great sameness of external appear- 
 ance. 
 
 Dr, Robertson has said that the red men of 
 America had not tamed any animal. This is not 
 true. The dog was domesticated by them and 
 used in the north western tribes for draught as 
 ;well as for hunting. In some of the south-west- 
 ern nations, the wild turkey and some other birds 
 were domesticated ; and in Peru, several animals 
 were reclaimed from their wild state* 
 
DOGS. 87 
 
 It is not a little astonishing that the natural his- 
 tory of so important an animal as the dog should 
 be involved in so much obscurity. Some natural- 
 ists suppose that he is a distinct species ; others 
 consider him as a derivative from the jackall, the 
 hyena, the wolf, fox, and their commixtures ; and 
 I have no iiesitation in saying that I am. inclined 
 to the latter opinion. The most astonishing fact 
 in zoology is, that the offspring of distinct ani- 
 mals, having different periods of gestation will be 
 fruitful. 
 
 The canis familiaris, or domestic dog, is gravid 
 from 60 to 63 days. The wolf 100 according to 
 Shaw, and 70 according to others. The jackal 
 30 days, and the arctic fox 63; aud yet there is 
 no doubt but that the hybrid of the wolf and dog 
 will produce offspring. 
 
 In like manner the gyall or bos fontalis of the 
 East Indies, is gravid eleven months, and the do- 
 mestic ox and American bison or buffalo, nine 
 months ; and yet they will have a fruitful race. 
 
 Buffon placed the wolf and female dog together, 
 and also the fox, and yet they had no connexion. 
 The experiment however was not a fair one. 
 Wild animals, particularly the wolf and fox, when 
 caught lose their activity and spirits, and pine 
 away. Linnaeus enumerates 11, and Buffon 30 
 fixed varieties of dogs, and some of them are as 
 
88 COG'Sv- 
 
 dissimilar as it is possible for animals ©f tHfi aa'iii5' 
 genus to be. What can be more unlike than the 
 lap-dog and the mastiff — the Irish grey-hound 
 and the common cur. 
 
 The Indian dog whicli I saw was accompanied 
 by his red master, and it immediately brought to 
 my mind the beautiful lines of Pope. 
 
 Lo the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind 
 Sees God in clouds or hears him in the wind ; 
 iiis soul proud science never taught to stray 
 Far as the solar walk or milky way : 
 Yet simple nature to his hope has given. 
 Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven- 
 Some safer world in depth of woods enibrac'd, 
 Some happier island in the watery waste, 
 Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
 No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 
 To be, contents his natural desire, 
 He asks no angels wing, no seraph's fire ; 
 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 
 His faithful dog shall beer him company, 
 
 St. Pierre well observes, that the dog is a true 
 friend, and the cat a courtier — the former is at- 
 tached to the person, and the latter to the house 
 of his^raaster ; and Buffon concludes his splendid 
 panegyric on the dog, by pronouncing that " he 
 is the only animal, whose natural talents are con- 
 spicuous, and whose education is always success- 
 ful." 
 
 When Ulysses, after an absence of twenty years^ 
 returned to his home in the garb of a beggar, al- 
 
CUSTOMS. 89 
 
 tliough rot recognized by his faithful wife, or do- 
 mestics, yet his old dog Argus immediately knew 
 his master, and expired in a paroxysm of jo} . 
 What a striking eulogium on the sagacity and 
 fidelity of the dog ! how true to nature, and how 
 worthy of the Prince of Poets : it is the most pa» 
 thetic scene in the Odyssey. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Canandaiguttj June, 1820, 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 A LATE English traveller, who published a 
 book of travels, and who calls himself John Cam 
 Hobhouse, has declared in the true John Bull 
 style, when smarting under the privations and 
 sufferings of a barbarian country, that " properly 
 speaking, the word comfort cannot be ap- 
 plied to any thing he ever saw out of England." 
 1 have travelled much, both in the United States 
 and in Great Britain, and I can truly say, that 
 making allowance for the difference in price, and 
 the newness of settlement, the accommodations 
 are not superior in the latter. The unhappiness 
 of life frequently proceeds more from a series and 
 repetition of petty vexations, than great and over- 
 whelming calamities,, and these miseries in minia-- 
 
^0 IN^UI31TIVENE3S. 
 
 ture are frequently occasioned, if not aggravated 
 by the neglect of small observances and attentions, 
 and by the disquietudes which irregular and dis- 
 orderly men continually produce. A custom pe- 
 culiarly American, is to lean back on the chair 
 with extended legs. I never saw an European 
 practice this impropriety. The practice of drum- 
 ming with the fingers, as if practising on a harp- 
 sicord, on chairs, sofas and tables, is so prevalent, 
 that I am almost inclined to pronounce the Ame- 
 ricans a musical people. Again, the handling of 
 forks, and knives, and spoons, and plates, at table, 
 when not in use, evinces the activity and sprightly 
 habits of this ever stirring nation. Travelling 
 incog. I have passed myself off as a person who 
 wants to buy a tract of land. This has been 
 rumoured about the country, and persons are 
 continually teazing me with proposals to sell : 
 and these interviews are accompanied with search- 
 ing questions, which reach not only to the bot- 
 tom of my business, but to the history of my 
 whole life. I verily believe that a witness in 9. 
 court of civil law, never underwent a more sifting 
 examination thap I sometimes experience. The 
 visitor generally opens the conference by propo- 
 sing to trade for land, and perhaps we may swap 
 /flrm5— and then he digresses into a long enquiry 
 about my age, nativityj country^ family, busines?^ 
 
IN^UISITIVENESS. 
 
 n 
 
 politics, religion, &ic. &:c. which generally consumes 
 two hours. If I can escape with an hour's audi- 
 ence of this kind, I think myself well off — and all 
 this is managed in a style so truly diplomatic and 
 respectful, that it is impossible to take offence. 
 A direct interrogatory is rarely put, and I some- 
 times amuse myself by baffling the question, and 
 increasing the impatience of unsatisfied curiosity. 
 For instance, I frequently apply a negative to 
 every question. Did you come from France, sir ? 
 No. From Holland? No. From England.^ No. 
 From Scotland? No. From Ireland? I can't say. 
 From the West Indies ? I don't know. From Mas- 
 sachusetts? No. From Nantucket ? No. From 
 Cape Cod ? No. Then, exclaimed the impatient 
 inquirer, where in the world did you come from ? 
 From beyond the Atlantic, sir. This silenced 
 the man for some time — but again he rallied his 
 forces, and presented his questions in another 
 shape. Let me see, said he, you have somewhat 
 of the tone of a Yorkshire man, or a Scotchman, 
 May be, sir. Is it true, said he, that the potatoes 
 of your country, Ireland, are better than ours ? 
 Humph — said I. How long were you coming from 
 Cork, sir? Humph — said I. Is your sovereign, 
 George 4th, as wise as his father ? Go and see. Did 
 you see counsellor Sampson, your countryman, in 
 New-York ? Yes, said I, but I do not admit that I 
 am an Irishman. Do you know Gideon Granger 
 
92 TRAVELLING. 
 
 and Nathaniel Gorham ? Perhaps so. Were you in 
 this country during the last war f My patience 
 could stand it no longer, and I took up my hat, 
 and excused myself by saying, that I had particu- 
 lar business, and must take a walk. 
 
 The inns are generally comfortable, clean, con- 
 venient, and well supplied with provisions ; but 
 still there is room for improvement, and many 
 little accommodations are overlooked. I have 
 seen bells no where but at the great inn at 
 Geneva, and scrapers no where but at the sign of 
 the whale in Chitteningo. There are few carpets, 
 and instead of blinds on the inside or outside of 
 the windows, to exclude heat and excess of light, 
 the windows are generally curtained with a coarse 
 kind of paper, which is as difficult to move as a 
 fifty-six, and which is constantly rattling about 
 your ears like hail : and by the by, in the best 
 private houses, you frequently see papered rooms, 
 which serve as an asylum for bugs and other 
 vermin, instead of painted or stained apartments, 
 which never admit them : and when you go to 
 rest you plunge into the gulf profound of a Scan- 
 dinavian feather bed, from which it is difficult to 
 retreat, and in which it is still more difficult to 
 inove^ 
 
 The prices of travelling in stages, and of living 
 in some hotels are too high, when compared m\h 
 
INNS. 
 
 the general fall of commodities and wages. It 
 is true that the horn of plenty scatters its blessings 
 in profusion. Your breakfast and tea table is 
 overloaded with cakes, green cucumbers, pickled 
 cucumbers, cheese, sweatmeats, and sallad, be- 
 sides more agreeable viands : but then the coffee 
 is sometimes burnt (not roasted) SP^t the aroma 
 escapes ; or you have the deleterious green tea 
 instead of black — and instead of wholesome 
 bread, you are served with a mixture of flour and 
 milk, which is really disgusting ; because as soon 
 as the latter ingredient acidiiies, it taints the whole 
 mass, and offends the smell as well as the taste. 
 The bacon and eggs, at dinner, and the broiled 
 chickens and veal cutlets are very fine. You 
 have good beer and cider — fine wine is rarely to 
 be got. And in this country of cheap timber, 
 the ice houses are comparatively rare. 
 
 When you call for a meal, you are frequently 
 surprised to find 3'ourseif surrounded by strange 
 travellers. This is a contrivance of Madame 
 Trniteur to save trouble — and then it is consider- 
 ed an essential etiquette to place a neatly dressed 
 female at table, to preside over its ceremonies, 
 and to pour out the coiTee, This is frequently 
 ver}^ agreeable, and you are often pleased with 
 the conversation of a modest, sensible young 
 woman. 
 
94 CANAL. 
 
 The principal signs of taverns are descriptive 
 of the genius and feelings of a people. In this 
 country, the bald eagle, the symbol of national 
 glory — the implements and products of agricul- 
 ture, the signs of national wealth — and masonic 
 figures, the ejigblems of national charity, adorn 
 the inns. S^Btimes you meet with a whale, a 
 lion, or a liprse — but where do you not see 
 unmeaning and absurd exhibitions f 
 
 The weather is extremely hot : so much so, 
 that I can hardly think or write. A man gene- 
 rally observes through the medium of his feelings. 
 When you are overwhelmed with fatigue, oppres- 
 sed with heat, or overpowered with cold, how 
 can you see accurately, or describe justly ? Is 
 not this the true key to most of the nonsense and 
 fable of travellers ? 
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 [n attempting to describe the great water com- 
 munications of tiiis region, I am sensible that I 
 have undertaken a task which far transcends my 
 faculties. An elegant poet has truly said " None 
 but a Phidias should attempt a Jove.' But as 
 you have considered my letters with kindness. [ 
 
CANAL. 95 
 
 shall not be deterred by my acknowledged incom- 
 petency from gratifying your wishes. 
 
 It appears to me that in seasons of great heat, 
 a change of water is as essential to health oii 
 canals, as a change of air is in houses. Fresh 
 water is as important as fresh air y|pd whenever 
 this is neglected, the banks of cansff will exhibit 
 the same diseases as the country in the vicinity of 
 any other stagnant waters. A considerable part 
 of this canal runs through a region of gypsum 
 which it is well known consists generally of 32 
 parts of lime, 46 of sulphuric acid, and 22 of 
 water. These component parts may indeed dif- 
 fer in different species and varieties, and gypsum 
 sometimes contains foreign ingredients, such as 
 alumine, iron and silica. The principal consti- 
 tuent, being sulphuric acid, and this substance, 
 which is commonly called oil of vitrol, and which 
 is derived from sulphur and oxygen, being neces- 
 sarily unwholesome, will communicate its quali- 
 ties to the canal in the most deleterious manner, 
 if the water is left in a stasje of stagnation. Be- 
 sides this, the water will by frequent change be 
 supplied with fresh solutions of lime, which will 
 have a tendency to neutralize the miasmata of 
 vegetable putrefactions. In old settled countries, 
 yapid streams are an indication of salubrity, bur 
 in this western region, where the waters are im- 
 
1^6 
 
 Canal. 
 
 pregnated with vegetable decompositions, it is 
 remarked, that at places of great precipitation of 
 this fluid — at great falls, which increase the rapid- 
 ity of its motion, bilious and malignant fevers are 
 more prevalent, because more miasmata are 
 brought into activity, and infused into the atmos- 
 phere, and this evil will continue until cultivation 
 prevents the supply of vegetable putrefaction. I 
 am therefore pleased at hearing that new feeders 
 have been provided. You may recollect that in 
 a former communication, I told you that I would 
 give you my view of the causes of the late freezing 
 and early thawing of the waters on this canal. 
 This is owing, in my opinion, to the abundance 
 of sulphuric acid in it. It is well known that 
 water and sulphuric acid combine so intimately 
 and closely, that the compound gives out a large 
 r/f portioii caloric. Four pounds of this acid, mix- 
 >j ed with one pound of water, will raise the ther- 
 mometer to 300 degrees of Farenheit. There 
 are undoubtedly auxiliarj', as well as counteract- 
 ing causes which act in relation to the greater 
 heat of the canals. 
 
 The canal will however have a most beneficial 
 effect in increasing the healthiness of tlie country'. 
 It will act as a great drain to carry off the redun- 
 dant waters, and to dry up the sources of pesti- 
 lence. 
 
CANAL. 97 
 
 In my opinion, the period of the greatest un- 
 healthiness of a country, is the intermediate state 
 between a state of nature and a state of cultivation. 
 The felling of trees produces vegetable decompo- 
 sition, and opens the earth and the water to the 
 action of solar heat. Evaporation and exhala- 
 tion are augmented, and poisons which were be- 
 fore inert and inactive, are excited into deleterious 
 activity. The Python of the ancient m3^thology 
 was intended to represent the terrible miasmata of 
 this or an analogous state. Ovid thus speaks of 
 the evepts which immediately followed the deluge, 
 
 Ergo ubi diluvio tellus liitulenta recenti 
 Solibus aethereis altoque recanduit sstu, 
 Edidit enumeras sprcies : partimque figuras 
 Retulit antiquas : partim nova monstra ereavit. 
 Ilia quidem nollet, sed te quoque, maxime Pythfon, 
 Turn genuit ; populisque novis, incognite ser^pis, 
 Terror eras : tantum spatii de nionte tenebas. 
 
 The influence of cultivation was personified in 
 Apollo, who slew the serpent. 
 
 Although the clearing of a country does not 
 create new beings, yet it multiplies their number, 
 and augments their power of good and evil. The 
 food which is furnished to the voracity of insects, 
 and the heat which is administered to their pro- 
 pagation and growth, are increased by settlement. 
 Man — the useful creatures by which be is surrouii- 
 
98 CANAL. 
 
 ded — and the beneficial vegetables which he in- 
 troduces, invite the annoyance of this tribe of 
 beings; and the great numbers of some invaria- 
 bly indicate an unhealthy state of the atmosphere, 
 and in some degree contribute to it. 
 
 Respice finem. The diseases which necessarily 
 follow from the clearing of a country will be im- 
 puted to the peculiar malignity of this canal. Is 
 there not in human nature a diabolical spirit 
 which delights 
 
 '' to damn and to destroy ?" 
 
 What pleasure can be derived from the deface- 
 ment of milestones — the prostration of monuments 
 *— the destruction of aqueducts ? — and yet, go 
 where you will, and you will see the ravages of 
 Vandalic fury. I have just been told that a ruf- 
 fian was caught in destroying the banks of the 
 canal. The state prison will be his destiny. 
 But in the eye of moralit}' and patriotism, is not 
 the wretch equally culpable, who endeavors to 
 arrest this great improvement, by poisoning the 
 public mind — by calumniating its patrons — and 
 by circulating false reports about its stability 
 and usefulness. 
 
BURNING SPRINGS. 99 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 Canandaigua, July, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I was yesterday informed that there is a barn- 
 ing spring a few miles from this place, and I im- 
 mediately set out to view it. I soon found it 
 about eight miles to the southwest of Canandaigua, 
 in a district of country called Bristol. A small 
 stream flows at the foot of a hill about 30 feet 
 high, and contains pure water, and small fish 
 The gas bubbles up in the water tlirough spiracula, 
 and also issues from the dry ground adjacent. In 
 the first place it appears like boiling water, and 
 in the last place it is in a state of flame : It 
 smells like the smell of a lamp, without a rank, 
 unctuous quality, and burns like the flame of a 
 candle, or ignited wood, or coal, and it is some- 
 times in a state of ignition the greater part of the 
 year. It was discovered accidently by a maa 
 clearing land on the hill ; a brand fell down and 
 ignited the gas which issues through many spira- 
 cula or apertures. 
 
 The stone in the vicinity is shale, and some- 
 times contains a small calcareous mixture, as is 
 evident from its slight efl'ervescence with sulphu- 
 ric acid. On my return to this place, I was told 
 ^bat a similar spring has been discovered near a 
 bed of gypsum in West Bloomfield; and five or 
 
100 BURNING SPRINGS. 
 
 six in Richmond, south-west of the one T visited ; 
 both these districts border on Bristol. There is 
 also a burning spring at Chippeway, in Upper 
 Canada, and another in Westmoreland, ten or 
 twelve miles west of Utica, near the Seneca turn- 
 pike road. They probably exist in many places 
 in this region, andjthey appear to range from east 
 to west, diverging a little to the south-west. 
 
 The gas which composes these burning springs, 
 is carburetted hydrogen gas, or carbon dis- 
 solved in hydrogen. It is the fire-damp of coal 
 mines, and whenever the atmosphere of a mine 
 becomes charged with more than one-thirteenth 
 of its volume of this gas, the whole becomes 
 explosive. The priests who direct the worship of 
 the followers of Zoroaster in Persia, impose this 
 gas, when in flame, upon their sect as the immor- 
 tal fire, after having conducted it by secret con- 
 duits into their temples. 
 
 I have been informed by a gentleman from the 
 state of Ohio, that at Rocky Hill, in that country, 
 about a mile and a half from Lake Erie, an 
 attempt was made to bore the earth for salt. Af- 
 ter proceeding to nearly the depth of 200 feet, 
 the auger fell, and salt water rose through the 
 aperture, and played for several hours. After the 
 water was spent, volumes of inflammable air issued 
 forth for a long time, and formed a cloud, which. 
 
EURNINIS SPRINGS. 101 
 
 conimunicaling with the fire In the workmen's 
 shops, became ignited, and consumed every thing 
 in the vicinity. Large quantities of coal afe 
 close by. 
 
 Holjinshed states^in his^ Chronicles, that at the 
 time of a great earthquake in the reign ofHenryl. 
 ** fire burst out of certain rifles of the earth in so 
 huge flames, that neither by water nor otherwise 
 could it be quenched." And Southey speaks of 
 sea-fires which rose from the sea, travelled into 
 ihe interior, and consumed many towns. These 
 undoubtedly proceeded from large collections of 
 carburetted hydrogen gas, extracted from the 
 bowels of the earth, and put in a state of ignition. 
 
 As this gas is partly generated from carbon, 
 ihe principal constituent of coal, it is an almost 
 certain indication of a coal mine. I admit that 
 it is not an infallible one, and that it may be 
 extracted from other substances, but this can 
 rarely, if ever, occur in large quantities. The 
 actual existence o-f coal at Rocky Hill, and of 
 shale, the roof of coal mines, tit Bristol, justify 
 beyond question the correctness of my conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 Here then is an important devclopement, which, 
 iii connexion with a preceding letter, shows satis- 
 factorily the existence of coal throughout this 
 region. Bituminous and sulphur springs confii^a? 
 
i02 TREES. 
 
 the impression : and the wide and extended range 
 of these and burning springs, prove that this all 
 important fossil is to be found in great plenty 
 over the whole country. 
 
 LETTER XXIIL 
 
 Canandaigua, July, 1820, 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 T4^ larch, or pinus larix, takes a high rank 
 among European trees, for the excellent qualities 
 of its wood and bark. " The most barren moun- 
 tains will grow larches,'' says Bishop Watson, 
 and the experiment has been successfully and 
 repeatedly tried in Scotland, whose bleak and 
 rugged mountains now exhibit vigorous vegeta- 
 tion. From this tree the Venice Turpentine is 
 extracted. Taken internally, its resins are aperi- 
 ent, sudorific, diuretic, and stomachic ; and 
 applied externally, they are anodyne, detersive, 
 and antisceptic. 
 
 In this country there are two species of larcbj 
 although they have been generally considered as 
 varieties, and they are denominated tamarack, 
 or hack-matack. The larix pendula, or black larch 
 35 found in cedar swamps, and the larix micro- 
 carpa, or red larch, on high mountains according 
 
to Pursh. They closely resemble each other, but 
 that they are specifically distinct, has been satis- 
 factorily established by Mr. Lambert, who obser-^ 
 ved, that they always keep distinct, when raised 
 from seed. 
 
 The American Jarch is said to resemble the 
 European, where there are always two species » 
 but whether they are the same tree, I cannot dis^ 
 tinctly say. 
 
 This tree has never been transplanted or culti- 
 vated in this country. You now and then per- 
 ceive a solitary one before a court yard. It is a 
 beautiful, ornamental tree, and its rapid growth 
 and adaptation to the most barren soils, recom- 
 mend it decidedly to the attention of the American 
 agriculturist. 
 
 " By cultivation,'' said Bishop Watson, " 1 
 mean tillage, pasturage, and plantation. The 
 last, except for fruit trees, is totally neglected in 
 this country. This is owing to the abundance of 
 wood : but even already, the inhabitants of cities 
 have been forced to import their coal from 
 England. Every farmer ought to devote twenty 
 acres to the planting of trees for fuel and build- 
 ing — and using an acre a year, and continuing 
 to replant, the deficiency will be supplied, allow- 
 ing twenty years for the growth of wood. The 
 Hindoo, who plants a tree, digs a well, and has a 
 
104 FORESTS. 
 
 son, is sure of heaven. It is to be regretted, that 
 some strong and similar inducement does not 
 operate in America. 
 
 All the roads and canals ought to be lined with 
 forest trees. The shade will be agreeable, and 
 the view delightful to travellers. 
 
 The Americans are a ship-building people. A?4, 
 it is calculaied, will take the wood of fifty acres. 
 Is it not time for them to look out for futurity, 
 and not to anticipate the supplies of future gene- 
 rations ? 
 
 In passing from Rome to Syracuse, you see 
 nothing but one great forest, which must contain 
 many millions of cords of wood : but already have 
 the axe and the fire-brand been applied, and 
 before the lapse of 50 years, these immense woods 
 will fall before the hand of cultivation. What 
 then will become of the great manufactories of 
 salt, unless coal is discovered, or plantation adop- 
 ted f Both must be attended to — wood will always 
 be required for navigable and architectural pur- 
 poses. The swamps west of Rome are filled with 
 turf or peat, as I perceived from the canal packet 
 
WILD RICE. 105 
 
 • 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Canandaiguai July ylS20, 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I saw, for the first time, in the Seneca river at 
 Montezuma, the aquatic plant, called wild rice 
 or foUe avoinC: It grows all over the west and 
 north — and wherever it flourishes, myriads of 
 water fowls are attracted to it, and derive their 
 chief support and exquisite flavour from its ali- 
 mentary qualities. In the lakes and rivers adjoin- 
 ing Montezuma, thousands of wild geese and 
 ducks of all kinds congregate at the proper season 
 for food, except the canvas back duck, or anis 
 vulisneria of Wilson, which derives its name from 
 a water plant called valisneria, on the roots of 
 which it feeds, and which is a fresh w ater vegeta- 
 table, that grows in some parts of the Hudson and 
 Delaware, and in most of the rivers that fall into 
 the Chesapeake. 
 
 Some difficulty has occurred not only about 
 the botanical name, but also about the botanical 
 character of the wild rice, or wild oats. This 
 confusion of nomenclature has arisen from Lin- 
 naeus himself. In his species plantarum, he has 
 denominated it zizania aquatica, and in his i\lan- 
 tissa, zizania pakistris— and it has been called 
 
106 WILD RICE. 
 
 by other botanists, z. clavtJBa — I shall prefer the 
 first name as most characreristic. It has been 
 well described by Mr. Lambert, as 
 
 Zizania panicula inferiie racemosa superne spi- 
 cata. Pursh represents it as a perennial plant ; 
 Nuttall and Micliaux are silent on this point, and 
 Eaton says it is an annual, in which opinion I 
 concur. 
 
 Mr. Lambert, in a communication in the 7th 
 volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean Soci- 
 ety of London, has given a figure of this plant, as 
 growing at Spring Grove, the seat of Sir Joseph 
 Banks, in England. It appears that Sir Joseph 
 received some of the seed, gathered in a lake, in 
 Canada, and put up in jars of water. It was 
 sown in a pond at Spring grove, where he has a 
 great quantity of the plant, growing annually, 
 ripening its seeds extremely well in autumn, and 
 sowing itself round the edges. 
 
 By what I can learn, this same plant grows in 
 Lake George, and Lake Champiain, and in all 
 the Western Lakes. It produces seed in some 
 places in September, and in others in October. 
 It grows in shallow water, and sometimes to the 
 heighth of eight feet. Some of the western 
 Indians derive their principal support from it. 
 The grain it bears is superior to the common 
 ricCj and if cut before ripe, it makes excellent 
 
WILD RICE. 107 
 
 fodder, eiiibraciiig tl^; 
 Mr. Lambert's figure c 
 
 advantages ofbay and oats. 
 
 of the plant in the Linnaen 
 Transactions is accurate, and exactly resembles 
 the one growing in the Seneca river. Its produc- 
 tiveness may be inferred from the food it furnishes 
 to thousands of human beings, and to myriads of 
 aquatic animals. From the success of the expe- 
 riment of Sir Joseph Banks, it is highly probable 
 that it will grow in any part of this country and 
 Great Britain ; and if so, may it not be consider- 
 ed as a good substitute for the or^'za sativa or 
 common rice. It is well known that the latter 
 furnishes more subsistence to the human race than 
 any other plant, Pursh mentions a grass which 
 he calls the oryzopsis asperifoiia, which he obser- 
 ved on the broad mountains of this country, and 
 which, he says, contains large seeds, that produce 
 the finest fionr. Perhaps this species of oryzop- 
 sis, although genericaily dilferent, bears the same 
 relation to z. aquatica, in its importance and 
 place of growth, as the mountain rice of India 
 does to the common rice of that region. At all 
 events, the more I see of this country, the more I 
 am convinced of its vast ability to support the 
 human species, and of the propriety oi calliiig it? 
 latent powers into operation. 
 
IN3ECT€.. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 - . ■ /=« 
 
 My dear hxn, 
 
 In passing by a spring a few days ago, 1 was 
 called by some acquaintance to look at what they 
 called a curiosity. It was the filaria, horse-hair 
 worn), or gordios titjii^tlciis — its color was dusky, 
 4t§ length four or five inches, and its thickiiesi 
 iibout the size of a horse-hair. They representeu 
 U as a real horse-hair, transformed into an animal 
 by beirjg thrown into water, and although in 
 other respects intelligent men, they no doubt con- 
 scientiously believed it. Providence has design- 
 ed this little animal to perforate the most compact 
 and tenacious clay, by which means the imprison- 
 ed waters of subterranean springs find a passage 
 jp for the use of man, and other organic beings^ 
 in consequence of this incident, I was about 
 making som.e sage remarks on the low state of 
 natural science in this country, when it occurred 
 to me that the same doctrine of equivocal geiie-= 
 ration, or spontaneous production, was advocated 
 from the time of the Stagyrite down to Priestley 
 and Darwin. Harvey was the first philosopher 
 who had the tem,erity to enter the lists, in this 
 
INSECTS. 109 
 
 (:ase, against Aristotle.' He advanced the propo- 
 sition, omnia ex ovo, and the most piofound and 
 elaborate investigations of philosophy have con- 
 firmed his opinions. The polype furnishes indeed 
 an argument against this doctrine. If divided 
 Into several parts, each part will become a per- 
 fect animal. I can only surmount this objection 
 by supposing each polype, as it appears in its 
 usual shape, to be a congeries of animals, aggluti- 
 nated together, and when a separation takes place 
 that complete beings will exist in a state capable 
 of enlargement. We see something analogous in the 
 vegetable world. Trees produced from the cut° 
 ting, without any sexual annexion. It is suppo- 
 sed that the weeping willow, or salix Babylonica, 
 was introduced into Europe at the time of the 
 Crusades. It was transplanted from the river 
 Euphrates about the year 1748, by Mr. Vernon, 
 a Turkish merchant, at his country seat in Eng- 
 land. The English as well as the American 
 weeping willow is a female, and exists in both 
 countries in a widowed state. It is propagated 
 from the cutting, and so is the Lombardy poplar^ 
 which is only a male in America. 
 
 The introduction of pernicious insects ought 
 to be carefully guarded against, and yet it is 
 almost impracticable. Numbers of exotic insects 
 
 are imported in timber and packages of c:oods» 
 
 F2 
 
110 INSECTS-e 
 
 The scarlet locust, figured by Edwards in bis 
 Natural History, came accidentally alive from 
 the West Indies in a basket of pine apples. A 
 very curious instance was observed in England 
 in 1810, when an insect of the genus buprestis was 
 taken from a desk made of fir, brought from the 
 Baltic, and fixed up in 1788 or 1789. The cimex 
 lectularius, or bed bug, was scarcely known in. 
 England until sixteen hundred seventy, when it is 
 said to have been imported among timber used 
 In rebuilding London, after the great fire of 1666. 
 The Americans assert the same thing in a more 
 extended sense, and insist that fleas, moth, bed- 
 bugs and cock roaches, are foreigners. 1 do not 
 believe that either allegation is correct. In 1670 
 there were not probably many bedsteads in Eng- 
 land to attract the bug. Rushes and straw form- 
 ed, at that period, the couches of most of the peo- 
 ple. I know that pigeons often swarm with bed 
 bugs, and also the domestic rabbit. I can speak 
 from experience, when I say that the American bed 
 bug is a larger variety than the English. How 
 easy to avoid this evil by frequent ablutions — by 
 bedsteads made of iron, or without any apertures 
 —and by the use of a little sandal wood, which 
 is an antidote against all kinds of insects, or in 
 this case, of sassafras, which is said to be a com- 
 plete preventive of the cimex lectiilariusj and 
 
INSi:CTS, 111 
 
 fjrrecautions of this kind become absolutely necess- 
 ary, when it is considered that this insect is con- 
 stantly conveyed in the clothes and baggage of 
 travellers. The flea is certainly indigenous. It 
 swarms in the most remote pine woods, and I 
 have found it on squirrels. The cock-roach may, 
 as Kalm supposes, have been imported from the 
 West Indies : It has certainly found a congenial 
 climate, because it increases greatly : Like all 
 other winged insects, it travels rapidly. As to 
 moths, I shall not undertake to pronounce on 
 their origin ; but I can furnish you with a com- 
 plete antidote against their ravages. Red cedar 
 wood will effectually answer. Russia leather is 
 tanned with this substance, and books bound with 
 it set moths at defiance. 
 
 But I see you smile at my insect learning; and 
 if you serve this letter as you have done some of 
 its predecessors, and publish it, I shall probably 
 incur the satire of the graciosos or buflbons of 
 New-York. Aristophanes, in his attack on 
 Socrates, charged him with measuring the leap 
 of a flea, and the most virulent accusation against 
 Jefferson is the impalement of butterflies. What 
 then do I care if I experience the fate of the most 
 illustrious men of ancient and modern times. 
 
tl2 PARTIES 
 
 LETTER XXVi: 
 
 July, 182b: 
 Mr Dear Sir, 
 
 The laws of Athens inflicted death on a foreign- 
 er who should attempt to speak in the assemblies 
 of the people, and I think that such an unwarran- 
 laLle interference with the sovereign authority 
 deserved punishment. As a stranger and an 
 alien, receiving the hospitalities and protection of 
 ihis people, I do not consider myself authorised 
 to meddle with their politics ; but it is impossible 
 to seal hermetically your ears against the noise 
 and turbulence of political contention. Every 
 village has its political generals, who convert the 
 bar room of the inn into an arena of controversy, 
 and sometimes, seated in a corner, 1 have been 
 compelled to hear the accusations, the grievances 
 and the vindications of the belligerent parties ; and 
 amidst the persiflage or jargon of the times, I can 
 easily perceive that the whole controversy is 
 about the offices of the country. After listening 
 to a philippic of great virulence for some time, 
 clothed in terms of general reprobation, I asked 
 the orator to point out the reprehensible measures 
 o^ the government. He approved of every thing 
 
PARTI E&< liS 
 
 but bad appointments. Good men, said he, 
 (looking big) are not noticed- -federalists are 
 appointed — republicans ought to have al! the 
 offices. 1 solicited him to explain the difference 
 between a republican and a federalist. Why, said 
 he, a republican is a republican, and a federalist 
 is a federalist. At this stage of the conversation,, 
 the orator was called out, and I understood that 
 he had been, until lately, an ultra federalist — that 
 at a celebration of Perry's victory on Lake Erie, 
 during the late war, he had fired pop guns in 
 ridicule of the event, and that he had abjured in a 
 company of two score or so of high-minded men, 
 his political name and creed, in order to attain 
 office. The great clamour made in the commu- 
 nity, appears to originate from such obsure and 
 disreputable sources. Judging from the writings 
 and conversation of this opposition, 1 should pro- 
 nounce a great dearth of talent among them : and 
 perhaps, if I may speak paradoxically, they owe 
 some of their strength to their weakness. Their 
 antagonists, in forming a just opinion of their 
 want of intellectual power, appear to have under- 
 rated their capabilities for mischief, and not to 
 have guarded sufficiently against their attacks, 
 lord Clarendon hasjustly remarked, that " few men 
 liave done more harm than those who have beets 
 thought to be able to do least 5 and there cannot be 
 
114 FARTIE?. 
 
 a greater error, than to believe a man whom we 
 see qualified with too mean parts to do good, to 
 be therefore incapable of doing hurt. There is 
 a supply of malice, of pride, of industry, and even 
 of folly, in the weakest, when he sets upon it, that 
 makes a strange progress in mischief." 
 
 The history of parties is a history of struggles 
 for office and authority on the part of the leaders, 
 who beguile the honest feelings of the people into 
 their traps of ambition, and the greater the cla- 
 mour, the more inordinate the cupidity. It is 
 common for a dog shut out of a house in the even- 
 ing, to bark and make a great noise, until some- 
 body opens the door, and then instantly' whip in 
 and be quiet. This is a true delineation of the 
 leaders of faction. 
 
 This state is making rapid and gigantic strides 
 to eminence and greatness. Her canals are the 
 admiration of the world, and her encouragement 
 of agriculture, literature, and the arts, is truly 
 munificent. To see the profligate attempts to 
 arrest this great S3'Stem of public improvement, in 
 order to elevate obscure petifoggers, and misera- 
 ble drivellers, is really calculated to excite more 
 than common sensibility. " Men, says an emi- 
 nent writer, who honestly engage themselves in 
 ihe public cause, must prepare themselves for 
 
OE0L(WiY. ll'o 
 
 events which will at once demand their patience 
 and rouse their indignation." 
 
 I have frequently been struck with the strata- 
 gems adopted by drovers, to drive their cattle to 
 market, by dividing them into separate herds, to 
 manage them completel3\ In like manner, the 
 people are led by the divisions created by ambi- 
 tious and unprincipled men, for the purposes of 
 self-aggrandizement. Although these excitements 
 have recoiled upon the agitators, and will unques- 
 tionably seal their political ruin, yet they are 
 calculated to work great injury. The most 
 diminutive insect may annoy the mightiest ele- 
 phant, and the continual harrassments of politi- 
 casters may sometimes affect the plans of the 
 wises statesmen. A combination of smatterers in 
 literature, of sciolists in knowlege, of pretenders 
 to public spirit, and of all that is little and con- 
 temptible, against all that is great and respectable 
 can never prevail in an enlightened and patriotic 
 country. 
 
i§ gv:olo) 
 
 LETTER XXVII 
 
 July, 1820.- 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The gradual changes which are constantly car- 
 rying on in this globe by the agency of fire, wa- 
 ter, frost, and caloric, must in course of time de- 
 range its central gravitj^, and produce an over- 
 whelming revolution. The formation of stalac- 
 tites and stalagmites, by the gradual accretion of 
 calcerous matter, from water, filtrating through 
 the more porous lime-stone, is well understood— 
 and this accretion arises unquestionably from the 
 passage of the water when saturated with lim© 
 from a heated to a cool atmosphere. The depo- 
 sition of calcareous substances in the fissures of 
 rocks from the water in which it was suspended, 
 constitutes alabaster. And whenever water, im- 
 pregnated with lime, comes in contact with cooler 
 er water, it will deposit its calcareous matter, which 
 will in course of time harden into stone. All the 
 streams and rivers of the west, are filled with car- 
 bonate of lime, sulphate of lime, argillaceous 
 schistus, and silicious stone, in a state of solution, 
 but principally with the first, and when they enter 
 into the lakes, rocks are gradually formed. The 
 
GEOLocrr. 217 
 
 bottoms of Lake Erie and Ontario are principal] v 
 Kme-stone, which is in a state of augmentation. 
 In the county of Onondaga, at a place called the 
 Little Lakes, I observed the great elaboratory of 
 nature at work in the formation of calcareous 
 locks, and as I humbly conceive, by a double 
 process. First, by depositions from its waters iu 
 which lime was dififused — and second, by the 
 operation of springs rising from the bottom of the 
 lakes, and extruding calcareous matter from the 
 bowels o| the eartli. V/heihrr i am correct as io 
 tm» ccr:?p!ex pcTcr. I c?.rir!o* ^^y — ]?m as to the 
 fact of the creation of tufa, it must be obvious to 
 the most inexperienced eye. in order to gain all 
 the light I could on this interesting subject, I 
 took a short journey to the village of Marcellus, 
 hi the connty of Onondaga. The production of 
 lime stones of large size at nine mile creek, near 
 tliis place, is a very extraordinary thing. On the 
 banks of the creek, there is a petrified or fossil 
 tree, over which there is a large limestome, and 
 w hich stone must have been formed after the petri- 
 faction of the tree, and the whole process is appa- 
 rent to the observer. After the first deposition, 
 and a consequent induration, the stone is covered 
 by a lichen w hich retains a subsequent deposition, 
 and which hardens and enlarges as before. The 
 h^-rdness of the hine stcne increases with its depth- 
 
118 GEOLOGY. 
 
 and it finally reposes on schistus. The petrifac- 
 tion of the tree is owing to the calcareous deposits. 
 Saturated water continually passing over it, must 
 leave some of its matter behind — and as the tree 
 decays, its vegetable loss is supplied by mineral 
 accretion — and sometimes the lime, in solution, is 
 mixed with arenaceous particles which combine 
 in the formation of the pretrifaction. I was told 
 of three or four petrified white oaks at Chitteningo, 
 which I had not an opportunity of observing, but 
 thj^y are said to ijev.nder a g3'psum hill, and to 
 be subject to aUuvieRs from it. ' i have seen the 
 fossil tree at Penicuick in Scotland, which has 
 been the subject of so much speculation, and I 
 can now account for its origin. It w as produced 
 from Silicious depositions passing over a Scotch 
 pine. The strata in which the remains of the tree 
 are, consist of slate clay, but the tree itself is sand 
 stone, and there is sand stone immediately above 
 the slate clay. 
 
 I have tried the fossil trees of Marcellus by the 
 application of muriatic acid, and I find by the 
 effervescence unequivocal indication of a calcare- 
 ous substance. I also saw petrified leaves, and 
 there is a strong probability that animals may 
 also be discovered in a petrified shape prod ^ ed 
 in the same way. The human skeleton which 
 
GEOLOGY. 119 
 
 was found inclosed in lime stone at Guadaloupe 
 was no doubt a recent formation. 
 
 We thus see, my friend, the wonderful opera- 
 tions of nature. The Zoophytes of the South 
 Sea are gradually encroaching upon the ocean 
 "by the erection of islands and reefs, and certahily 
 by the agency of calcareous secretions. The lime 
 stone rivers of the west are trespassing upon the 
 ^akes with a stronger and more commanding pow- 
 er. 
 
 This country is calcareous — its subsoil is form- 
 ed of marie ; it is the region of salubrity, 
 
 "There are more thing-sin heaven andp^rtli, Horatio, 
 Than are dreaait of in your philosophy." 
 
 Depend upon it, my friend, that we are in A, B^ 
 C, of geology and mineralogy. We have proceed- 
 ed to these studies like children at the first opening 
 of their minds. We have learnt words and names 
 only. These sciences are oppressed and barri- 
 cadoed by a polyglot m.ysterious nomenclature. 
 They require some mighty genius like Bacon or 
 Newton to dissipate the Cimmerian darkness 
 which hangs overthenjo 
 
120 salina. 
 
 LETTER XVIU, 
 
 Salvia, July, lb2C. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I have returned to this place to look at the 
 o-reat manufactories of salt, which are conducted 
 on a very extensive scale. The salt is not only 
 better but cheaper that any in the United States ; 
 its superiority in these essential respects arises 
 from the strength of the water, the cheapness ot 
 fuel, the facility of water conveyance, and impro- 
 ved skill in operation. It is supposed that five 
 million bushels of salt are consumed annually in 
 the United States, of which three millions are im- 
 ported, and two made at home ; and half a mil- 
 lion is manufactured at this place. 
 
 The salt springs are situate in a marsh, and by 
 digging a pit any where in it, salt water is found. 
 The brine is forced up by hand pumps and hy- 
 draulic machines, and conveyed by leaders to 
 the caldrons. One man can attend a block of 
 ten kettles. The process of manufacturing is 
 simple. The water is exposed to a hot fire, and 
 when it is sufficiently boiled down, the salt is 
 taken out by a large ladle, and put into a basket, 
 from whence the water exudes into the kettle. 
 
SALT WORKS. 12 i 
 
 The ladle is kept during the vvliole process in 
 the caldron, and it is said collects all the feculent 
 matter. 
 
 The salt is of three kinds ; common, rectified, 
 and basket, or table : and salt is made at Monte- 
 zuma by solar evaporation. Fifty-six gallons of 
 water make a bushel of salt. It is said that it. 
 takes 100 gallons at the Great Kanhawa river, 
 and 300 at the Conemaugh works, near Pitts- 
 burgh. Wood can be procured at 62 cents a 
 cord, and two cords will supply a block of cal- 
 drons for a day. 
 
 The common salt is very excellent — the recti- 
 iied extraordinary so. The best kind of the lat- 
 ter is put up in baskets of 3 lbs., which cost each 
 twelve and and a half cents. 
 
 It is supposed that the salt springs originate 
 from subterranean rivers running over mines or 
 beds of fossil salt, and as Salina is elevated 100 
 feet above the Oswego falls, which are composed 
 of sand stone, that the mineral can be found at 
 that depth. Many phenomena all over this coun- 
 try demonstrate the former presence of the ocean 
 and it is supposed that a line of country consider- 
 ably above the Cayuga marshes, and the Salina 
 plains has been a sea shore. On the recession of 
 the ocean, those great hollows must have retained 
 vast quantities of salt water, which would be con- 
 
1^2 SALT WORKS. 
 
 verted into salt by solar evaporation, or subte? 
 ranean heat. But it is evident that this theor\ 
 is not commensurate with all the facts in the case. 
 Salt springs are found as far east as forty miles, 
 and all over this western region. 
 
 In 1806 and 1819, years of great drought, thr 
 water was very weak. On what principles can 
 we account for this extraordinary fact ? There 
 jTiever has been the least failure of water. 
 
 I saw on the salt marsh, the samphire of the 
 sea coast. Tournefort made the same observa- 
 tions in his voyage to the Levant. " There are. 
 said he, some small risings of fossil salt in Geor- 
 gia. This salt, which chrystalized in bottoms 
 where the rain water stagnates, mixes with the 
 moisture of the earth, and causes it to produce 
 such plants as love the sea shore — such as salt- 
 wert and limonium, 1 observed the same thing 
 upon the mountain of Cardonna, situated on the 
 frontiers of Catalonia and Arragon, which is 
 nothing but a prodigious mass of salt." 
 
 The country about the salt works is said to be 
 unliealthy. The same evil has been noticed in 
 other places. The spots in Greece, where the 
 malaria is most noxious, are salt works and rice 
 grounds. 
 
 I have no doubt but salt can be procured at 
 Sa!ina for 18 cents a bushel, including the duty 
 
SALT WORKS. 123 
 
 of 12J cents. It can be transported to Albany 
 for 6 or 7 cents more when the canal is finished. 
 The duty on imported salt is 20 cents per bushel. 
 The average price of salt at New-York, is from 
 40 to 50 cents per bushel. Whether the 
 foreign duty is continued or not, the salt of 
 Salina can always be sold cheaper at the head of 
 the sloop navigation of the Hudson, than foreign 
 salt. Every individual in the United States con- 
 sumes at the rate of half a bushel of salt, directly 
 or indirectly. Supposing the consumption in the 
 aggregate to be five millions of bushels, and the 
 population ten millions, then that portion of the 
 inhabitants which is comprehended in the supply 
 from Salina, will not have to pay more than from 
 12J to 25 cents for the annual consumption of 
 that article. 
 
 I consider the salt manufacture of Salina the 
 most important establishment in the United States. 
 It renders the nation so far independent of foreign 
 aid : millions of bushels can be made. Without 
 the canals it usefulness would be very circumscri- 
 bed — but now the facilities of inland navigation 
 enable the conveyance of this indispensible mine- 
 ral to the remotest regions of the west, and to iix 
 shores of the Atlantic ocean. 
 
12i CANALc 
 
 LETTER XXIX. \ 
 
 MoniezumUj July, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I consider navigation on a cana3, not only 
 the least expensive, but the most secure mode of 
 travelling that can be adopted. Here is no burst- 
 ing of boilers nor any other accident to which 
 steam-boats are exposed. You can neither be 
 burnt nor drowned, and your horses cannot run 
 avvay with your carriage and dash it to atoms ; 
 but then you must be on the constant look out to 
 avoid a fracture of the head from the low and ill 
 constructed bridges : why, in this country of 
 wood, stone should be used for erecting bridges ; 
 why they should be made so low as just to avoid 
 the boat ; why they should contain abutments 
 jutting out into the canal, and for ever striking 
 the boat ; and why the stones should be piled 
 upon each other without mortar, are questions 
 which I must refer to the decision of the Canal 
 Board and their engineers. If the bridges had 
 been sufficiently elevated, tlien the boat could 
 have been drawn from a mast instead of the side, 
 as is practiced in Flanders, and an unceasing an4 
 pernicious wearing of the banks by the drag rope 
 
CAXAL. V ->r 
 
 would iiave been prevented. I k,low of no other 
 accidents that can happen, except from the fall- 
 ing of trees across the boat, or from the carele^- 
 ness of the men who have the management of the 
 locks. 
 
 I saw at Jordan, wliich is 80 miles from UtIcT 
 t»o loaded boats, whici, had left Schenectady 
 seven days before. This wonid average 25 mii; 
 a day, and part of the way is on a difficult ascend- 
 •ng navigation up the Mohawk. Again; a ves- 
 sel of 50 tons went from Utica to Trumansburgh 
 on the Cayuga Lake, 130 miles in three day, 
 loaded with merchandize, and without a change 
 of horses. A loaded boat can go on this canal 
 without diftculty at the rate of 40 miles a day 
 
 I have just learnt that the state is about pur- 
 chasing the rigi.ts of the Western Inland Lock 
 Aavtgation Company. This is a very just and 
 proper measure. The works of the Company 
 are out of order, and the toll is exorbitant. 
 livery bushel of wheat has to pay a duty of 59 
 cents before it reaches Schenectady. 
 
 The canal of this Company at Rome is one 
 mde and three quarters long, thirty-two feet wide at 
 top, and from two and a half to three feet deep 
 It has two locks 73 feet long, and 12 feet wide! 
 The hft of the one on the Mohawk is ten feet, and 
 on Wood Creek eight This wc«k was made 
 
126 CANAL. 
 
 under the direction of Mr. Weston, an English 
 engineer, who had, besides his expenses, a salary 
 of a thousand guineas a year. The superintend- 
 ant of the laborers had a salary of 2,500 dollars; 
 and this short canal took two years to make. 
 What a difference in management: proceeding 
 at the same rate, it would take two centuries to 
 complete the Great Canal. The water cement 
 was imported. The lock at the German Flats 
 was made of terras, and at the Little Falls of 
 W^elsh lime. The former has answered best. 
 
 The tolls of this Company are so oppressive, 
 that boats frequently unload and pass through the 
 locks empty, and resume their load afterwards. It 
 is indeed well that the state has purchased it. I am 
 persuaded that the markets of New-York will now 
 be supplied with western, instead of southern 
 flour, and that the displacement of the latter from 
 the market will greatly affect the agriculture of 
 
 the south. 
 
 In looking at the great results which must arise 
 from it— it is impossible to keep out of view some 
 of the revolutions which will take place in the in- 
 ternal trade of the country. There is ascertain 
 class scattered all over, who unite in one profes- 
 sion, the calling of iron mongers, grocers, drug- 
 gists, and shop keepers, and who are continually 
 offering temptations to purchasers. The facility 
 
CANAL. J2T 
 
 of conveyance by the canal, will induce people to 
 resort to villages for supplies. The thrifty house- 
 wife will take her cheese and her butter to market, 
 and return with her sugar and tea. A numerous 
 non-productive calling will be ia some measure 
 broken up, or confined to towns. 
 
 A considerable deal of trade will be carried on 
 by exchange, and more scope and greater en- 
 couragement will be afforded for the operations 
 of industry and economy. A vast capital will be 
 employed to more advantage. A canal boat of 
 40 tons can be purchased for 400 dollars, which, 
 with two horses, will be cheaper than a heavy 
 wagon and six horses, and will convey ten times 
 as much. The comparative cheapness of canal 
 barges to river sloops as well as wagons, will su- 
 persede the necessity of very large investments of 
 capital. 
 
 With all these and other important advantages 
 staring the community in the face, is it not extra- 
 ordinary, that there should be an organized op- 
 position against the canal ! that wretches should 
 be encouraged to instil poison into the public 
 mind against it, and to destroy its embankments.^ 
 By the bye, can you tell me why accidents in the 
 bursting of embankments and mill-dams occur 
 more frequently in the night time than in the day? 
 
128 COAL. 
 
 Are they owing to a greater pressure of the at- 
 niosphere on the water ? 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 AuhurUj July, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I AM so anxious for the discovery of coal, in 
 order to promote the prosperity of this growing 
 couRtr}^, that I can hardly turn my eyes or my 
 mind to any other subject : Sure 1 am that it ex- 
 ists. I have seen indications in various places, 
 but in truth you cannot get people to make the 
 requisite search. It will consume time and mo- 
 ney. They have plenty of wood, and they con- 
 ceive any other fuel as a remote, if an attainable 
 good. Coal was first introduced into London 
 about the middle of the thirteenth century, and it 
 goes by the various names of pit coal, stone coal, 
 pitch coal, and sea coal. The citizens of Lon- 
 don, in the 35th year of Edward L petitioned that 
 the use of it might be prohibited, considering it a 
 noxious material. If this petition had been grant- 
 ed, where would have been the wealth and power 
 of England ? If the citizens of this state do not 
 evince open hostility, they certainly show a nar- 
 cotic indifference on this interesting subject. 
 
COAL. 129 
 
 Being so fuliy impressed with the importance, 
 and practicability of obtaining coal, permit me to 
 throw out a few hints, which may furnish rnateri- 
 qils, not only for observation, but for action. 
 
 Birch, in his History of the Royal Society, ob- 
 serves, that the mines in Devonshire and Corn- 
 wall run east and west ; and this is said to be the 
 case with coal and other minerals, except lead, 
 which has not been observed to have any current 
 or declivity of the vein, but is most commonly 
 found north and south by the miners. Jllost 
 mines lie high in the west and so deepen more and 
 more the further east they run. So»far as coal has 
 been discovered in the western states, I am told it 
 runs east and west, and in the same direction with 
 gypsum, salt, lime, and sand stone ; and if it be 
 true that it descends and deepens to the east, we 
 may. easily see why more has been discovered as 
 you proceed to the west. 
 
 I believe tliat I omitted to mention that whin- 
 stone, or basaltes, whose hardness is such tliat 
 its angular fractures will scratch glass, is found 
 in most coal mines. As basalt is a secondary 
 rock, I have no doubt but that it exists in many 
 parts of this region, although I have only sctn it 
 at the Little Falls, which ha^ to me much the 
 aspect of a coal country. Shistic and sand stones 
 
130 CANAL. 
 
 are with lime the prevalent rocks, and they are 
 invariably the associates of the Coal formation. 
 
 Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of Gloucester- 
 shire, observes, that if you lay a line on the ter- 
 restrial globe from the mouth of the Severn to 
 Newcastle, and so pass round the globe, coal is- to 
 be found within a degree of that line, and scarce 
 any where else in the world. I have not the 
 means of applying this remark to this country, 
 but if you think it worth while to notice an ob- 
 servation so eccentric and fanciful, your globe 
 will soon enable 3'ou to do it. 
 
 Whether coal is a chemical deposit, or vegeta- 
 ble formation, I am not prepared to say, but in 
 any conceivable theorj^, I am persuaded that the 
 strongest reasons exist to show that it may be 
 found in this country. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Montezitma^ July, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 AVhen I travelled in the steam boat from New- 
 York to Albany, I had an interesting conversa- 
 tion with an intelligent merchant from a neighbor- 
 ing village, who told me that goods which cost 
 40 dollars to transport by water from New- York 
 
CANAL. 131 
 
 to his village, a distance of 150 miles, would cost 
 450 to convey by land to Whitehall, a distance of 
 of 70 miles. This great deduction must render 
 the goods proportionally cheap. 
 
 The truth is, that as a canal extends in length, 
 it embraces in a kind of geometrical ratio, a 
 greater or wider extent of country, and difllises 
 correspondent blessings. Every rnan residing 
 within a day's journey of the canal, is for all use- 
 ful purposes brought to that distance from Alba- 
 ny, with the exception of the price of transporta- 
 tion from the point of the canal which he touches 
 to that city, and the time consumed in tiie convey- 
 ance. 
 
 When this work was first proposed to President 
 Jefferson, in 1809, he pronounced it impracticable 
 at the present time, and declared that it was a 
 century too soon to make the attempt. Wh^- this 
 great misjudgment occurred to this great man, 
 and to many other wise men, must be imputed to 
 their overlooking. important facilities, and to tiieir 
 indiscriminate application of past events to pre- 
 sent times, Without taking into cori!?ideration im- 
 portant dissimilarities. A caiial cun be made 
 with infinitely more facility in a region of secon- 
 dary formation, than in one of primary. Granite, 
 sernite, gneiss, and mica slate, do not exist ex- 
 cvpt fortuitously, and the prevailing rocks preser.i 
 
132 CANAL. 
 
 no formidable obstacles to excavation. It is in 
 fact little more than a turnpike reversed, a work 
 in concavity instead of convexity. The applica- 
 tion of ingenious contrivances for the extrication 
 of trees, and the processes of excavation, has 
 never been duly appreciated until submitted to 
 the test of experiment. Nor was it anticipated 
 that work could be carried on to great advantage 
 in winter as well as summer. Besides the whole 
 mystery of the expense and the failure of great 
 public works, is the frauds aud mismangement of 
 the agents. A judicious system conducted with 
 integrity and industry places it in the power of 
 an opulent state to accomplish any undertaking. 
 In my opinion, this state will not only obtain 
 indemnillcation, but will eventually derive a 
 great revenue from the canal. In the hands of an 
 able financier, a kind of impost, under the form 
 of tolls, will be laid on ascending goods, which 
 will either produce an important revenue, or check 
 the wasteful consumption of foreign merchandize; 
 thus encouraging in the one case domestic manu- 
 factures, and in the other enriching the treasury. 
 This will be the exercise of a new power by the 
 local governments. If the national government 
 will not raise the tarilT for the benefit of its own 
 manufactures, the state government can elevate it 
 sufficif-etlv bv tolls 
 
CANAL. 133 
 
 i am happy to assure you, that the supply of 
 water is ample, although I am persuaded that the 
 leakage and evaporation are more than was anti- 
 cipated. Distant cellars have been filled, and in 
 some places the quick sands present a formidable 
 appearance, but the progress of time will avert 
 many evils now experienced. The holes and fis- 
 sures in the canal will be filled up, and the banks 
 will become more solid. 
 
 There are many contrivances in contemplation 
 for the propulsion of boats. An ingenious me-= 
 chanician in New-York, has I see prepared an hy- 
 draulic machine. Steam may be used successful- 
 ly, but I am of opinion that horse power will be 
 generally adopted. 
 
 The advantages which will be constantly de- 
 veloped by this great work, will undoubtedly be 
 shaded by some inconveniences ; but these will 
 be lost and extinguished in the immensity of good. 
 And every citizen of this powerful state may ex- 
 claim in relation to the greatest work of the age, 
 
 " And thou shait be our star of Arcady, 
 Or Tyrian Cynosure," 
 
 to all that can render a people opulent and pow- 
 erful, capable of dispensing and receiving bles- 
 sings. 
 
 G2 
 
134 IRISH ORATORS, 
 
 LETTER XXXIL 
 
 Utica, August I, 1820. 
 IMy Dear Sir, 
 
 One of the modern poets has elegantly said. 
 
 -One snGail spot 
 
 Where my tired mind may rest and call it Home • 
 There is a magic in that little word : 
 it is a mystic circle that surrounds 
 Comforts and virtues never known beyond 
 The hallowed limit." 
 
 The same feelings which attract us to home^ 
 when absent, enhance the importance of our na- 
 tive country when in foreign climes. Every 
 thing which relates to Ireland has now a double 
 charm and a double interest in my estimation. 
 I can stop and converse by the hour with the 
 humblest laborer from my native land, and do 
 not postpone my attentions to inquire whether he 
 js a Catholic or a Protestant, a Royalist or an 
 Oppositionist. Even a panegyric on Castlereagh 
 now sounds melodiously in my ears. 
 
 With all these predilections I cannot shut my 
 eyes against the false taste which has pervaded 
 the Irish oratory, and which has extended to thisr 
 country. Grattan, Curran, and Phillips, are con- 
 
IRISH ORATORS. 135 
 
 sidercd the master spirits of modern eloquence. 
 The works of the two latter are to be found in 
 every bookstore and every library : ihey are 
 read and admired, and admired and read l)y all 
 reading men, women, and children, in America. 
 Phillips — the orator of fustian and borabast has 
 run through several editions. 
 
 The really great orator of Ireland was Edmund 
 Burke, a man of a rich mind, adorned with a 
 luxuriant imagination — stored with various and 
 profound knowledge — and embellished by a cor- 
 rect and classical taste. His speeches at the com- 
 mencement of the American revolution are models 
 of genuine eloquence, and exemplars of political 
 wisdom. 
 
 After him came Grattan — the orator of epigram 
 and antithesis. His eloquence was formed under 
 the ascendancy of false taste. We admire the 
 poignancy of his satire, the vehemence of his de- 
 nunciations, the intrepidity of his demeanor, and 
 the felicity of his language — but we soon become 
 fatigued with his elaborate attempts, his involved 
 sentences, and his quaint ideas We turn aside 
 irom his condiments, and require substantial food 
 for the mind. In attempting to condense like 
 Tacitus, he has fallen into the conceits of Seneca. 
 
 Next came Curran, a man of lofty intellect, 
 but laboring still under the same fatal ascendaij- 
 
136 IRISH ORATOKSo 
 
 cy. He attempted to soar into the ertipyreal 
 heights of oratory, but how often does he mistake 
 bombast for sublimity — quaintness for energy — 
 and the erratic flights of an undisciplined imagi- 
 nation, for the most elevated effusions of the hu» 
 man mind. 
 
 Last comes Phillips — -Phillips the Orator as he 
 is called. O how I blush for my country — that 
 such a brainless biped should be followed with 
 acclamations, and covered with honors — Phillips, 
 the prince of Dandy orators — whose " gaud3'j 
 gauzy, gossamery eloquence," full of glitter, bom- 
 bast, froth, and fustian, is nauseating to good 
 taste, and a disgusting exhibition of flowery non- 
 sense. He is in eloquence what Hervey was in 
 line writing — continually on stilts — continually 
 straining after figures — pursuing conceits — and 
 clothing puerile ideas in an embroidered phrase- 
 ology. His oratory is without essence or sub- 
 stance; it either sinks into dregs, orrises into 
 ]ees. He is, among real orators, what a peacock 
 is among birds — a beau among men. I do not 
 however, mean to deny him a fertile imagination, 
 but it evaporates in frothy verbiage, and he comes 
 directly within the censure of Quinctilian — " Sunt, 
 qui neglecto rerum pondere et viribus sententia- 
 rum, si vel inania verba in hos modos deprava- 
 runt, summos se judicaot artifices,; ideoque non 
 
LITERARY. 1 37 
 
 desumunt eas nectere : quas sine seiitentia sectare, 
 tam est ridicuium quam quserere habilum gestum- 
 
 que sine corpore. Ubi vero, atroci- 
 
 tate, invidia, miseratione pugnandum est ; quis 
 ferat verbis contrapositis et consimilibus, et pari- 
 ter cadentibus, irascentem, flentem, rogantemr" 
 
 If my national partialities are neither flattered 
 Hor increased by this rapid review, they certainly 
 have great scope for exultation, when T turn my 
 eyes to my countryman Thomas Addis Emmet, 
 who now ranks among the first advocates of the 
 American Bar, and if in Ireland, would distance 
 all competition. I have heard him, and heard 
 him with perfect astonishment. He has an all- 
 grasping mind, which can penetrate the most ab- 
 struse, irradiate the most obscure, and compre- 
 hend the most intricate and perplexed subjects. 
 For compass of thought, for solidity of reasoning, 
 for acuteness of investigation, for felicity of illus- 
 tration, for energy of expression — he is without a 
 rival. In private life, he is one of the most amia- 
 ble and unobtrusive of men— " In wit a man — sim- 
 plicity a child." 
 
 There is a great excitement in this country 
 against the British Reviews for their strictures ^n 
 the state of American learning, and yet the. e vitu- 
 perative Reviews are to be found in every reading 
 house in this country. Jeflery is looked up to- 
 
138 LITEPvART. 
 
 with idoiati}', and the Quarterly Review is quo- 
 ted as an oracle. Blackwoood's Magazine is in 
 high request — -the novels attributed to Walter 
 Scott, renowned for a barbarous dialect, and a 
 dull monotony, are notwithstanding classed with 
 the productions of Fielding and Richardson, and 
 all the modern poets, including byron, Scott, 
 Moore, Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, (rabbe, 
 &c. are printed and reprinted, lauded and admi- 
 red from Maine to Missouri. 
 
 If America will not stand on its own legs, and 
 rely on its own exertions, what can it expect but 
 supercilious arrogance and contumelious assump- 
 tion ? Is there any thing so wonderful and so ter- 
 rific in Scotch criticism — in the pen or the sneers 
 of liide Jeffer}' — or of Southey, or of Scotch bar- 
 risters who set up for Quinctilians, or of English 
 poetasters, who claim the highest honors of ge- 
 nius f 
 
 There is an American writer named Irving — 
 an amiable man, of a fine pellucid mind, and who 
 has distinguished himself by some amusing peri- 
 odical works. He is greatly superior to any wri- 
 ter in Blackwood's Magazine, and yet the suffrage 
 of that Magazine in his favor, is quoted as the 
 highest reward which can be conferred upon him. 
 
 Why the American people will not bestow more 
 encouragement on a vernacular literature, instead 
 
LITERARY TASTE. 139 
 
 of running after exotic gew-gaws, I cannot divine. 
 The North American Review is now conducted 
 with more talent than either the Quarterly or 
 Edinburgh. Dr. Silliman's periodical work on 
 Natural Science is superior to any thing of the 
 kind published in Europe; and there are men of 
 genius and of learning in every section of the 
 country, who with adequate encouragement would 
 redeem the American character from the obloquy 
 of transatlantic insolence. 
 
 LETTER XXXTII. 
 
 JVestern Region, August, 1820, 
 My Dear Sir. 
 
 The beauties of an American sky are frequent- 
 ly unparalleled, and there is a peculiar lustre in 
 the appearance of the morning star, which I have 
 never seen equalled in my native land. This pla- 
 net, OH account of its propinquity to the earth, is 
 only exceeded in apparent size by the moon, and 
 on this account, and its superior effulgence, it has 
 very naturally been a subject of poetical descrip- 
 tion. It may relieve the monotony of my former 
 communications to refer to some passages in the 
 most distinguished poets on this subject. 
 
140 LITERARY TASTE. 
 
 Homer in his fifth Iliad, in representing Di«- 
 mede under the influence of Pallas, says, 
 
 Fires on his helmet, and his shield around 
 She kindled bright and steady as the star 
 Autumnal, which in ocean newly bath'd 
 Assumes fresh beauty. 
 
 The same allusion also occurs in Horace — - 
 
 Merses profundo, pulchrior eve nit. 
 
 Virgil in his 8th Eneid, says — 
 
 Qualis ubi oceani perfu us Lucifer unda, 
 Quern Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ig-nes. 
 Extulit OS sacrum caelo tenebrasque resoivit. 
 
 Lastly comes Milton, who thus exclaims in his 
 Lycidas : — 
 
 So sinks the day star in the ocean bed, 
 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 
 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. 
 
 If these extracts shall be considered as fair spe- 
 cimens by which to compare poetic merit, in what 
 an illustrious light does Milton appear ? 
 
 A poet as well as an orator, in order to be truly 
 great, ought to have a fertile imagination, under 
 the dominion of good taste. Those faults which 
 result from undisciplined genius, are however 
 more tolerable thao those which spring from steri- 
 
LITERARY TASTE. 141 
 
 Yity of mind. In one of my solitary walks, I stop- 
 ped at a farm house for refreshment, and I acci- 
 dentally found an old newspaper which contained 
 an address, from a cidevant governor to a great 
 military commander, on the presentation of a 
 sword. The writer has evidently put his mind 
 into a state of violent exertion, and in striving to 
 be sublime and magnificent, has shown a total in- 
 capacity in thought as well as language. In 
 speaking of a nocturnal battle near the cataract 
 of Niagara, he says that it produced a midiirqht 
 rainbow, whose refulgence outshone the iris of 
 the dav. 
 
 This master-piece of the great orator and st-^tes- 
 man who wrote it, can only be excelled by th^ 
 poet quoted by Dryden, when he says — = 
 
 Now when the winter's keener breath began 
 To chrystalize the Baltic ocean, 
 To glaze the Lakes, to bridle up the floods. 
 And pv^riwig with snow the bald pate woods. 
 
 Or perhaps it is exceeded by the following eu- 
 logium of a country school-master on Genera! 
 Wolfe. 
 
 Great General Wolfe without any fears, 
 Led on his brave grenadiers, 
 And what is most miraculous and particular, 
 He clirab'd up rocks that were perpendicular. 
 
i42 LITERARY TASTE. 
 
 And yet would yon believe that the man who 
 pronounced that farrago of bombastic nonsense, 
 has been a governor, a vice-president, and God 
 knows what ; and that he is passed off as a para- 
 gon of wisdom, and an exemplar of greatness. 
 With intellect not more than suiiicient to preside 
 over the shop-board of a tailor, or to conduct the 
 destinies of a village school, he has by the force 
 of fortuitous circumstances attained to ephemeral 
 consequence. D'Alembert has justly observed 
 that " the apices of the loftiest pyramids in church 
 and state are only attained by eagles or reptiles." 
 The history of democracies continually exhibits 
 the rise of pernicious demagogues warring against 
 wisdom and virtue, philosophy and patriotism — 
 but vAiy do I confine this remark to any particu- 
 lar form of government ? The spirit of the obser- 
 vation will apply to human nature in all its forms 
 and varieties. Even in the Augustan age of 
 Great B/itain, Elkanah Settle was set up as the 
 rival of Dryden — and Stephen Duck was pin in 
 competition with Pope. This levelling princi- 
 ple gratifies two unworthy feelings ; it endeavors 
 to mortify the truly great by its flagrant injustice 
 and it strives to lower them down to our own de- 
 pression of insignificance. Posterity, however,^ 
 will dispense justice with unerring hand, and with 
 impartial distribution, and the great men who are 
 
GEOLOGY. 143 
 
 almost always assailed by calumny, and who arc 
 sometimes borne down by ingratitude, may in con- 
 sidering the benefits which they have rendered to 
 the human race, confidently appeal to heaven for 
 their reward, and to posterity for their justifica- 
 tion. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Western RegiGn^ August, 1820. 
 My Deah Sir, 
 
 Although my luggage is small, yet I never 
 travel without a blow-pipe, and some tests and re- 
 agents. If in want of any of the usual acids to 
 detect the presence of lime, I substitute strong 
 vinegar, which will generally produce an efferves- 
 cence, when poured on a calcareous substance. 
 If I am desirous of ascertaining the existence of 
 an alkali, or an acid, I stain paper with the petals 
 of a blue flower, and dip it in the water which is 
 to be tried, and if it turn green, it indicates an al- 
 kaline impregnation, and if red an acid one. If 
 silver becomes black when thrown into water, it 
 denotes that sulphur is held in solution, and the 
 presence of iron is demonstrated, if the inner bark 
 of oak give water a dark appearance. With 
 
144 GEOLOGY. 
 
 these occasional substitutes I ain enabled to sur- 
 mount to a certain extent, the want of a chemical 
 apparatus, when I travel at a considerable dis- 
 tance from my lodgings. With my slender ma- 
 terials for investigation, 1 have, however, been 
 been enabled to ascertain the great geological 
 outlines of this region. The country about eight 
 miles south of the Cayuga Bridge, and both east 
 and west, is composed of argillaceous schist, or 
 clay slate. To the north, the great lime stone 
 ledge commences, which dips to the south, and 
 which forms the dam of the Cayuga and the other 
 minor lakes, and which upholds Lake Erie. This 
 great calcareous ledge is interspersed with all the 
 species and varieties of that substance, and with 
 salt, sulphur, carburetted hydrogen, and bituminous 
 springs — with gypsum, hydraulic lime stone, 
 magnesian lime stone, fetid carbonate of lime, 
 blue lime, shell lime, silicious lime, with nodules 
 of flint, &:c. in stratified and scattered portions. 
 And the substratum of the calcareous and schis- 
 tous formations, is, as far as I can trace it, a com-^ 
 pact sand stone, generally of a red color. 
 
 I found the upper and middle stratum of the 
 great cataract of Niagara to consist of fetid car- 
 bonate of lime, commonly called stink stone, o^ 
 swine stone ; and the inferior stratum of a com- 
 pact, stratified red sand stone, which strikes fir^ 
 
GEOLOGY. 145 
 
 with steel, scratches glass, and which, when moist- 
 ened and rubbed, emits a smell of sulphuretted 
 hydrogen gas. It is also infusible before the blow 
 pipe, and does not effervesce with acids. The 
 super strata, consisting of swine stone, are more 
 strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen 
 gas, and contain small quantities of martial py- 
 rites, alumine and silica. This stone exists in 
 various parts of this region, and is an indication 
 of coal, so far forth as bitumen is concerned in its 
 composition. 
 
 The great coal beds of Ireland repose on lime 
 stone, which is also intermingled with the coal 
 mines of the region further west of this state ; and 
 I have been told that at a place near Zanesville, 
 in the state of Ohio, a cellar was dug and walled, 
 which furnished for its construction, sand stone 
 for the wall, lime stone and sand for mortar, and 
 a suiFiciency of coal for calcinating the lime. 
 Clay slate generally forms the roof of coal mines, 
 and sand stone the floor. These different 
 formations sometimes intermix with, and some- 
 times underlay each other in this region, and they 
 all point with an unerring hand to the existence 
 of this all important substance of coal. 
 
 The black shale which contains bitumen — the 
 oil stones — the petroleum springs — all concur in 
 corroborating this conclusion. Below the cele* 
 
146 , GEOLOGY. 
 
 brated petroleum wells, in the Burmha domliijoris, 
 coal has been discovered. Indeed, it is supposed 
 that the oil from these springs possesses all the 
 properties of coal tar, and that nature elaborates 
 for the Burmhas in the bowels of the earth that 
 for which European nations are indebted to the 
 ingenuity of Lord Dundonald. A considerable 
 spring of petroleum exists at Colebrook Dale, in 
 England. At some distance below, coal is found 
 of an excellent quality. Cleveland, in his cele- 
 brated work on Mineralogy, supposes that naptha 
 and petroleum may very probably arise from the 
 decomposition of coal, effected by subterraneous 
 fires, either volcanic, or produced by the combus- 
 tion of coal, or the decomposition of pyrites. 
 
 I have perhaps fatigued you with my lucubra- 
 tions on coal. When I consider the importance 
 of this mineral — its auspicious influence on the 
 production of the great fabrics of art, and on the 
 comfort and support of the human race ; and 
 when I am convinced that nothing but observa- 
 tion and exertion are necessary to effect the dis- 
 covery of this precious mineral, I cannot think my 
 time misspent in drawing your attention to it. 
 The state ought to offer a magnificent reward for 
 the discovery. 
 
WHEAT, 
 
 147 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Western Region, August, 1820. 
 IVIy Dear Sir, 
 
 I FIND that my letters have unexpectedly at- 
 tracted so much attention, that I consider it ex- 
 pedient not only to change the place of my resi- 
 dence, but to coaceal it under some general de- 
 nomination. In passing along the main street of 
 Canandaigua I overheard some boys say — there 
 goes Hihernicus, and 1 assure you that my diffi- 
 dence took the alarm, and I soon resumed my er- 
 ratic life. 1 am now one of the nomades, without 
 any fixed habitation, wandering from place to 
 place, and collecting new ideas and feelings 
 wherever they are to be found. 
 
 In the district of country called Rome, a spe- 
 cies of wheat, or triticum, was shown to me as in- 
 digenous. The novelty of the idea pleased me 
 so much, that I pursued the discovery through all 
 its labyrinths and ramifications. 
 
 Some years ago, it was discovered in a wet soil 
 and in a beaver meadow, near Western, and also 
 in a swamp covered with woods, near Rome. Its 
 stalk is more compact, and its leaves larger, than 
 that of the common wheat. Its height is also 
 
14S WHEAT. 
 
 greater, and except Iiaviug short beards at tlie 
 apex, it is in otiier respects bald. It is said to re- 
 sist the power of frost, and to be proof against 
 winter killing. 
 
 Ts this wheat indigenous, or was it imported 
 and accidentally conve} ed to the places where it 
 is found f 
 
 If the latter, wh}' is not wheat found growing 
 wild in more cultivated parts of the country : I 
 am persuaded that it is an indigenous plant ; and 
 if so, it may be considered one of the greatest dis- 
 coveries of the age. Tt is the vegetable destined 
 by nature for this climate, and it casts light upon 
 the natural history of the most important of the 
 cerealia which has hitherto been enveloped in ob- 
 scurity. 
 
 Wheat grows in the old world from Egypt to 
 Siberia, upwards of 30 dejsrrees of latitude. Pen- 
 nant says that wheat will ripen as high as latitude 
 6i north, but so uncertain is the crop throughout 
 Sweden, that it is called the seed of repentance. 
 A species of wheat which is called Siberian, and 
 which has been found growing wild in that coun- 
 try, ripens in a latitude still more north than that 
 laid down bv Pennant. Kaimes observes, that — 
 " Writers upon Natural History have been solici- 
 tous to discover the original climate of wheat, rice, 
 barW, kc. (which must, from the creation, have 
 
WHEAT. 149 
 
 grown spontaneously) but without much success. 
 The orighia) climate of plants left to nature can- 
 not be a secret, but in countries well peopled, the 
 plants mentioned are not left to nature — the seeds 
 are carefully gathered and stored up for food. 
 As this practice could not fail to make these seeds 
 rare, agricukure was early thought of, vvliich by 
 introducing plants into new soils and new cli- 
 mates, has rendered the original climate obscure. 
 If we can trace that climate it must he in regions 
 destitute of inhabitants, or but thinly peopled, 
 Anson found in the island Juan Fernandez many 
 spots of ground covered with oats. While the 
 French possessed Fort Dauphin, in the island of 
 Madagascar, they raised excellent wheat. That 
 station was deserted many years ago, and wheat 
 to this day grows naturally among the grass in 
 great vigor. In the country about Mount Tabor, 
 in Palestine, barley and oats grow spontaneously. 
 In the kingdom of Siam, there are many spots 
 where rice grows year after year without any cul- 
 ture. Diodorus Siculus is our authority for say- 
 ing, that in the territory of Leontinum and in 
 other places of Sicily, wheat grew wild without 
 any culture. And it does so at present about 
 Mount Etna." Diodorus Siculus also says that 
 Isis was the discoverer of wheat and barley, and 
 
 that Osiris taught the manner of cultivation^ 
 
 H 
 
150 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 And accordiDg to Berosus, Mesopotamia aboun- 
 ded with wild wheat amongst the other indigenous 
 phints. 
 
 Abulias says of Osiris — 
 
 T=' 
 
 rrimus aiatra nianu solerti fecit Osiris 
 El teneram ferro sollititavit huinum. 
 
 And Ovid thus speaks of Ceres : 
 
 Prima Ceres unco terram diniovit aratro 
 Prima dedit leges. 
 
 Why should not wheat grow spontaneously in 
 New-York as well as in Sicily, Egypt, Mesopota- 
 mia, or Siberia ? And the evidence of the tact is 
 as complete in this particular as the nature of the 
 case will admit. The plant was found in a wild 
 State in places remote from thick settlement, which 
 had never been cultivated, and it possesses pe- 
 culiar characteristics, and distinctive qualities. 
 Besides rye is found in a wild state, and it was 
 frequently seen growing spontaneously before the 
 settlement of the country. Lt. Governor Mercer, 
 of Virginia, thus writes of this plant, along time 
 before the revolutionarj' war : — " The wild rye 
 which grows every where in the Ohio country, is 
 u species of the rye which is cultivated by the Eu- 
 ropeans. It has the same bearded ear, and pro- 
 duces a farinaceous grain. The ear and grain ia 
 
COAL. 151 
 
 the wild state of this plant are less, and the beard 
 of the ear is longer, than those of the cultivated 
 rye, which makes this wild plant resemble more 
 the rye grass in its appearance ; but it differs in 
 no other respect from the rye, and it shoots its 
 spontaneous vegetation about the middle of No- 
 vember, as the cultivated rye doth," 
 
 As the indigenous existence of rye in this coun- 
 try is established beyond question, there can be 
 no good reason to doubt the growth of wheat. 
 This curious fact in Natural History, ought to be 
 fully investigated and illustrated. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Western Region, August, 1820. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 When I consider that without coal there can be 
 no stable manufactures — that without manufac- 
 tures there can be no flourishing internal trade — 
 and that without infernal trade, there can be no 
 elevation of national prosperity — I trust, nay, 1 
 am sure that you will excuse me for drawing 
 your attention once more to this important sub- 
 jects 
 
152 COAL. 
 
 The rocks of the west are sand stone^ 
 
 slate, 
 
 lime, 
 
 gypsum, and 
 
 salt, 
 and they are all the companions of coal. But i 
 shall waive theoretical considerations, and shall 
 now point out such places where I am persuaded 
 eoal may be found. 
 
 The ravines or glens of the country formed by 
 streams are the best places for geological observa- 
 tions, and for viewing the indications of coal, and 
 other minerals. The country from Ithaca north 
 is a region of argillaceous schist. Near the for- 
 mer place there is a beautiful cascade tumbling 
 down the eastern hills 60 feet high through a 
 Cimmerian glen over clay slate, which alternates 
 witli a thin stratum of lime stone that reposes on 
 a similar schist. There is a profound gulf at this 
 cascade, and the tout ensemble points to the exis- 
 tence of coal. This place would be a good 
 venue for a romance. 
 
 At Ludlowville, 10 miles from Ithaca, the banks 
 of Salmon Creek are 200 feet high, and very pre- 
 cipitous. The rocks are principally clay slate, 
 and there are strata of blue lime stone half way 
 lip. 
 
Further north, the whole of the town of Sclpio 
 is underlaid witli clay slate, which is invariably 
 found in digging for wells at the depth of 15 or 
 20 feet. This substance forms the roof of coal 
 mines. 
 
 The formation of the Onondaga country is 
 very singular. High hills— profound vallies like 
 (he arms of lakes. Onondaga Hollow is a beau- 
 tiful valley surrounded by elevated hills which af- 
 ford a most picturesque view. At the foot of these 
 hills, and in the glens created by the streams pas- 
 sing into the valley, search may be successfully 
 made for coal, and it may sometimes appear in 
 
 out-bursts. 
 
 There is a blackish shale at Jamesville, west of 
 Manlius square, and on the hills east of the latter 
 place, and between it and Chitteningo there are 
 strong indices of coal, and particularly on a hill 
 between Cazenovia and Manlius, where there is 
 much shivery slate. 
 
 The whole of this interesting region is full of 
 gypsum, and wherever there is gypsum, there are 
 salt and coal. In Manlius, gypsum is always 
 found at least at the depth of 15 feet. In digging 
 a well 72 feet, gypsum was discovered 15 feet 
 from the surface, 46 feet in thickness. 
 
 The shores of lakes and the fails of streams, 
 frequently exhibit the evidences of coal brougl t 
 
^54 COAL. 
 
 and collected by the agency of water. I ha\e 
 seen on the bank of the Owasco and Otisco lakes, 
 black shale, which is found rounded and abraded 
 by the waves. 
 
 At Little Fall Creek, a mile south of the village 
 of Geneseo, there is a vertical section of 115 feet 
 through rocks. The super stratum is slate, repo- 
 sing on limestone, which is again supported by 
 schist. Here are evident symptoms of coal, and 
 here it may be certainly obtained. 
 
 The black mould on the Genesee river is deri- 
 ved in all probability from the trituration, or de- 
 composition of slate, impregnated by bitumen, al- 
 though some give it a vegetable origin. 
 
 At Allen's Creek, in Le Roy, there is a vertical 
 section. The upper stratum is clay slate, which 
 the water has \^orn away to t'le lime stone, and 
 which reposes on bituminous slate that smells ex- 
 actly like Seneca Oil. The same slate ib found 
 at Batavia in detached pieces, brought by the 
 Tonawanta Creek from a distance. The country 
 -west of the Genesee river is composed of three 
 terraces, like the Steppes of Tartary, which in- 
 dine gently to the north. At the feet of these ter- 
 races, search ought to be made. 
 
 I think, my dear sir, that [ have indicated a 
 suficlent num.ber of places, v» here 
 
 .= •'• Sable coal hh massv couch e-steads.'' 
 
NATURAL HISTORY. 1 55 
 
 When the usual indices of this mineral appear, 
 the augur ought to be applied ; and I earnestly 
 recommend voluntary associations of opulent and 
 observing men, for the discovery of coal. A 
 fruitful mine within 30 miles of the Great Cana 
 will be the nucleus of immense wealth. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 Western Region, August, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The Systema Naturae of Linnaeus has been 
 eloquently described as " the Bible of Nature, the 
 great nomenclature of natural science ; where 
 every generic character is a family portraiture, 
 and every specific description a miniature; and 
 where, by a few simple appropriate terms, the 
 image of every distinct object on the globe we in- 
 habit is reflected on the mind and the memory;" 
 and Dr. Johnson has jnstly observed that *' the 
 stream of time, which is continually washing 
 away the dissoluble fabrics of other systems, pas- 
 ses without injury by the adamant of Linne." 
 The object of Linnaeus was to simplify natural 
 science by systematic arrangement, methodical 
 classification, and comprehensive description. 
 His classes, orders, genera, species, arid varieties. 
 
156 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 were admirabl}' adapted for this purpose. The 
 two tirst are arbitrary, and the three last founded 
 on nature. This system, when it came out of the 
 hands of its great architect was recommended by 
 its simplicity, and by its tendency to facilitate 
 the acquisition of knowledge. In the progress of 
 lime it has become corrupted by the interpola- 
 tions and sophistications of inferior workmen? 
 who have destroyed its beaut}', deranged its sym- 
 metry, and undermined its strength. The multi- 
 plication of terms, the augmentation of synony- 
 mes, the creation of new genera, and the fabrica- 
 tion of new species, have overloaded the science 
 with an Egyptian burden of terminology. Phi- 
 losophy has been transferred from things to words, 
 and the inventor of a new term, or of a specific 
 or generic difference where none exists, has been 
 absurdly considered as entitled to the honors of 
 an important discovery. A new race of natural- 
 ists have started up, who confine their attention 
 solely to verbal description, and who entirely 
 overlook the habitudes and manners of animals^ 
 and the uses and characters of other organic 
 beings, and of inorganic matter. The splitting 
 jip of genera, and the subdivision of species occu- 
 py their exclusive attention; and if they can find 
 a new name for an old thing, or feign imaginar}^ 
 difTerenceSj then they fancy themselves great phi- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY. 15T 
 
 iosophers, and figure away as men of original ge- 
 nius. This preposterous conversion of varieties 
 into species, and of species into genera, has pro- 
 duced infinite injury to the progress of real know- 
 ledge, and has barricaded the approach to the 
 temple of science by a fortification of hard words. 
 Sciolists of this description hold the same rank 
 in natural science, that special pleaders do in law, 
 and scholastics in philosophy. I have discovered 
 a new genus in botany, exclaims one of these pre- 
 tenders. What, a new plant ! no, but that a 
 plant well known and often described as of the 
 some generic character, can be distinguished, in 
 its different appearances, by certain discrepan- 
 ces, which authorise a new discrimination of no- 
 menclature. The truth is, that all these great 
 discoveries are nominal, not real ; and are found- 
 ed on fortuitous, not natural circumstances. I 
 have seen, a white deer — a white moose — and a. 
 white squirrel. Would it not be entirely ridicu- 
 lous to arrange these accidental varieties into 
 new species ^ The natural color of the jackal! 
 is yellow : — Suppose that the prairie wolf resem- 
 bles that animal in all other respects, would we 
 hesitate to pronounce it a jackal! ? Look at the 
 mineralogical synonymes of Allan, and you will 
 see the infinite difficulties which a student of 
 
 mineralogy has to encounter. Let us take a 
 
 H 2 
 
^^S NATtTRAL HISTORY- 
 
 word well known to every one, gypsuiii, for 
 instance, and besides its appropriate name, sul- 
 phate of lline, it is called vitriol of lime, calcareous 
 vitriol, selenite, plaster of Paris, vitrum musco- 
 vitum, celestine, he. And the vegetable alkali, 
 known by the common appellation of potash, is 
 termed carbonate of potash, alkahest, nitre fixed 
 by itself, fixed salt of tartar, vegetable fixed alkali, 
 aerated vegetable fixed alkali, cretacious tartar, 
 mephitic tartar, mephite of potash, &:c. Who is 
 not frightened when he approaches a science sur- 
 charged with such multitudinous and barbarous 
 terms ? Botany is equally, if not more perplex- 
 ing. Besides the Linnaean system of vegetables^ 
 we are confounded by the natural orders of Jus- 
 sieu. In zoology, there are man}^ systems besides 
 that of Linnreus, and the nomenclature is intricate, 
 perplexed, and various. With all these disad- 
 vantages, there is, however, no knowledge more 
 captivating, more useful, and more dignified thau 
 the science of nature. 
 
 In my tour through the countr}^, 1 have seen 
 many organic beings, which have either been 
 imperfectly described, or not described at ail- 
 particularly in the department of ichthyology j 
 and I shall probably draw your attention to some 
 objects of this nature, of considerable interest. 
 In making this attempt, I shall endeavor to unite 
 
CANAL. 
 
 159 
 
 an accurate description of the form of tlie animal, 
 with some account of its mores and properties — 
 and I shall keep out of view as much as possible 
 a technology which frequently bewilders, and a 
 minuteness which always disgusts 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Utica, August, 1 820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Mr. Robert Fulton, the inventor of steam 
 boats, and the greatest mechanician of the age, 
 estimated, from the licences granted at the cus- 
 tom house, that 400,000 tons of commodities are 
 annually transported on the waters of the Hudson ; 
 and from a comparison between the country 
 trading on that river, with the territory embraced 
 by the western canal, he supposed that one million 
 ot tons would be conveyed every year on the lat- 
 ter. A toll of 50 cents a barrel, or 25 cents a 
 hundred, on commodities, would amount on a 
 ton from Buffalo to Albany to five dollars, and 
 would thus produce the enormous income of five 
 millions of dollars annually. 
 
 The only doors of escape from this conclusion^ 
 must be one or the other of these positions i-**- 
 
160 CANAL. 
 
 Either that the toll would be too high, or th&i 
 the tonnage is over estimated. 
 
 That this toll would not be oppressive, must 
 be evident from the following considerations : 
 
 1. The expense of transporting a ton of goods 
 from Albany to Buffalo, by land, is $100. 
 
 2. Thetoll lately paid for passing a tonof goods 
 through the locks of the Western Inland Lock Na- 
 vigation Company was five dollars and twenty-five 
 cents, besides a considerable duty upon the vessel; 
 and this only for a distance of 10 miles. 
 
 3. Mr. Fulton estimated the expense of trans- 
 portation on a canal, one cent a ton per mile, ex- 
 clusive of tolls — the expense of conveying a ton 
 from Buffalo to Albany will amount to |8 53, but 
 if we average it at two cents a mile, it would only 
 exceed by three cents twelve dollars, a very 
 inconsiderable expense, when compared with 
 the cost of other modes of transportation. 
 
 That upwards of 400,000 tons are annually 
 conveyed on the Hudson river cannot be denied. 
 The region comprehended in this trade, will be 
 jn population and extent to the territory embra- 
 ced in the trade of the western and northern 
 canals, as one is to twenty — but to reduce the 
 ratio to the moderate computation of one to two 
 and an half, and then the million of tons will be 
 made out 
 
CANAL. 161 
 
 The following extract from a KcntucliV paper 
 will throw great light on the sub'cct : 
 
 Louisville, Ky. Aug, 5. 
 
 " Western navigation. — We have enunierated a 
 list of seventy-three steam boats belonging to the 
 western navigation, July 27, iS20. Several 
 others are on the stocks above the falls of the 
 Ohio, and two in New-Orleans. There are also 
 several team boats in operation. 
 
 The list of vessels will afford our distant sub- 
 scribers a pretty correct idea of the extent and 
 importance of the steam boat navigation of the 
 western country, which must continue to increase 
 with every succeeding year. Estimating the 
 freight actually carried by each boat, at 150 tons 
 on average, and that each will make three voya- 
 ges a 3 ear, the imports to various parts of the 
 western states will be found to amount to 33,300 
 tons, and the export in steam boats w ill exceed 
 that amount, while those that are made in 
 the usual way, (in flat boats or arks) will 
 more than double that amount. Thus our exports 
 may be said to be about 100,000 tons. 
 
 Freights are now from 1 1-2 to 2 cents from 
 New-Orleans to this place. The average price, 
 however, may be stated at 2 cents per pound on 
 articles imported from New-Orleans. The amount 
 paid for freight on imports annyally, is now some- 
 
1 02 CANAL 
 
 tiling like $1,332,000 to steam boats; tlie ex- 
 ports, in the same description of vessels, nia\ he 
 estimated at $666,000; passengers up and down, 
 calculating ten to a vessel, at 100 dollars up and 
 50 down, amount to about 333,000 dollars. 
 Making the annual amount paid for freights in 
 steam boats, about $1,998,000 
 
 For passengers in do. 333,000 
 
 $2,331,000 
 To this sum an addition of $500,000, 
 at least, may be made, on account 
 of a great number of voyages per- 
 formed by vessels employed exclu- 
 sively in the lower country in car- 
 rying sugar, cotton, he. to New- 
 Orleans, &;c. &c. 500,000 
 
 Total, $2,831,000 
 Of the value of our imports and exports, no 
 correct estimate can be formed ; nor are we able 
 to ascertain how many persons are actually era- 
 ployed in the steam boat navigation of the west- 
 
 ern countrv." 
 
 From this statement it is pretty manifest that 
 the exports and imports of the western states by 
 the Mississippi to New-Orleans, do not fall far 
 short of 150,000 tons annually. The western 
 canal will not only intercept a coDsiderabie pcy- 
 
CANAL. i C^ 
 
 tion of this trarle, but will greatly Increase it in 
 the direction oC New-York, for these, among other 
 reasons. 
 
 1. The climate of New-Orleans is hostile to 
 the great products of the west — wheat, flour, and 
 meats, are ruined by it. 
 
 2. The European market is the only one in 
 which any permanent reliance can be repoi^ed for 
 tlje coiiSumption of the staples of the west, and 
 New-York is twenty days' sail nearer to this 
 market than New-Orleans. 
 
 3. The insalubrity of New-Orleans is great, and 
 a healthy will always be preferred to an unhealthy 
 market. 
 
 4. The enormous expense of steam boats, and 
 the delays of ascending navigation, will alwavs 
 make transportation more costl}^, more dilatory, 
 and more exposed to loss and danger by the 
 New-Orleans than by the New-York route. 
 
 5. When the contemplated canal from Lake 
 Erie to the Ohio river is completed, almost all 
 the commerce of the west will follow the track of 
 the Western Canal. 
 
 G. The New-Orleans market furnishes an in- 
 different supply of foreign merchandize. New- 
 York is the great emporium of foreign commerce. 
 Tiiere the country trader can obtain his goods 
 cheap, on better credit, and with a greater ex- 
 panse of selection. 
 
164 CANAL. 
 
 7. The trader always prefers to buy where he 
 seDs. I're F-3«ons are obvious — he saves time 
 
 ll . aduig commodities conveyed from 
 
 New Orleans, aijj lieicending" commorlities con- 
 vey; i down the Mississippi to thai place, am£ nut 
 at the fyvesent time to 150,000 tons annually, it 
 is not anreaisonabie to estinriate those transported 
 on ihe Great Caoj', as soon as it is finished, at 
 500,000 tons. WL -i we consider that the region 
 west of Buffalo w: ♦;btain all its foreif2:n goods 
 through that mediuno, and also a considerable por- 
 tion of its salt; and when we contemplate the 
 abundance and variety of its products, and take 
 into view the opulence, the population, the vast 
 resources and immense consumption of the terri- 
 tory in the line of the canal, we cannot withhold 
 our faith from Mr. Fulton's estimate. 
 
 Our experience on the middle section of the 
 canal this year, cannot afford any fair standard of 
 calculation with respect to the future productive- 
 ness of its revenue. 1 should not be surprised, if 
 the remainder of the season is not uncommonly 
 cold, that 40 or 50,000 tons will be transported 
 On it. Every year will add to its amount, and 
 every advance to the east or to the west, will 
 extend its benefits and increase its usefulness. 
 
VISHES. 
 
 105 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 Western Begion, August. 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The white fish is the most delicious fish which 
 swims in the western waters ; it is found in Lake 
 Ontario, and in all the other lakes to the north 
 and west as far as the fur merchant has extended 
 his researches. 
 
 It appears to partake of the salmo and the clu- 
 pea, and it unites the delicious taste of the shad 
 and the common salmon. Dr. r\Iitchell has very 
 judiciously named it salmo clupea^formis. 
 
 It is of the abdominal order. The first dorsal 
 fin is directly above the ventral, and is twelve 
 rayed. The second is adipose, and is placed 
 above the anal fin some distance from the caudal, 
 which last is furcated. The lateral line is straight, 
 weaving lines cross it longitudinally the whole 
 breadth of the fish until the lower part of the ab- 
 domen ; the belly is carinate ; the back convex, 
 and the head sloping. The mouth is even and 
 wide, with teeth ; colour more silvery than that of 
 a shad ; scales large ; size generally from three 
 to six pounds, and it has been known to weigh 
 ten pounds. 
 
166 
 
 FISHES. 
 
 This fish remanis in the lakes all the year. It 
 spawns in spring and autumn ; is very numerous ; 
 and the surface of the Cayuga Lake is sometimes 
 rippled with it to a great distance. It inhabits the 
 Canandaigua, and probably all the parallel lakes. 
 In the straits of Detroit, and at the falls of St. 
 Mary, it is caught in great numbers, and put up 
 in salt for exportation. 
 
 My description of it may be somewhat inaccu- 
 rate, as I saw it only in salt. It has never been 
 found in the eastern waters, and such is its clupea 
 shape, that it is considered a shad by many of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 A species of clupea, or herring is also found in 
 the lakes, which has been considered a young 
 white fish. Its vulgar name is sisco, and it is a 
 non-descript. 
 
 Its length is near twelve inches, and it is about 
 two and a iialf inches in breadth ; of the abdo- 
 minal order ; first dorsal fin has ten rays, and is 
 over the ventral. The second dorsal fin rayless 
 and adipose over the anal, and near the tail ; tail 
 forked ; scales glittering like silver, and small ; 
 lateral line scarcely visible ; back rising into con- 
 siderable convexity, and sloping to the head ; 
 belly carinate ; no teeth in jaws but in tongue ; 
 weignt generally seven ounces. 
 
FISHES. 167 
 
 I shall name this fish cliipea Bartonia, hi honor 
 of that great naturalist, Dr. Barton, formerly of 
 Philadelphia, and whose death is an irreparable 
 loss to the cause of science. 
 
 Several thousand barrels of this herring are 
 salted for the use of the interior country, at $8 
 per barrel. It has expelled the salt water herring 
 from the market of the west. 
 
 The salmo salar, or common salmon, is found 
 in Lake Ontario, and some of the secondary lakes 
 which communicate with it, but in none of the 
 waters above the Falls of Niagara. It is too well 
 known to need description. 
 
 This fish, it is said, is caught all the year in 
 the lakes ; perhaps some of them remain without 
 ever returning to the ocean. They have never 
 been observed at Ogdensburgh. IMay the\^ not 
 be deterred by the porpoises at Quebec from 
 descending f The received opinion is, that they 
 are naturalized to the lakes, and stay all the year. 
 Trout in ponds run up into streams to spawn. 
 Fishes in lakes ascend the rivers which supply the 
 lakes, for the same purpose, and in like manner 
 they proceed from the ocean. This is probably 
 for a tw o fold object ; for the safety of their young 
 in shallow waters, and for food. The salmon of 
 I^ake Ontario go up the great Salmon river in 
 August, and return in September, In some othpr 
 
108 FISHES. 
 
 places they ascend twice a year and spawn. la 
 Champlain river there is no dam for seven miles, 
 and salmon go in about the middle of April, and 
 are good till the first of June. The Little Sable 
 river has plenty, and also the Great Sable, because 
 there are no mill dams. The Saranac river at 
 Plattsburgh is a rapid stream, and its bottom is 
 sandy and stony. Formerly it contained so ma- 
 ny salmon, that laborers, when about to be hired, 
 would stipulate they should not have It too often ; 
 and the only danger in passing the ford, before 
 the erection of a bridge, proceeded from the dart- 
 ing of the salmon through the water and frighten- 
 ing the horses. A mill dam was erected on it 
 close to the head of the bay, and the salmon endea- 
 vored, for a number of years, to ascend, but fail- 
 ing, they have abandoned the ground. This fish 
 does not ascend the Champlain Lake above 
 Ticonderoga. 
 
 Salmon have been caught in the Oneida Lake, 
 and Lake Champlain, by the hook. Some of 
 the lakes and ponds are filled in July, August and 
 September, with the ova and teguments of aqua- 
 tic insects, which substances go under the name 
 of lake blossom. The ova are hatched on the 
 surface of the water, and the winged insect flut- 
 ters a short time in the air during the process of 
 ejecting the ova, after which it perishes in a shorr 
 
FISHES, 169 
 
 time. During this state of these insects, the sal- 
 mon and other fishes fare luxiirionsJv and disdain 
 the hook. In July the salmon of some of the 
 small lakes are greatly annoyed by aquatic insects 
 which fix on the gills and fins, and eat the latter 
 so that the fish can hardly swim. It is supposed 
 by some, that the}^ go up into the creeks to get 
 rid of this annoyang^. The salmon has small, 
 short teeth, and is undoubtedly carnivorous. When 
 most assailed by vermin, it is the fattest. The 
 greatest weight 48 pounds. 
 
 LETTER XL, 
 
 Western Region, August, 1820, 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The black, or Oswego basse, stands at the 
 liead of the perch family of this country, for deli- 
 cacy of flavour. He is eagerly sought for by 
 Epicurean avidity, and when he is properl}^ pre- 
 pared for the table, he is as much prized by the 
 American gourmand, as the green turtle is by a 
 London alderman. 
 
 This fish is of the perca genus, and thiracie or- 
 der, although the ventral is in strictness not di- 
 rectly under the pectoral fin, yet I place him ir. 
 
170 FISHES. 
 
 ibis order as has been done in several other in- 
 stances of a similar nature. 
 
 He has two dorsal fins ; the first is spinous and 
 formed of eight rays; second over the anal; tail 
 furcated considerable distance from anal fin ; ' 
 head leathery ; skin blackish and tough ; under 
 lip juts out a little beyond the upper; mouth re- 
 markably wide ; belly can»ated ; blackish color 
 in body, tail, head, and fins ; belly lighter on 
 both sides ; teeth in both jaws ; the outer circle 
 of the eye golden colour. 
 
 This fish inhabits almost all the western and 
 northern waters. He is called black on account 
 of his colour ; — Oswego, because he was first par- 
 ticularly noticed at that place ; and basse is a 
 Dutch word corresponding with perch. He is a 
 non-descript, and as I think his good qualities 
 entitle him to a distinguished name, I have thought 
 proper to call him Perca Franklinia, in honor of 
 Dr. Franklin. 
 
 This fish appears the latter end of June, and 
 stays till the cold weather in October and No- 
 vember. He is caught with the hook, and in 
 trolling bites with avidity at a red rag. He 
 is armed with strong teeth, and is predaceous. 
 He is considered very large if he weighs six 
 pounds, but in Lake George he has been known 
 to reach seven and a half pound?. He makes his 
 
FISHES. 171 
 
 bed in shallow water, on the margin of deep wa- 
 ter, by scooping the sand in the shape of a t*:' cle, 
 d*ep at the centre, and sloping gradually fron? the 
 periphery. In the centre the ova are deposited in 
 fine sand, and as you glide over the waters of the 
 Lake, you can see the fish in the circle, incum- 
 bent sometimes over the ova, and at otlier times 
 darting with (ury, and* driving off all strange fish 
 that approach its nest. Tiie power of parental 
 afiection is manifest in this case, and the storge 
 prevails in fish as well as in all other animals, as 
 long as it is necessary to be exercised for the pre- 
 servation of the young. The eggs it is necessary 
 to defend, but the fry can escape into shallow 
 water. This fish spawns in June ; its offspring 
 are numerous. I have caught him with the com- 
 mon angle worm ; when he strikes the hook he 
 vaults up, and if pulled with too much violence, 
 the ligament of the under jaw is broken, and he 
 escapes. When lie springs from the hook, he 
 shakes his head to extricate his mouth ; and he 
 should therelore be drawn up with all possible ex- 
 pedition ; and if unsuccessful in that way, he will 
 run off with such violence, as sometimes to break 
 the strongest hair line. This fish formerly 
 abounded in Lake George, where he exercised 
 dominion without a rival, there being no pike to 
 contest his ascendancy ; but in late years he is 
 
172 FISHES. 
 
 said to diminish in number, and to have retired 
 towards the foot of the lake, and that scarcity is 
 observed in all the other fishes, and is imputed to 
 the erection of so many saw mills, and to the 
 burning of tiie pine forests on the mountains, 
 which it is supposed frightens the fish into deep 
 water. The waters of Lake George are, 1 am 
 told, impregnated with lake blossom in June and 
 July. This is undoubtedly the ova and exuviae 
 of aquatic insects, from which fish derive at cer- 
 tain seasons their principal subsistence. How 
 easy to mistake for this food the Sdw dust which 
 is unquestionably the principal cause of the de- 
 struction of fish, although undoubtedly the in- 
 creased angling has had a teijdency to thin their 
 numbers, or to terrify them from the hook. This 
 fish is excellent for the three first weeks in August, 
 when it retires to the shallow waters, and feeds 
 on grass and snails. He is prepared for the 
 table by frying and boiling. Before frying it is 
 best to skin him ; and when boiled, let him be 
 thrown into hot water, and ten minutes are then 
 sufficient for this operation. 
 
 It appears not only in this case, but in that of 
 many others, that fishes disappear for more than 
 half of the year. To what place do they retire ^ 
 From Lake George there is bo escape into othci* 
 waters. They must go into the deep waters. 
 
RATTLE SNAKES. 173 
 
 And are they there in a state of torpidity ? Pro- 
 bably not all the time. In those deep^ and 
 almost unfathomable recesses, they probably find 
 appropriate food, and when the power of propa- 
 gation is set into operation, they emerge from the 
 great deeps of the lake, to enjoy the genial influ- 
 ence of the sun, and to afibrd food and security 
 for their offspring. 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Western Region, August, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I HAVE had an opportunity of seeing the rattle 
 snake, a serpent peculiar to America, and whose 
 natural history is greatly involved in fable and 
 mystery. Its venomous qualities have been some- 
 what exaggerated, and the antidotes against its 
 poison have been much misrepresented. It has a 
 brown, broad head ; the jaws are furnished with 
 small, sharp teeth ; four fangs in the upper jaw, 
 incurvated, large, and pointed ; at the base of 
 each, a round orifice opening into a cavity, that 
 near the end of the tooth appears again in form 
 of a small channel ; these teeth may be erected 
 or compressed. When in the act of biting, they 
 
 -force out of a gland near their roots, the fata) 
 
 I 
 
174 ^ BATTLE SNAKES. 
 
 juice ; this is received into the round orifice 6f 
 the teeth, conveyed through the tube into the 
 channel, and thence with unerring direction into 
 the w^ound. 
 
 Appended to the tail is a crepitaculum or rattle, 
 a crustaceous substance composed of joints loose- 
 ly connected 5 each distinct joint, or compartment, 
 denotes a year of the life of the animal, and the 
 number of joints indicates its age, after the third 
 year, but according to some observers, after the 
 second, and in the opinion of others, after the 
 first year. Linna?us has arranged the crotalus 
 genus under four species, and his specific differ- 
 ences consist in the number of plates of the belly 
 and tail. The crotalus horridus, or common rat- 
 tle snake, has, he says, 167 plates on the belly, 
 and 23 belonging to the tail. In the common 
 acceptation of the country, there are but two 
 kinds ; upland, which is large, and a small kind, 
 which inhabits swamps. It was denominated by 
 Nieremberg, an old author, domina serpentum. 
 
 The one I saw was caught near the cataract of 
 Niagara. Charlevoix observed in his tour to the 
 west, a great number in the vicinity of this cele- 
 brated place. They are said to have a den in a 
 forest a few miles off, and there is also another 
 den about 15 miles east of Lewiston, near the 
 Causeway, A small island near Grand Island, ii> 
 
IIATTLE isNAKES* * 175 
 
 the Niagara river, was called Rattle Snake Island, 
 from the number which it formerly contained. 
 Twenty-five were killed on it in one day, and 
 none a^'e now to be found there. 
 
 It is generally believed that they are devoured 
 by hogs with impunity and with avidity ; this is 
 confidently denied ; and again it is said that deer 
 kill them by springing on them with collected 
 feet. It is certain whatever may be the fact in 
 these cases, that they disappear before popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Venomous and dangerous as this animal is, yet 
 a lady of fortune from Carolina carried about 
 one as a pet. In the house where she boarded 113 
 New-York, her fellow lodgers were much alarmed 
 one evening by observing several young rattle 
 snakes about the rooms. It appears that they 
 had escaped through the. holes of the case where 
 the mother was confined, and where she had 
 brought forth her young. 
 
 I believe that all venomous serpents come un- 
 der the description oi ovi viviparous ; that is, that 
 the ova are hatched internally. A rattle snake 
 was recently killed near the western canal, which 
 had thirty eggs in it. This shows that they may 
 have thirty young, although the general impres- 
 sion is, that their offspring cannot exceed twelve 
 at one time. It is believed by many that the 
 
1T6 llATTLE SNAKES. 
 
 young retreat for security into the body of tlie 
 mother, although this is confidently contradic- 
 ted, as well in this case' as in the case of the viper. 
 That both are viviparous is certain. 
 
 Round Lake George, on the mountains, there 
 are said to be at least 100 dens. There is one 
 eight miles down the lake on East Mountain, and 
 there are five others two miles from the head of 
 the lake. There are two great dens within six 
 miles of Ticonderoga — one at Rogers' rock, four 
 miles from the foot of the lake ; and the other 
 about three miles ofl*, on the east side of the lake. 
 These snakes generally select a south eastern or 
 sunny ravine on a mountain, for their hybernacu- 
 la. They descend deep into the cavities of rocks, 
 and look out for a position at the head of springs. 
 The vulgar believe that they will not bite in the 
 spring until they have tasted water, and that they 
 have a king distinguished by a carbuncle, and 
 ** which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears 
 a precious jewel in his head." This serpent fre- 
 quently swims across lakes and rivers. Several 
 persons dug for a den on the side of a mountain 
 near Lake George, and after digging 15 feet they 
 were arrested in their pursuit by a great rock, un- 
 der which there were two holes large enough for 
 a man to enter, from which ascended volumes of 
 noxious exhalations, that were attributed to col- 
 
HATTLE SNAKES. 177 
 
 kctions of snakes coiled together. They are 
 eagerly sought after for their oil and gall, whicli 
 are used in sprains and rheumatisms; and Itrr 
 their flesh, which has been applied in consump- 
 tions ; and they are frequently destroyed by fires 
 j^iade accidentally, or for clearing the woods, and 
 sometimes they bite with great fury at the flames. 
 Owing to these causes their numbers are much dimi- 
 nished, and they are only preserved from extirpation 
 by the fastnesses and deep recesses of the moun- 
 tains. 
 
 During the late war, a detachment of the ^^.me- 
 rican army was encamped two miles north of Ni- 
 agara, at a place calUxi Snake Hill, which was 
 greatly annoyed by rattle snakes. In order to 
 keep them off, the tents were surrounded by 
 boughs of the ash tree, which preventive, hereto- 
 fore considered certain, was found unavailing.* 
 Some were killed on the parade, and one morn- 
 ing a soldier shook two out of his blanket. This 
 country is champaign, and there is no mountain 
 nearer than eight miles. 
 
 Is it irue that rattle snakes are killed every 
 
 * This notion may be traced back to Piiny, who assorts it i^^ 
 his Nadiral History. The Americans have derived it fVoni their 
 Erio'^lish ancestor?, vhu believed in it, and perhaps it is now 
 g-G!v. r.dly accredited ui Engiiiud. It is hardly accessary to say 
 that it is enlirely unfouodetj, 
 
178 RATTLE SNAKES. 
 
 3-ear on York-Island, about eight miles from the 
 city, near the great strata of geneiss ? I am told 
 that some years ago a large one was found in a 
 populous street of that city ; and that it was sup- 
 posed to have been lost by its keeper ; — may it 
 not have emigrated from its den on the island ? 
 
 As soon as the warmth of the season will per- 
 !nit, this serpent evacuates his den, and travels at 
 his leisure about eight or ten miles from it, where 
 be continues until September, when he returns to 
 his winter quarters, most terrifically furious and 
 ferocious. He couples in August, and produce? 
 next June. 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 JVestern Region, Ai^gust^ 1820. 
 ?»Iy Deau Sir, 
 
 When^ the rattle snake intends to bite, he coll^ 
 Isimself up like a cable, and then extending his 
 head, throws his whole body forward with rapidi- 
 ty and fury at the object he intends to strike. 
 Sometimes he makes a kind of singing noise, and 
 when he rattles he does not mean to wound. All 
 snakes are very irritable v/hen in coition, and the 
 erotalus is very dangerous from this period to the 
 fixne of his hybernation^ 
 
RATTLE SNAKES. 479 
 
 I have already meiuloned the failure of an ex- 
 periment relative to the efficacy of white ash 
 ag-ahist the approaches of the rattle snnke. I 
 have been told of a rattle snake that had beeiv 
 kept in a cage eight months without food, and 
 without any apparent diminution of bulk. Al- 
 though furious when enraged, it is alleged, that 
 he would not bite at a white ash stick. And it is 
 asserted, that if you enclose this serpent by a cir- 
 cumvailation of white ash leaves and fire, that he 
 M'ill elect to make his retreat through the flames.* 
 It is said that the juice of the leaves of the ash has 
 been found efficacious against t!ie bite of the colu- 
 ber chersea, tlie asping of the Swedes, which like 
 the prester of Lucan, kills by a horrible swelling 
 of the whole human frame, and w hich inhabits 
 only a particular district of Sweden among the 
 willows. It is certain tliat there are districts of 
 country in which rattle snakes are never seen, 
 while at no great distance they abound. For in- 
 stance, they have never been known to inhabit the 
 town of New-Berlin, in Chenango county, and 
 3'et they have been found about ten miles off, 
 towards the mouth of tlie Unadilla. It is said 
 that they avoid land timbered with beech and ma- 
 ple. Wiiether the cause arises from the timber 
 
 * This superstitious idea was refuted in a note to the last 
 numbej, 
 
iSO RATTLE SNAKES. 
 
 or, the soil which produces it may be a question* 
 White oak land is preferred by them. The small 
 species generally live in open swamps, and their 
 bite is not considered so dangerous. 
 
 Some negroes killed 315 rattle snakes a few 
 springs ago, by smoking them out of a den at the 
 South end of Canandaigua Lake. There are ma- 
 ny about Eighteen-mile creek, in Genesee coun- 
 ty, where they inhabit the open ledges and fissures 
 in the rocks, and there are dens in the mountains 
 on the south side of the Mohawk river, at a place 
 called the Nore, in Montgomery count3^ A great 
 den exists on the east side of Genesee river, near 
 Rochester. In tlie spring they travel west, (as 
 their heads are then found in that direction) ten 
 or twelve miles, and scatter themselves over the 
 low lands ; and for this purpose they swim across 
 the river. In autumn their heads are pointed to 
 the east, as they then return to their den. In Au- 
 gust 1816, a monstrous rattle snake was killed at 
 New-Mills, New-Jersey, svhich had eleven rattles, 
 and was five feet long, and which was the only 
 one seen for several years within many miles of 
 that place : and some years ago, in the vicinity of 
 Lake George, a whole den of rattle snakes migra- 
 ted from one mountain to another. This was in 
 the autumn, and was unquestionably done for a 
 more secure and comfortable residence. 
 
RATTLE SNAKES. 161 
 
 Fancy has assigned to the lordly rattle snake 
 mi attendant, or muiister, like the jackall of the 
 king of the quadrupeds. This is a venomous vi- 
 per, with a flat head, and a body coloured like 
 the rattle snake. It has no crepitaculum, and is 
 called the rattle snake's pilot. 
 
 I have been told, but I have had no opportunity 
 of ascertaining the fact, that the rattle snake dif- 
 fers from all others, for that when skinned, the 
 whole body becomes open to the back bone, and 
 and that no intestines are visible except the heart. 
 
 It appears that the rattle snake is not singular 
 in the selection of his winter quarters. Thunberg 
 speaks of a mountain, or rather a large single 
 rock, in the Cape Colony, in Africa, called Slan- 
 genkof, (serpent's head) on one side of it is a large 
 and deep crevice, which makes this rock remarka- 
 ble, for every autumn the serpents go there and 
 coil together, and come out in summmer. The 
 poison of the serpent has most power over those 
 animals whose blood is the wannest, and the 
 action of whose heart is the most lively ; while 
 on the contrary it is said not to be a poison to 
 the serpent itself, nor to its fellows, nor in gene- 
 ral to cold-blooded animals. I have heard this 
 remark contradicted in relation to the bite of the 
 rattle snake, although I believe it to be true of 
 
 the viper tribe in general. A person saw t\^o 
 
 I 2 
 
1^:2 RATTLE SNAltESt 
 
 eiigaged in battle — at last one bit the otber, 
 which immediately retreated, and died in a few 
 minutes. It was supposed that it went off rapidi/ 
 for an antidote. 
 
 To show the rapidity of tiie bite, and the mor- 
 tality of the venom, the following anecdotes were 
 related to me : A man in pursuance of a common 
 practice of killing snakes, took a rattle snake by 
 the tail from under a log, and snapped off its head 
 like the cracking of a whip ; he was bit in the 
 thumb, without knowing it, during this rapid ope- 
 ration, and died. Another one killed a rattle 
 snake, and cut off the head about five inches long, 
 and ordered a boy to bury it ; not obeying the 
 order fast enough, and being hurried in his work, 
 the man took hold of the head, which turned 
 round and bit him so that he died. 
 
 The same serpent possesses very different de- 
 grees of power in its bite, according to time and 
 circumstances. This is beautifully intimated by 
 Virgil when speaking of a serpent common in 
 Italy in his time. 
 
 " Est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguif> 
 Squammea convolvens sublato pectore terga, 
 Atque, notis longam maculosus grandibus alvum : 
 Qui, dum amnes ulli rumpunlur fontibus, et dum 
 Vere madent udo terrae, ac pluvialibus Austris, 
 Stagna colit ; ripisque habitans, hie piscibus atram 
 Jjnprobus ingluviemj ratiisque loquacibus explet, 
 
KATTLE SNAKES. 183 
 
 Fostquam exhausta palus, terragque aidore deliiscunt, 
 Exsilit in siccum : et flanimantia lumina torquens, 
 Saevit agris, asperque siti, atque xterritus a^stu, 
 ISe niihi turn niolles sub dio carpere somnosj 
 Non dorso nernoris libeat jacuisse per her herbas ; 
 Cum positis novus exuviis nitidusque juveiita 
 Volvitur ; aut catulos tectis, aut ova relinquens, 
 Arduus ad solern, et Unguis mioat ore trisulcis." 
 
 I am told that rattle snakes have been seen on 
 Long-Island, and at Snake HilJ, near Nevvburgh. 
 There is a beautiful island called Diamond Island, 
 containing about an acre of land near the head of 
 Lake George, and it is said that it was formerly 
 so overrun by rat'le snakes, that travellers ship- 
 wrecked there were forced to lodge ene night in 
 the trees, and that the serpents were extirpated by 
 ijogs brought there for the purpose. 
 
 On the south side of a mountain west of this 
 lake, and at the head of it, there is a large den of 
 rattle snakes. At the village there lived a pro- 
 fessional rattle snake catcher, who had taken in 
 one season 1300, and who made a livelihood by 
 selling the oil and the flesh, and by vending living 
 ones for shows. He went out as usual, with a 
 large basket covered with a carpet, and was foi»nd 
 dead after an absence of some days. In carrying 
 the basket, it is supposed that the covering fell 
 off, and that one of his serpents bit him in the 
 side, as he he was much swollen, and there was 
 
184 EAGLE! 
 
 found by him a rattle snake cut up, which it li 
 presumed he had applied to the wound. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 Western Region j August, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Some of the distinguished naturalists who figu- 
 red in the world after the resurrection of letters> 
 adopted an analytical or rather methodical way 
 of discussion, which was admirably calculated to 
 illustrate natural science, and to facilitate instruc- 
 tion. For instance, in treating of birds, they 
 would describe the genus in extenso, and then 
 would give a particular account of each distinct 
 species, under the following heads ; sometime? 
 omitting, and sometimes adding to the specificu- 
 Uons. 
 
 Forma — descriptio. 
 Locus — Natura — mores — ingenium, 
 Nidus — partus — victus. 
 Vox — cantus — volatiis. 
 Capiendi ratio. 
 Usus in cibo. 
 Usus in medicina. 
 Tliese accounts were mingled with great inac- 
 Curacies, aud numerous fables, but yet they 
 
abounded uitli all the fertility of genius, and evin- 
 ced uncommon research and indefatigable indus- 
 try. Our modern naturalists, with some distin- 
 guished exceptions, confine their attention almost 
 exclusively to the forma et descriptio ; and natu- 
 ral science in their hands has become a study of 
 hard words, instead of the study of animal, vege- 
 table, and mineral nature. 
 
 In the ksv illustrations which I have given of 
 the zoology of this country, I have consulted ac- 
 curacy instead of wandering into the flowery fields 
 of fancy. My stock of information must necessa- 
 rily be very limited so far as it depends on my 
 own observation — and my opportunities for deri- 
 ving information from others have not been many. 
 The hints or intimations which I throw out may 
 serve sometimes as clues to more interesting inves- 
 tigations, and a wider field of natural science was 
 never afforded than that which this country fur- 
 nishes. 
 
 In various places I have seen the falco lenco- 
 cephalus, or bald eagle ; the falco ossifragus, or 
 grey eagle; and the falco halieetus, or osprey. 
 In Turtius Linnaeus the osprey is confounded with 
 the grey eagle, but this is an error of the editor, 
 not of the immortal author; and Wilson suppo- 
 ses that the grey eagle is a junior bald eagle, 
 which lias uot arrived to maturity* It is well 
 
186 £a<;le*6 
 
 Ivnown tiiat the osprey is a purveyor for the two 
 other kinds of tiagle — and that they compel tliis 
 skilful bird to surrender the fish which he catches 
 so abundantly. 
 
 The immense quantities of fish which collect 
 below the falls of Niagara, and which inhabit 
 that river and the mouth of Lake Erie, necessa- 
 rily draw together these hirds, and 1 have never 
 seen so many as appear to occupy this region. 
 
 T shot a bald eagle which measured eight feet 
 from the extremity of one wing to that of the 
 other. His talons were so formidable, and his 
 courage so great, that after receiving his mortal 
 wound, he beat off several dogs in a pitched bat- 
 tle ; and I was told of one which was killed near 
 Canandaigua, and which weighed 14 pounds. 
 It had actually killed several sheep. I have seen 
 both kinds near the Catskill mountains, where 
 they erect their aeries on the loftiest trees, and 
 where they soar in " eagle-winged pride.'' And 
 vet T have beheld this imperial bird fly from a 
 tree on which a crow had lit. I have seen him 
 avoid the annoyances of the king-bird» and re- 
 treat before a congregation of ospreys. 
 
 A grey eagle was shown to me which must have 
 been full grown. It was the size of a bald eagle, 
 and had been shot in the wing about twelve 
 months before. Its colour was a darkish brown 
 
SAGLE'S. 18t 
 
 nil over, with the exception of the interior feathers, 
 which were whitish. The cere was also whitish. 
 The bill was of a darkish colour to the cere—-* 
 that of the bald eagle is yellow. 
 
 Three eaglets were found in a bald eagle's nest 
 at Lewiston, and I was informed that soir.e years 
 ago four were caught in an aerie on the highest 
 button-wood tree in the forests of that country^ 
 -r^The nest was as large as a cock of h^y. 
 In making it, the old eagles made use of the limbs 
 of the tree which were broken off as thick as a 
 man's wrist* The aerie had been there twenty 
 years, except during the late war, when it was 
 built on a tree in an open field, the inhabitants 
 having moved off. The tree was cut down for 
 the purpose of getting the young. One of them 
 was carried to the village, and the old ones follow- 
 ed it to the house where it was kept, recognized 
 it, and flew about the place of its confinements 
 One of the other eaglets was carried to the fort^ 
 and it is said to have been larger than the other. 
 Whenever a stranger appeared, they ruffled their 
 heads, and indicated great irritation. They 
 made a mournful noise when annoyed and were 
 very ferocious. One of them had engaged the 
 affections of a dog, which brought him garbage 
 whenever he could obtain it. 
 
188 EAGLES.. 
 
 An intelligent man in whose veraciiy I iiav» 
 confidence, says, that the bald eagle is entirely 
 distinct from the grey — that he cannot be mista- 
 ken in his opinion, for that he has seen the male 
 of each species in connexion with his appropriate 
 female. 
 
 Lawson, in his history of Carolina, says that 
 the bald eagle breeds very often, and lays eggs 
 agVin under the callow young, whose warmth 
 hatches them. The same thing is said of the pi- 
 cas auratus of this country, vulgarly called high 
 hole. These allegations ought to be investigated, 
 as they furnish, if true, a singular anomaly in na- 
 tural history. With respect to the eagle it is pro- 
 bably true, if half of wliat is alleged by one of the 
 early Naturalists is correct. Johnston, in his ela- 
 borate work printed at Amsterdam MDLVIL 
 speaking ' De aquila in genere,' says — " Datur 
 geiius quod propter tres testiculos, Triorchis ap-> 
 pellatur. Coeunt vero frequenter ; et fsemina ter- 
 decies in die compressa, si masrevocet, denuo ac- 
 crriit. Uude .^Egyptiis et Venus dicitur, et soH 
 ^icatur. Commisceniur aliquando cum accipetre, 
 sed ovis inciibare non dignantur; sed et marera 
 cum lupa aliquando coire scriptores African! refe- 
 runt" 
 
 Charlevoix says that his people threw down, 
 iVear Oswego, an eagles' nest which was conipo 
 
DEEK. 
 
 189 
 
 sed of a cart load of wood, and that it contained 
 two eaglets, which were not as yet featlicred — 
 that they were eaten, and niade very good food, 
 I think that Boccacio in his Decameron, serves 
 lip a falcon as a choice disli. 
 
 The Americans have selected the eagle as the 
 symhol of national power. In the ancient my- 
 thology he was the bird of Jove, and in all na- 
 tions he is the sign of strength and majesty. His 
 eye can see to an immeasurable distance, and his 
 flight is as rapid as the voUied lightning. 
 
 LETTER XLIY. 
 
 Western 'Region, August, 1820. 
 -Uy Dear Sir, 
 
 On my way to the west I passed a few days at 
 Albany, and among other public places I visited 
 the Museum of Natural History. Here I saw the 
 largest of the cervus genus called the moose. It 
 was mounted in the museum. Its height above the 
 shoulders 7J feet, and its weight 1000 lbs. in 
 horns had fallen piT before it was killed. Twen- 
 ty-five it is said were killed in the country north 
 of Whitestown last winter, at diiferent times. 
 This one belonged to a herd of five ; The great, 
 depth of the snow facilitated the success of th<; 
 
190 D^ER'. 
 
 hunter. Under the throat there was a wattle 
 pendant from it, and at least nine inches long — 
 being ah excrescence covered with long, coarse, 
 black hair. Upper lip broad, and hanging over 
 the lower — ears long and standing — nose broad 
 — nostrils large — neck shorter than the head — 
 along the tip a short thick mane — body brownish 
 — hoofs large — horns with short beams spreading 
 into large broad palms, tlie inside of which is 
 smooth, and the outside furnished with several 
 sharp snags. The horns have weighed 60 lbs. 
 Although tliis stuffed moose had no horns, yet I 
 have inspected t'*o sets of horns which had fallen 
 from others. 
 
 This animal is called by Linnoeus cervus alces, 
 and he is confounded hy several writers with the 
 elk of America, called hy Dr. Barton cervus, wa- 
 pite. These animals are specifically distinct 
 from the elk and stag of Europe. The American 
 moose has been styled by some naturalists the 
 black moose ; and the American elk, the grey 
 moose, to discriminate them from each other, 
 Tiie moose is confined in his range to the cold 
 regions of the north, while the elk has been seen 
 from Canada to Mexico. 
 
 I am told that two young moose were sold at 
 Utica some 3Tars ago for five hundred dollars. 
 This animal lives entirely by browsing. He trots 
 
BEEP.. 19 i 
 
 twenty miles an hour ; is docile, and can be easily 
 famed ; and is only dangerous, like all olber 
 deer, in the rutting season. Sir John Wentworth, 
 Governor of Nova Scotia, had one in his park, 
 and as his company were assembling at dinner 
 one day, they amused themselves with looking at 
 it, running about in a furious manner, and it 
 finally pushed over a small building from which 
 the house-keeper crept in a state of great confu- 
 Bioa. 
 
 He is more easy to tame than any of the deer 
 hmWy. He has been frequer.tly kept at Churchill, 
 as tame as sheep, and even more so, for he would 
 fref|uently follow his keeper any distance from 
 home, and at his call return with him, without the 
 least trouble, or ever offering to deviate from the 
 path ; and Ilearne relates that tiie same Indian 
 who had brought the above mentioned young 
 moose to Churchill, had, in 1777, two others so 
 tame, that when on his passage to Prince of 
 Walesa's Fort, in a canoe, the moose always fol- 
 lowed him along on the bank of the river, and at 
 night, or on any other occasion when the Indians 
 landed, the young moose generally came and 
 fondled on them, in the same manner as the most 
 domestic animal would have done, and never of- 
 fered to stray from the tents. Unfortunately, in 
 crossing a deep bay in one of the lakes on a fine 
 
192 DEER, 
 
 day, all the Indians that were not interested iii 
 she safe landing of those engaging creatures, pad- 
 dled from point to point, and the man that owned 
 them not caring to go so far about by himself 
 accompanied the others, in hopes that they would 
 follow him round as usual ; but at night the young 
 moose did not arrive, and as the howling of bome 
 wolves was heard in that quarter, it was supposed 
 they had been devoured by them, as they were 
 never afterwards seen, 
 
 I have al.,0 seen several live elks. This animal 
 is called by Catesby, cervus major Americanus 
 - — by Jefferson, alces Americanus, cornibus tereti- 
 bus, or round horned elk — by Clavigero, the alces 
 of New-Mexico — by Barioa, ctrvus wapite — and 
 he is confounded by Pennant with the moose, and 
 described by him as the stag. The n:ule hc^5 t». 
 beard under his throat and upon his breast — (ca- 
 runcula gutturalis) a short mane — tail very short 
 — the female has no horns. The horns are not 
 palmated like those of the moose, but are round- 
 ed, and consist, 1st. of the brow antlers. 2d. the 
 two middle prongjs, sometimes called the fighting 
 horns : and 3d. the horns, properly so called. 
 ^ His horns do not commonly drop till June, bui 
 sometimes as early as April. Under the inteiior 
 angle of each eye, there Js an oblique slit, or 
 anerture. about an inch in lenjT:th, which is said tg 
 
liEER. lOo 
 
 Communicate with the nostrils. By closing the 
 nostrils, it makes a whistling noise, by forcing 
 the air through these openings. This organiza- 
 tion is probably auxiliary to smelling, and this 
 structure which is termed sinus lachrymalis, or 
 sinus sub-ocularis is found in the fallow deer, and 
 in most of the antelope genus. 
 
 The greatest altitude of this animal is not five 
 feet. I saw a male which with two females had 
 cost fifteen hundred dollars ; he had cast his horns 
 about the middle of April, which is earlier than 
 common. Colour dun, except towards the pos- 
 teriors, which is whitish. When the male is 
 angry, he strikes with his feet, and is very dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 This animal differs from the moose, 
 
 1. In conformation of body. 
 
 ^. Shape of horns. 
 
 3. Inferior size and height. 
 
 4. In its adaptation to » southern elime. 
 
 And I trust that they will not be confounded to- 
 gether in future. Let the moose be denominated 
 exclusively cervus Americanus. and the elk cervus 
 ^'apite. 
 
1^4 dEOL^ev. 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Western Region, August^ 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In a late letter 1 attempted to show that the 
 iand was continually gaining on the lakes, by the 
 agency of calcareous depositions, and I think ihat 
 Ipointed out a region of schistic formation, Iwsig 
 south of the great lime stone ledge of the west. 
 That this calcareous formation dips to the soiith, 
 I have no doubt, but whether it underlays the 
 schistic, 1 have not been able to ascertain. This 
 southern depression of the calcareous ledge below 
 the crumbling slate, would necessarily create ba- 
 sins for the springs and rains of the country, and 
 which by wearing away that fragile subsiancq, 
 would in time expand into lakes. This is evident- 
 ly the case with the Cayuga lake, which is con- 
 ■jinually enlarging its borders ; and the fall of old 
 Jedges from the precipices demonstrates that the 
 present order of things has not been of very re- 
 mote antiquity. 
 
 The shores of Lake Erie are sustained by strata 
 ®f schistic which are continually giving way be- 
 fore the violence of the waves, and the whole lake 
 is supposed to be in a state of continual expansion. 
 
GEOLOGir. 1?% 
 
 These slate rocks are in some places fifty feet 
 high, and have been worn away in several places 
 more than eighty rods ; and as this operation has 
 been carried on with a steady progression, there 
 might perhaps be some means discovered of as- 
 ccrtainitjg' the time of the process. It is supposed 
 that a probable datum might be obtained by ex- 
 amining a number of the trees which grow in a 
 thin layer of earth on these rocks, and which have 
 been undermined by the rock falling off. Losing 
 their support and nourishment on that side, they 
 die, while the other side is supported and nourish- 
 ed, and conunues to live and grow. By in- 
 specting a number of trees in this situation, 
 and ascertaining their age by the concentric cir- 
 cles since they lost their support, and comparing 
 that with the extent of the wearing away of the 
 rock since that period, a pretty accurate measure- 
 ment of the time of this operation might be es- 
 tablislied. Of the certainty of this process there 
 is the most unquestionable evidence. Near the 
 Eighteen Mile Creek, about fifteen miles from 
 Buffalo, a thin bed or sheet of lime stone appears 
 in a high perpendicular ledge of slate. It is 
 about a foot in thickness, and lies in its bed, bro- 
 ken as it were by perpendicular fissures into small 
 blocks. It commences with the slate at its sur- 
 face, which surface is nearly horizontal, but takes 
 
^96 GEOLOGY. 
 
 the same course with the plane of its laminte* 
 which dips something less than a degree to the 
 north-west. The edge of this calcareous sheet is 
 Visible for more than half a mile, projecting gene- 
 rally two or three feet out of the schistic ledge to 
 the place of its descent below the surface of the 
 lake ; and there it is seen uncovered for some dis- 
 tance, and extending into the lake more than a 
 quarter of a mile, to the termination of the slate 
 rock, and to the place where the water becomes 
 very deep. When this lime stone lay above the 
 surface of the lake, the action of the water has 
 worn away the subjacent slate, and the calcareous 
 blocks fell off; but as these blocks are much 
 harder than the schistic, they are of course a long- 
 er time in wearing away. They are however 
 found extending from the ledge many rods into 
 the lake, and in a state of gradual diminution, the 
 outer sides being ground down to pebbles. These 
 appearances exist in other places, and warrant 
 the conclusion, that this schistic barrier once ex- 
 tended very far into the lake. 
 
 While the south shore of Lake Erie is surround- 
 ed by schistic, that of Lake Ontario is supported 
 by lime and sand stone, much harder substances. 
 
 These intimations are certainly deserving of 
 a more critical examination, and since I am on 
 the subject of geology, I shall exhibit to you ar. 
 
GEOLOGY. iOT 
 
 \ 
 
 interesting outline, which I know, so far as my 
 observation extends, to be correct, and which a 
 friend of mine derived from an ingenious gentle- 
 man of the west. 
 
 A ridge commences at the Little Falls on the 
 Mohawk river, and from thence takes a south 
 westerly direction, until it passes the south end. 
 of the Seneca Lake ; from thence it turns, and 
 and continues nearly a west course, until it enters 
 that part of the state of Ohio called New Con- 
 necticut. It there diverges to the south west, and 
 s into a level country. It however, main- 
 r.early the same horizontal level, and pas- 
 sing roui-d the south end of Lake Michigan, 
 bends to the north, and continues in a northerly 
 direction between lakes Michigan and Superior on 
 the one side, and the riverMississippi on the other, 
 keeping that course even beyond their waters, 
 and forming the height of land that embosoms 
 the Lake of the Woods, and the other lakes in 
 that region. It may be observed that this ridge 
 divides the waters that fall into the Mohawk, One 
 tario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, on 
 the one side, from those of the Susquebannah, 
 Allegany, and different branches of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi on the other. Near the Little Falls, 
 and until it passes the head of Seneca Lake, on 
 the northerly side it forms in many places a hilly 
 
198 NIAGAHA FALLb". 
 
 or brdken surface. From Seneca Lake until it 
 passes into the state of Ohio, it is for the most 
 part abrupt ou the north side, but on the souther- 
 ly side, from its summit, the country descends 
 with a very gentle and almost imperceptible in- 
 cliaatioQ to the south west. 
 
 LETTER XLVL 
 
 Cataract of J^'iagara, September^ 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 Lewiston is about seven miles from the Falls 
 of Niagara, and in passing from the former to the 
 latter place, I observed on the top of the high hill 
 or slope of Lewiston. the remains of the old way 
 hy which the French drew up their goods which 
 they sent round the cataract. A crane was fixed 
 on the summit of the hill, and an inclined plane 
 down the descent, in which sleighs were placed, 
 and as articles were conveyed up in one vehicle 
 others were let down in another. 
 
 About two miles from Lewiston, the Devil's 
 Hole is to be seen. It is a monstrous chasm, or 
 ravine, close to the road, and 150 feet deep, where 
 the hill is upwards of 300 feet above the level o^ 
 Niagara river. It is formed by a small creek cal- 
 >d BlooC'j Run, precipitating itself into the bank. 
 
 I 
 
MAGAEA FALLS. j^ 
 
 This saoguinary name is derived from this cir- 
 cumnaDce : After the capture of Nia-rara by Sir 
 U. l,am Johnson, in the war of lui commonly 
 called the French war, an escort of thinv En^li^h 
 with waggons, were driven down lhis"precrpice 
 by an ambuscade of French and Indians, and all 
 killed, except one who broke through the enemv 
 and another who was caught by a tree on his de- 
 scent, and althoDgh miserably wounded, was 
 iiving a ky, year, ago to narrate the melancholy 
 event. -^ 
 
 . -0 m.les from this place, is the ^.hirlporA o£ 
 the .^,agara, which exhibits the power of water ia 
 the most astonishing manner. When the lar-.e=t 
 trees of the forest are involved in the vorte^ of 
 tb,s fresh water Maelstrom, such is the fniy of its 
 verug,oous motion, that they are whirled round 
 with inconceivable velocity, and after bein^^ pre- 
 cipitated into the great abyss of water, and lo<t to 
 the eye for a considerable time, thev are either 
 ejected in tragments from their prison, or entirely 
 demolished. 
 
 The celebrated cataract of .Niagara has been 
 dehneated by so many travellers who have vi=i,ed 
 n irom La Houtan, Hennepin, and Charlevoiv 
 down to Weld, Volney, and Schnltz. that I shaU 
 not attempt to add to the number bv a formal de 
 scnption. It has been the subject of paintin. a^ 
 
"ZOO NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 well as of writing, butiieither the pen nor the pencil 
 are adequate to afford a competent idea of it; sub- 
 limity. Tou recognize at a great distance this 
 astonishing place, from the ascent of vapors, and 
 the clouds which are always hanging over it, and 
 you hear the roaring of the waters like the sound 
 of distant thunder. At Fort Schlosser, upwards 
 of two miles above the falls, by water, the river 
 narrows, and rapids commence, of irresistible 
 force, and immense velocity, and extend to the 
 falls. The noise, agitation, and fury of these ra- 
 pids, constitute as great a curiosity as the caiaiact 
 itself. An island called Goat Island, containing 
 iibout eighty acres, runs up to the fails, and di- 
 vides the waters. Here the whole river precipitates 
 itself headlong over a perpendicular ledge of rocks. 
 j62j feet, according to an accurate measurement 
 of the descent. The greater part of the might\ 
 mass passes over on the west side, and viewed 
 from the American bank appears green, in the 
 thickest part of the cataract, whereas the volume 
 of water on the east side, when seen from Table 
 Rock, looks white, which may be owing to its in- 
 ferior densit}'. There are cataracts which exceed 
 this in altitude, but there is none in the world 
 which approaches it in volume of water. Below 
 the cataract there are larse rocks, which have 
 been torn and hurled from their foundations by 
 
^'IAGARA PALLS. 
 
 20i 
 
 the rapids, and some years ago, an immense nias« 
 of the rociiy stratum was precipitated over, and 
 shook the country round like an earthquake. 
 
 Ovid's description of a cataract furnishes but a 
 very imperfect idea of this wonder of nature. 
 
 '' Estnemus .Emoniae. praerupta quod undique claudit 
 Silva : vocant Teinpe. Per quae Peneus ab imo 
 Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis, 
 Dejectuque cravi teiiues agitantia furaos 
 JVubila cooducit, sutumasque aspergine silvas 
 Impliuit ; et sonitu plus quam vicina fatigat."' 
 
 This cataract is a great manufactory of clouds 
 and rainbows, and it serves as a barometer as far 
 as Bafl'alo. If the spray spreads from the north 
 it is a sign of a northerly wind. — A south east 
 wind indicates rain. 
 
 Goat Island derives its name from its being 
 appropriated to goats by Mr. Stedman, the form- 
 er possessor of For: Schlosser. It now belongs 
 to individuals, and is connected with the right 
 bank of the river by bridges. It was formerly 
 supposed that it would make an excellent place 
 for a state penitentiary oii i-cconnt of the imprac- 
 licabiiity of passing from it previous tg the erec- 
 tion of the bridges ; but this is a mistake. It can 
 be easily resched by a canoe from the place 
 where the rapids St^parate at the the head of the 
 island, but it is dilncuU to retire. Stedman used 
 
*<Ui. NIAGARA FALLS, 
 
 to ride to it on horseback, and I saw a man who 
 had planted potatoes on it in former times. I 
 observed trees on it, on which are inscribed the 
 names of visitors as far back as 1769. A skele- 
 ton was found buried in a grave, and indications 
 of a canoe being made about 40 years ago were 
 also observed. I heard the singing of locusts and 
 birds. It is covered with large trees, and the soil 
 is uncommonly good, being composed of a fine 
 vegetable mould. This island was formerly the 
 place where eagles erected their aeries, as well 
 on account of its seclusion, as its propinquity to 
 the carcases below the falls. Some years ago a 
 large deer was seen for two or three weeks wading 
 a short distance into the rapids from this island, 
 and retreating. He had been drifted down from 
 above, and not knowing the safe passage to the 
 shore, he no doubt was carried over the falls. 
 Volney says that he found at the bottom of the 
 precipice the carcases of some deer, and wild 
 hoars, which the current had hurried down the 
 cataract on their attempting to swim across the 
 river above it. As there are no wild boars in 
 this country, this shows how inattentive the most 
 observing travellers are to objects of natural his- 
 tory. It is generally supposed that every animal 
 is deprived of life which passes over the falls, but 
 this is a mistake. Tame geese frequently escape i 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 203 
 
 A dog once got clear with a broken rib ; and 
 two sheep were found below the cataract, one of 
 which was alive. On the other hand, the proba- 
 bility of escaping with life is scarcely any. Wild 
 geese, deer, fish, and other animals, are to be 
 seen dashed to pieces. A tragical story is told 
 of a poor Indian, which would form a good sub- 
 ject for a poem. He had tied his canoe to the 
 shore at Chippewa, and had fallen asleep. Some 
 ruthless villain, it is supposed, loosened his fast- 
 ening, and he floated down. When he got invol- 
 ved in the great rapid, he was awakened h v the 
 noise, and rising up, and perceiving his perilous 
 situation, he tried with all his might to peddle 
 himself out— but finding his efforts unavailing, 
 he wrapped himself up in his blanket, and sat 
 down in the canoe, yielding himself up to his fate 
 with stoical apathy, and with Roman fortitude. 
 In this short and dreadful interval between life 
 and death, a poetic imagination might conceive 
 and describe with wonderful pathos and energy, 
 the ideas which passed through the untutored 
 mind of the poor Indian, and the feelings which 
 agitated his bosom, when on the eve of a final 
 separation from his family and sacred home, and 
 when the ties which connected him with this, 
 world, were about to be for ever dissolved. 
 
'04 NIAGARA FALL?- 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 Cataract of JS'iagara, Septemher, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I BEL.JEVE that in a former letter I mentioned 
 ike nature of the rocks which constitute the pre- 
 cipice of the Niagara Falls. The substratum is 
 a compact flesh red sand stone, infusible before 
 )be blow pipe, but is rendered friable, and retains 
 its color. The upper strata are composed of 
 T:arbonate of lime^ of immense volume and density. 
 This sand stone become* brittle when exposed to 
 the atmosphere, and as it descends it increases in 
 fragility. About two miles north of the cataract, 
 th,ere is a sulphur spring near the river, where the 
 sand stone is the lower stratum. At a considera- 
 ble distance down the DeviPs Hole, the same rock 
 appears, and also near the bottom of the great 
 ridge, or slope, atLewiston. The country above 
 ihe heights of Lewiston and Queenston is a vast 
 plam, from which there is an abrupt descent of 
 near three hundred feet, into another plain at 
 Lewiston, and in which plain is Lake Ontario. 
 The upper slope is table land, as well as the plain 
 below, and this produced the French denomina- 
 tions of Upper and Lower Canada, The rivet 
 
NIAGARA FALLS^ 205 
 
 divides the slope between the heights of Lewiston 
 and Queenston, which is composed of the same 
 materials on each side. This tact in connexion 
 with the scanty covering of earth which the rocks 
 on the top of the bank retain in other places on 
 the western shore, and the parallel arrangement 
 of alluvial earth on the eastern side, now two 
 hundred feet above the surface of the river, fur- 
 nishes proof little short of demonstration, that the 
 Niagara river has sawed through the rock from 
 Queenston to the present falls. At the heights of 
 Lewiston the upper stratum is composed of solid 
 masses of lime stone resting on red indurated 
 brittle clay, then at a great distance from the top, 
 and below this clay, a stratum of red sand stone, 
 twelve or fifteen feet thick appears ; thence to the 
 bottom of the precipice red and blue indurated 
 clay and stones of the same colour, chiefly red. 
 
 At Black Rock, and at Bird Island, black flint 
 abounds embedded, but not incorporated in lime 
 stone, and the lime stone ledge which supports 
 Lake Erie dips to the south. The bed of the 
 river from Lake Erie to the falls, is composed of 
 lime stone. From Lewiston to Lake Ontario, a 
 distance of seven miles, the bank of the river is 
 composed of red indurated clay; and the village 
 of Lewiston is one hundred and twenty-three k^t 
 
 above the level of the river. 
 
 K 2 
 
206 NIAGARA FALLSo' 
 
 Lake Erie is elevated 541 feet above the tide 
 water at Troy, and Lake Ontario 206 feet. 
 
 From Lake Erie to Fort Schlosser there is a 
 fall of 15 feet 
 
 To Lewiston, say 332 
 
 To Fort Niagara, say 334 
 
 The upper strata of this region from Lake 
 Erie to Lewiston, are formed of calcareous rock 
 of various kinds, which rests upon sand stone, 
 chiefly red and friable, and which reposes on red 
 clay, chiefly indurated. In comparing the appear- 
 ances of stone with the stratified levels, the con- 
 tinuity and identity of the former will be obvious. 
 
 The chasm at the bottom of the cataract is 347 
 feet deep of water. A beautiful white substance 
 is found here — supposed by the vulgar to be a 
 concretion of foam, consolidated by the power of 
 water — but it is carbonate and sulphate of lime, 
 which has been reunited after being in a state of 
 solution. The lamellar gypsum found here is 
 very fine, as well as the white amorphous. 
 
 The recession of the falls from Lewiston and 
 Queenston, is easily explained on this geological 
 view of the country. The fragile materials which 
 compose the fotmdations of the great calcareous 
 rocks are continually and gradually wearing 
 away by the action of water, and by a partial 
 exposure to the atmosphere j, the removal of tfce 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 207 
 
 sub-Strata will necessarily produce a precipitation 
 of the super-incumbent rocks into the watery gulf. 
 The progress of this operation is obvious — the 
 immense bodies of ice which are carried down 
 from Lake Erie, must also be a powerful auxilia- 
 ry, and frost and earthquakes unquestionably 
 contribute greatly to the production of these 
 results. 
 
 If below the outlet of Lake Erie, any chasm 
 should be produced by earthquakes or any other 
 cause which would remove the lime stone rocks, 
 and enable the water to reach the soft sand stone 
 and red clay, the fissure would enlarge, and in 
 course of time the whole intervening rocks would 
 be swept away, and Lake Erie would plunge into 
 Lake Ontario. The great plateau, or table land, 
 below Lewiston, would then be deluged, and the 
 age of Deucalion would visit this portion of the 
 great western region. 
 
 At the feet of great falls of water and in the 
 bosom of sequestered ravines, the devotee of natu- 
 ral science generally finds a fertile field of Inv.es- 
 tigation. This cataract however does not furnish 
 many interesting specimens of mineralogy, but 
 its neighborhood is rich in botany. The banks 
 of the river about the falls are lined with white 
 pine and cedar. One of the latter was pointed 
 out to me which leans terrifically twenty feet over 
 
208 Niagara falls* 
 
 the great eastern bank, and in the crotch of which 
 a most beautiful and accomplished lady from 
 Boston, took a picturesque view of the falls. 
 
 Charlevoix tells often or twelve Ottaways who^ 
 in trying to cross over to Goat Island in orr'.er to 
 avoid the pursuit of the Iroquois, were drawn 
 over the falls in spite of all their efforts. 
 
 In the autumn of 1810, a salt boat with four 
 men, bound up to Black Rock with 150 barrels 
 of salt, was upset, and drifting down the river, 
 went over the falls. All perished but one person, 
 who escaped at first by the rudder, and finally 
 was taken up by a boat from Chippewa. Next 
 i^pring a canoe with three men was carried down 
 the cataract. 
 
 Near the British shore, and between the Bridge- 
 water mills and the cataract, there is a small grass 
 island about mid way between the shore and Goat 
 Island. A deer took the water near Chippewa 
 at a point above this island, and fell down upon 
 it, where he could not be approached — and after 
 remaining there nearly a day and night, was not 
 to be seen the ensuing morning. An anecdote is 
 told of an old blind mare, which shows superior 
 sagacity. She went into the water above the 
 rapids of Niagara to cool herself. She was una- 
 ble to find her way out, and she had descended 
 into the vicinity of a place where she would have 
 
NIAGARA FALLS. 209 
 
 been inevitably carried down. Some boys, anx- 
 ious to see her swept down the cataract, and im- 
 patient at the delay, threw stones at her. This 
 indicated the way o: escape, and she immediately 
 returned in that direction. 
 
 The passage of the river below the cataract is 
 not considered dangerous. There is a boat sta- 
 tioned there for the conveyance of passengers, in 
 which I have passed. During the late war smug- 
 gling was carried on in that direction in the 
 night time, and before a ladder was erected on 
 the east bank, people frequently passed over from 
 Canada to steal apples at Fort Schlosser. 
 
 But I see, my friend, that you are not only 
 tired of the subject, but of the manner in which I 
 have handled it. A description of this mighty 
 cataract is the Ulyssean bow of travellers. I 
 could say much more, but I shall only trespass 
 further on your patience by stating that 1 have 
 been credibly informed, that Dr. Kerr, an intelli- 
 gent and respectable inhabitant of Bridgewater, 
 who has resided in Upper Canada thirty years, 
 marked a tree at that time on each shore of the 
 cataract, and now believes that there has been a 
 retrocession of 150 feet in his time, chiefly at the 
 centre of the crescent. You can see immense 
 piles of stones thrown down at the foot of the 
 
210 
 
 CANAL* 
 
 cataract, and masses on the bank of the precipice, 
 protruding from the summit of the cataract over 
 the yawning gulf. 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Western Region, Septeiriber, 1820, 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 It has been found that the loss of water in the 
 canal exceeds the original estimate. Whether 
 this is most owing to soakage, leakage, or to the 
 power of evaporation, may be a subject of contro- 
 versy. I am inclined to believe that in all these 
 respects the diminution has been greater than 
 was anticipated. While the former will cease to 
 operate, in proportion as the canal is rendered 
 more impermeable and tight, the latter must con- 
 tinue with the durationof the world. 
 
 Many calculations and experiments have been 
 made, at various times, to determine the quantity 
 of rain and quantity of evaporation in difierent 
 parts of the world. Dr. Halley estimated that 
 6914 tons of water are evaporated from every 
 square mile of the sea in a day ; and Dr. Shaw 
 has applied this estimate td the Dead Sea, and 
 considering the river Jordan about thirty yards 
 wide, and taking three feet for Uie mean depth of 
 
CANAL » 211 
 
 the stream, and allowing it to run two miles an 
 hour, it discharges every day into the Dead Sea, 
 6,090,000 tons of water ; whereas this sea being 
 72 miles long and 18 broad, there will be drawn 
 up by evaporation 8,960,000 tons, and this difier- 
 ence between the supply and the diminution must 
 be made good from some other source. Dr. Hal- 
 ley, upon a supposition that the Mediterranean 
 Sea covers 160 square degrees, infers that it must 
 lose in vapour in a summer's day at least 5280 
 millions of tons, and that all the rivers which run 
 into it only furnish 1827 millions of tons in the 
 same period. Bishop Watson calculates, that 
 1600 gallons of water evaporate from an acre of 
 ground, in twelve hours' sun. Dr. WiUiams of 
 Vermont, says that an acre of ground, covered 
 with trees, throws out in twelve hours, 3875 gal- 
 Ions of water ; and he further states that the 
 evaporation from a surface of land, covered with 
 trees and other vegetables, is one third greater 
 than from a surface of water. And he also asserts 
 that in Bradford, New England, the evaporation 
 amounted in 1772 to 42.6ft inches. Dr. Dobson 
 states the yearly evaporation in Liverpool to be 
 36.78 inches. But the most accurate experiments 
 on this subject were made by Dalton, at Manches- 
 ter, for three years in succession : and the mean 
 rain for that period was 33.55 inches annually ; 
 
/212 OANAL. 
 
 the mean evaporation from the green ground 
 25.14, and from water 44.43. From this it ap- 
 pears that the evaporation from a surface of wate^j 
 is nearly twice as muclias from green ground ; and 
 also, that about eight or nine inches of rain are 
 left for the supply of springs and rivers. This 
 surplus of water must be drawn from the sea, and 
 must return to it again by rivers. It must be 
 obvious that these experiments and estimates are 
 by no means unerring. But it is supposed that 
 the mean annual evaporation over the whole sur- 
 face of the earth, is 35 inches for every square 
 inch, and that therefore 94,450 cubic miles of 
 water are annually evaporated over the whole 
 globe. 
 
 Considering the climate of the country through 
 which the canal runs — the great heat of the sum- 
 mer— ^the protracted autumn — and the compari- 
 tively mild winter, it is not unreasonable to in- 
 crease the general calculation in its application 
 to that region five inches on green earth, and ten 
 inches on water. The whole annual evaporation 
 of the middle section of the western canal, reckon- 
 ing that each square inch evaporates in that time 
 45, will only amount to 9,212,444 hogsheads — 
 a loss certainly of no great consequence when wO 
 covisider the supply. 
 
CANAL. 213 
 
 The mean quantity of rain falling at the follow- 
 ing places, in one year with another, is, 
 Li Europe — at Hserlaem 24 inches 
 Delf27 
 Dort 40 
 Middleberg 33 
 Paris 20 
 Lyons 37 
 Rome ^0 
 Padua 37J 
 Pisa 34J 
 Uloi 27 
 Berlin 19J 
 Lancashire 40 
 Essex 19 J 
 
 Manchester 33.55 before men 
 
 [tioned, 
 And in the United States : 
 In Charlotte, South Carolina, 47.66 inches. 
 In Williamsburgh, Virginia, 47.038 
 In Cambridge, Massachusetts, 35.396 
 In Rutland, Vermont, 41.197 
 
 Making every allowance for defective or erro- 
 neous experiments, it is clear that there is more 
 rain as well as more evaporation in this country 
 than in Great Britain. That there is more evap- 
 oration, must be evident from the suoerior h^^A 
 
214 CANxt. 
 
 of this climate, and from the insular situation of 
 the latter country. 
 
 In applying these facts to the canal, I do not 
 see that there is any reason to apprehend a scar- 
 city of water, either from the quantity of evapo- 
 ration or the failure of rain. Whatever is taken 
 up by the one, will be returned with increase by 
 the other. And the vicinity of the great lakes 
 will furnish a never failing and plentiful reservoir 
 for all the purposes of evaporation, which will 
 either be returned to the earth in dew or in rain. 
 But difficulties may occur, when the drain and 
 the supply are not contemporaneous. The great- 
 est evaporation takes place during the prevalence 
 of the greatest heat, and the greatest floods of 
 rain occur in spring and autumn. But consider- 
 ing the numerous streams and lakes which can 
 be pressed into the service of the canal, there is 
 no danger but that their wonted supply will 
 more than transcend the deficiencies of temporary 
 droiigbts and dearths. It is however well known 
 that cultivation has a great influence on the 
 waters of a country — by precluding evaporation 
 from trees, and by creating eight times more 
 evaporation than existed before opening way for 
 the action of the sun. Besides, the loosening of 
 the earth has a tendency to choke up and absorb 
 the stream s» 
 
CANAL. 215 
 
 The streams are supplied from swamps — from 
 springs — and from an union of both. Cultivation 
 dries up the streams which proceed from swamps, 
 and diminishes pro tanto those that are fed par- 
 tially from that source. Even those derived from 
 springs exclusively, may be deprived of their sup- 
 ply by various causes. Springs fail as well as 
 marshes, but not so often, and this may be owing 
 to the failure of rain, or to the clay which holds 
 the water, giving way for a less tenacious sub- 
 stance. On the other hand, the clearing of a 
 country sometimes exhibits waters formerly con- 
 cealed in the cavities of rocks, by filling up the 
 fissures with earth ; and in former times the 
 leaves of trees thickening on the surface of the 
 earth formed a compact bed, which exposed the 
 rain water collected in it to the power of evapo- 
 ration, but the removal of the leaves and the 
 opening of the earth by cultivation, enable the 
 rain to penetrate into the ground, and to collect 
 in copious and perennial springs below the influ- 
 ence of solar heat. 
 
-ii> INCIDENT, 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 Western Region^ September^ 1820. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In one of my solitary walks with my gun on 
 
 my shoulder, and my dog by my side, I strayed 
 
 eight or ten miles from my lodgings ; and as I 
 
 > — 
 was musing on the beauties of the country, and 
 
 meditating on the various and picturesque scenes 
 which were constantly unfolding, I was roused 
 from my reverie by voices which proceeded from 
 persons at a short distance. In casting my eyes 
 in that direction, I saw two venerable men with 
 lishing rods in their hands angling for trout, in a 
 copious and pellucid stream which rolled at their 
 feet. I was hailed by them, and requested to ap- 
 proach, which I immediately did, and in ex- 
 changing salutations, I found that they were men 
 of the world, perfectly acquainted with the courte- 
 sies of life. One of them held up a string of fine 
 trout, and asked me in the most ob-iging manner 
 to go home with them and partake of the fruits of 
 their amusement. Struck with the appearance of 
 the stra!igers, and anxious to avail myself of the 
 pleasure of their compan}^, I did not hesitate to 
 accept of this hospitable oiler, on condition tiiat 
 they would permit me to add the woodcock, snipe^ 
 
INCIDENT- 217 
 
 arid wood ducks, wliicli were suspended fiom my 
 gun, to their acqiusitions. This offer was kindly 
 accepted. A general and desultory conversation 
 ensued, and we arrived in a short time at a small 
 village, and on ascending the steps of an elegant 
 house, I was congratulated by my new friends on 
 m\' entry into Oldenbarneveld. In the course 
 of an hour^ dinner was served up, I sat down and 
 enjoyed a treat worthy to be compared to the 
 Symposior of Plato. I soon found that these 
 venerable friends were emigrants from Holland — 
 that they were men of highly cultivated minds, 
 and polished manners — and that they had selected 
 their habitations in this place, where they en-* 
 joyed 
 
 «' An eleg^ant sufficiencyj content, 
 Retirement, nn-ai quiet, friendship, books, 
 Ease and alternate labor, useful life, 
 Prog'ressive virtue and approving Heaven," 
 
 The elder of these gentlemen had received the 
 best education which Holland could afford. He 
 was brought up a clergyman, and at the com- 
 mencement of the American revolution, he be- 
 came its enthusiastic and energetic advocate, and 
 wrote an able w ork in vindication of its character 
 and conduct. In the struggles which subsequent- 
 ly took place in his native country, he sided with 
 the patriots. His friend held a high military 
 
218 INCIDENT, 
 
 office during that commotion, and unites the 
 frankness of a soldier and the refinement of a 
 ^ntleman with the erudition of a scholar. 
 
 During their residence in this country, they 
 have been attentive to its interests. As far back 
 as 1795, the elder gentleman proposed an Agri- 
 cultural Society for this district, and addressed it 
 in a luminous speech. 
 
 I was penetrated with the most profound re- 
 spect, when I witnessed the various and extensive 
 acquirements of this man. He is a perfect master 
 of all the Greek and Roman authors — skilled in 
 Hebrew, the Syriac, and the other oriental langua- 
 ges — with the German and French he is perfectly 
 acquainted — His mind is a great and inexhausti- 
 ble store-house of knowledge ; and I could per- 
 ceive no deficiency, except in his not being per- 
 fectly acquainted with the modern discoveries in 
 natural science, which arises in a great degree 
 from his sequestered life. He manages an exten- 
 sive correspondence with many learned men in 
 Europe, as well as America. And although I 
 had never heard of him before, yet I am happy to 
 understand that his merits are justly appreciated 
 by some of the first men in this country. 
 
 Ht' has lately been complimented with a degree 
 of Doctor of Laws, by a c-'ebrated university of 
 New-England. He U wow employed by the state 
 
AMERICAN CHARACTER. 219 
 
 of New- York in translating its Dutch Records — - 
 and through the munificence of David Parish, 
 the great banker, he will be enabled to have 
 transcripts of the records of the Dutch West India 
 Company to fill up an important chasm in the his- 
 tory of this great state. 
 
 Thus, my friend, I have made a great discove- 
 fy. In a secluded, unassuming village, I have 
 discovered the most learned man in America^ cul- 
 tivating, like our first parent, his beautiful and 
 spacious garden with his own hands — cultivating 
 literature and science — cultivating the virtucg 
 which adorn the fire side and ihe aJtar — cultiva- 
 ting the^esteem of the wise and the good— and 
 blessing with the radiations of his illumiu'id lad 
 highly gifted mind, all who enjoy his conversa- 
 tion, and who are honored by his correspoDdence, 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 Utica, September, 1820. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 In the course of my tours, I frequently meet 
 with extraordinary characters — indeed, I think 
 that there are more persons of this description in 
 this, tljan in any other country. Eccentricities 
 and peculiarities of conduct ^ill always prevail 
 
220 SINGULAR CHARACTER^ 
 
 most iu democratic countries, where freedom is 
 indulged in ail the modifications of thought, 
 speech, and action, that do not infringe on the 
 laws ; and as the population of America is deri- 
 ved from almost all the nations of Europe, it must 
 imquestionably combine heterogenous qualities, 
 which have not as yet been moulded into unifor- 
 mity and sameness. What Rochester in his witty 
 poem upon nothing said ironically, ma}^, as it re- 
 spects part of the tirst, and the whole of the second 
 line, be applied in sober seriousness to the Ameri- 
 can people : 
 
 •' French truth, Dutch protaess, British policy, 
 
 Hibernian learning, Scotch civility, 
 
 Spaniard's despatch, Dane s wit, are mainly seen in thee.'' 
 
 In my last voyage on the canal, I met with an 
 old sea Captain, who appeared to unite in his 
 
 character tlie honest bluntness and generous 
 
 V . . ... 
 
 frankness of a Aailor, with the characteristic in- 
 genuity and enterprising spirit of the Yankee. 
 He had before the revolution commanded sea ves- 
 sels from eastern ports. He had often double{^ 
 Cape Horn, and pursued the whale in the great 
 South Sea. He had visited many of the ports of 
 Great Britain, and every island in the West Indies 
 was familiar to him. At the breaking out of the 
 Revolutionary war, he entered ©n board a priva- 
 
SINGULAR CHARACTER. S21 
 
 teer as second in command — was captured by a 
 50 gun ship^and incarcerated in the prison-ship 
 in New- York, where he lingered out years of 
 squalid wretchedness. On the return of peace, he 
 resumed his profession ; but being thrown out of 
 business by the system of commercial restrictions, 
 he turned his eyes to the regions of the west, and 
 procuring a batteau, he embarked with his wife, 
 family, and furniture, from a small port in Con* 
 necticut. Like our first parents — 
 
 "The world was all before them, where to choose 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." 
 
 He sailed up the Hudson river to Albany, and 
 after conveying his boat and accompaniments by 
 land to Schenectady, he navigated the Mohawk 
 to Rome. After many unsuccessful attempts to 
 select a residence, he finally fixed his habitation 
 near the Oneida Creek. On the day of his arri- 
 val, he erected a shed with a bark covering, open 
 at the sides. In the centre he kindled a fire, and 
 committing themselves to the guardian care of 
 Providence, the family, after a homely repast, 
 spread themselves for sleep on the ground, sere- 
 naded by the growling of bears, the howling of 
 wolves, and the barking of foxes. The next dayj 
 the bark shed was converted into a building called 
 a chant}', and the dwelling has since become a 
 %m^\e story frame house of humble dinr!onsion«!. 
 
 L 
 
222 SINGULAR CHARACTER^ 
 
 It is useless to describe the early sufferings of 
 this family in a new country, in a new theatre of 
 action — without neighbors to assist — without phy- 
 sicians to heal — without ministers of the gospel to 
 console. The cultivation of a garden, a corn- 
 field, a potatoe patch, ^nd the rearing of poultry, 
 hogs, and cows, emaloyed all their attention. In 
 a few years, settlements were formed round themj 
 and as the blessings of comfort, society, and plen- 
 ty, were briglitening about them, the wife of the 
 old seaman died. His children were married, 
 and had removed to a distance — and his only 
 consolation was an orphan grand-daughter, which 
 his deceased wife had brought up. She acted as 
 his nurse — his house-keeper — and superintended 
 all his domestic economy. 
 
 When death separates in old age those who 
 have been united in marriage, and who have lived 
 in the reciprocations of affection, the survivor 
 rarely lives any length of time. Haeret lateri le- 
 thaUs arundo. The gangrene of the heart is in- 
 curable. A morbid melancholy, which continu- 
 ally increases by nursing its sorrows, and brood- 
 ing over its afflictions, gradually, if not quickly^ 
 undermines the vital principle. 
 
 The old sailor was in this situation for a year, 
 going to his final resting place, with slow, but un- 
 ^-easing steps j and all the consolations of friend- 
 
SINGULAR CHARACTER. 22o 
 
 ship, and employments of labor were incompetent 
 to rouse him from his sorrows, and to stimulate 
 him into enjoyment. He kept his eye steadily 
 fixed on futurity, and he looked forward with ex^ 
 ultation to the period when he should be united 
 with his departed friends in another and a better 
 world. 
 
 He continued in this state of mind until the ca» 
 nal was completed from Utica to Montezuma. It 
 passed close by his door. In the early stages of 
 its progress, he considered it with apathy, if not 
 with contempt — but the first boat which passed 
 by his house awakened his slumbering energies. 
 There was indeed something grand, sublime and 
 animating in the scene — the shouts of spectators— 
 the huzzas from the boat — 
 
 " The neighing steed, and the shrill trump, 
 
 The spirit stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, 
 
 The Eagle banner — and all quality, 
 
 Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious exultation." 
 
 He entered the vessel and was delighted. He cal- 
 led to his mind the adventures of his youth — the 
 pursuits of his manhood — and the bustling scenes 
 of his active life. He returned, and slept well. 
 He rose in the morning as lively and as joyous as 
 the lark. He thought he could also construct a 
 boat, and on a better plan— he set to work, and 
 succeeded. Hq is now in full requisition for that 
 
'2^ ' SINGULAR CHARACTEB. 
 
 purpose. He is surrounded by plenty, and hk 
 time is constantly engaged in his new vocation. 
 Thus by a singular metamorphosis the ship mas- 
 ter of the ocean, has become a boat builder on 
 the western canal ; and whenever the demon of 
 melancholy, like the evil spirit of Saul, attempts 
 to take possession of him, a trip on the great arti- 
 ficial water operates like the harp of the sweet 
 Stinger of Israel. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 HIBERNICUS,