part of the country between this and Oxford is cultivated: a considerable part is still a wildnerness. The country is rough, and of a high elevation.

Oxford is a beautiful town, charmingly situated in the valley of the Chenango.

Norwich, the shire town of this county, is still more pleasantly posited. This village, which has chiefly come into existence since the year 1804, is built near the foot of a fine range of hills on the west, upon a slope declining to the river near a mile, with an uniform descent, and with an ease and elegance nowhere excelled. The village itself is handsome, and the scenery beautiful.

Sherburn and Hamilton are also handsome villages on the eastern branch of the Chenango, situated on a fine soil, and in a region where every thing appears to flourish. Indeed the valley of this river appeared to me even more desirable than when I passed through it in 1804.

Madison is on rougher ground, but has a rich soil, as has Sangerfield, also, with a smoother and pleasanter surface. In the three last of these towns there are neat churches.

The surface of Clinton is beautiful, and the soil of the highest fertility. The inhabitants are industrious, sober, orderly, and prosperous. This parish, and indeed the whole township of Paris, is completely settled.

Hamilton college, although its charter is in several respects. imperfect, is in a flourishing condition. The number of students the present year will not be far from one hundred. Two professorships are filled in it, and at least two others will soon be established. The system of government and instruction pursued in it is, in substance, the same with that of Yale college. Two collegiate buildings are already erected, on a healthy eminence, commanding a noble prospect. The new one is handsome, and built of stone covered with cement. A third will soon be erected, of the same form and structure. The kitchen and dining room are better contrived than any which I have seen.

Utica is become a considerable town, containing more than three thousand inhabitants, engaged in an extensive and profitable commerce, and not far from four hundred houses, many of them valuable, and several of them elegant structures.

A considerable number of the stores in this town are inferior in size and beauty to few in the state.

Religion has of late prevailed extensively in Utica, especially in families of the first consideration, and has had a happy influence on the manners of the inhabitants at large.

Monday, October 7th, I left Utica, and rode to the Little Falls, on the eastern limit of Herkimer. On this and the four preceding days it rained copiously. The path was liquid mud, glassy, often deep, and not without danger. In 1804, most of the country, throughout this distance, was a forest. It was now universally settled, and the inhabitants appear to be in prosperous circumstances.

Herkimer is become a handsome town. There is a considerable village at the Little Falls. At this spot commences, in the language of the inhabitants, the western country of New-York.

From Kaatskill round to Utica I found the stones extensively consisting of marine shells, some of them mere masses of such shells cemented together, most of them mineralized. Others are limestone; and others, still, slate, with greater or less collections of shells imbedded in them. Such are the facts at Claverack, Hudson, Kaatskill, in several branches of the Kaatskill mountains, at Meredith, Norwich, Sherburn, Hamilton, Madison, Sangerfield, and Clinton. Such also are the facts at Cherry Valley, and in a spot about eight miles beyond the Genesee river on the great road. These shells were chiefly escallops and periwinkles. Oyster shells were rare, so far as I had opportunity to observe them in this excursion.

Granite I observed in the western parts of the township of Herkimer; and it continued to appear as far as Schenectady. The base of the lower Anthony's Nose is granite, while the higher regions are compact limestone. There are two mountains of this name in the neighbourhood of each other.

The rocks at the Little Falls are gneiss, extremely hard. Tuesday morning I went out to examine them, and was astonished to see the cavities formerly worn by the Mohawk. Several of them were more than one hundred feet above the level of its present surface. The largest, which I saw, was at least fifteen feet in diameter, and about eight in depth. From these dimensions they diminished by imperceptible gradations

down to two feet. One of them, about a mile from the centre of the settlement, as we were informed by our host, is fifteen feet in depth, but not more than five or six in di

ameter.

The number of these cavities is very great, and very difficult to be ascertained; for they are spread over an extended surface, by the variation of which they are concealed from the eye of an observer, who does not examine them with very minute inspection. To such an observer it scarcely seems credible, that the only known causes should have been sufficiently efficacious to produce the extraordinary phenomena, which he sees to have been produced. The rock is one of the hardest which is known. The river is not more than one-third of the size of the Connecticut at Bellows' Falls. Yet the largest of these cavities is five or six times more capacious than any at that place. Almost all the latter, also, are small, while many of the former are very large.

I have observed, that the most elevated of these cavities is more than one hundred feet above the present level of the Mohawk. Here we are furnished with decisive proof, that the river, at some former period, ran on this elevation. An inspection of this place will satisfy any attentive observer, that the water once ran many feet still higher; since the rocks exhibit the fullest evidence of having been long washed by the current. Of course the waters of the Mohawk found a barrier at the Little Falls, more than one hundred feet in height, and were therefore certainly a lake extending far back into the interior. In one case, then, we are furnished with demonstration, so far as reasoning from facts may be called such, that the waters of a river, which has now washed away its barrier, were anciently confined by the jutting of mountains so as to constitute a large lake, agreeably to the scheme mentioned in the account given of my second journey to Lake George. Fair analogy will convince an observing traveller, that there were once lakes of the same class in all the places which I have specified, and in many others.

Here I had an opportunity of seeing again the mongrelcedar, and found, by a more thorough examination than I was able formerly to make, that this tree loses its leaves every autumn, in the manner formerly suggested in these Letters.

The process is this:- - At little distances over the whole tree small twigs, the product of the existing, or perhaps the preceding year, die, together with their leaves. These, though differing somewhat in their size, may be considered generally as exhibiting a surface equal to that of a man's hand; and, being everywhere alternated with living twigs, and of a reddish brown, approaching near to a pink, seem at a small distance not unlike roses. To botanists the plant may be familiar, to me it is new.

This is a very interesting and romantic spot. The scenery is wild and magnificent, and forms a fine contrast to the elegant intervals which border the Mohawk both above and below.

Tuesday I proceeded to Palatine; the road less wet, but at least as deep and dangerous as on the preceding day. The next day I reached Albany, with a road generally bad, but materially better than I had seen since I left Utica.

The intervals on both sides of the Mohawk are, with scarcely an exception, universally cleared, and have the appearance of complete cultivation. They are remarkably handsome grounds. The hills on both sides, also, are in many places in the same state; in many others they are partially cleared, and to a considerable extent are still covered with forests. Several of them are handsomer grounds than I supposed in my former journeys.

The village of Caghnawaga is considerably increased and improved in its appearance. Several hamlets are begun at different places, and several churches are erected. Many of the houses, all along the road, are good buildings.

Two new colleges are built at Schenectady, on the ground mentioned in the former part of these Letters. I saw them at a distance only, and thought them handsome buildings.

Albany is rapidly improving. Its population, and the number of its buildings, have greatly increased during the last four years. The new buildings are generally handsome. Among them is a large and elegant church of stone, with a handsome steeple, built in Chapel Street by a new Presbyterian congregation. This is one out of many instances of enterprise and public spirit manifested by the inhabitants. Another is the establishment of an academy, on a broad foundation, with the

design of furnishing every degree of education short of that which is obtained at colleges. The corporation of the city, which is rich, liberally lend their aid to every useful public object, in a manner which is highly honourable to the character of its members. Both the morals and the manners of its inhabitants are also not a little improved.

On Monday I left Albany, and on the following Thursday reached New-Haven.

Four miles west of Albany I was thrown out of my sulkey by the fall of my horse; but, although in imminent danger, escaped with very little injury. I mention this, I hope, with some degree of gratitude to that good Providence, which, through excursions amounting to but little less than eighteen thousand miles, has permitted no other accident to befal me or my companions.

I am, Sir, &c.