me, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, more than 60 years since.

In the cool of the evening, three ponies were brought out for the children, who had been anticipating their evening ride all day with great glee. As the General rode with them, leading the ponies of the little girls with long reins, I was reminded, with feelings of a melancholy pleasure, of "days that must return no more." It was a beautiful night, and we sat, talking in the porch, till a late hour, admiring the brilliant stars. General H.'s travels on the Continent, Mr.'s residence in Canada, the Count's budget of news from France, and my Indian tour, furnished the subject of conversation. After breakfast the following morning, the ladies played for us on the harp; and in the evening, I set out on horseback, to return hither, not without a feeling of regret, that I had probably taken a final leave of my hospitable friend, who, although still an expert horseman, seldom goes beyond the limits of his manor. I had, however, seen him riding, in a long procession, through the streets of Baltimore, holding in his hand, the Declaration of Independence, which he delivered to the orator of the day, at the Monument of General Washington. Among the distinguished personages at his house, I

forgot to mention a little lap-dog, which LordWellington gave to Madam Jerome Bonaparte, who, you will recollect, is a very near connection of the family.

It is very hot; the thermometer, a few days since, having been 94° in the shade. I have just sold our horses for little more than half the first cost. They have carried us more than 1500 miles; and although they are much thinner than when we started, they are in good spirits. They were of a moderate size; one of them very strong, the other light, but bony.

The journey from Natchez to Richmond was about 1250 miles. We averaged 30 miles a-day, including all stoppages, or 35 miles, excluding Sundays, and the day we spent at Elliot. For the last seven or eight days, we accomplished about 40 miles each day. The expense of the journey from Natchez to Richmond was about £23, or, including the loss of our horses, £48, or about 9d per mile, which, for two persons, is reasonable enough.

Letter XXE.

Niagara, 2nd August, 1820.

It is with great pleasure that I address a letter to you from this celebrated spot. The feelings excited by the first view of this stupendous cataract have by no means subsided, and although it is difficult to withdraw either my eyes or my thoughts a moment from the magnificent scene before me, I must endeavour, as well as I can, to continue my narrative, before all trace of my journey from Baltimore hither is effaced from my recollection, by the new and deep impressions I am every moment receiving.

I left Baltimore soon after the date of my last letter, with the intention of making no stay either in Philadelphia or New York. In coming up New York Bay, in the steam-boat, I thought I saw the Martha among the numerous vessels which were dropping their anchors; and on landing, I met her captain, who gave me a good account of several of my friends whom he had seen, when embarking from Liverpool. Soon afterwards, the Courier's signal was flying, and I obtained my letters by her just as we

were setting off in the steam-boat to Albany. They were very numerous, and engrossed my attention so entirely, that I lost much of the fine scenery, in the early part of our sail up the Hudson River.

We left New York at six o'clock in the evening; and it was not till two or three hours afterwards that I quitted the small cabin to which I had retired to read my letters. On going on deck, as the evening was closing in, I found a very large party of ladies and gentlemen sitting and admiring the precipitous banks of the river; and I was glad to recognize among them several of my Carolinian and Georgian friends, who were leaving the summer heats of their southern climate, and repairing to the springs of Ballston and Saratoga, in the State of New York, 800 or 900 miles distant from home. They were all regretting that we should sail through the High-Lands in the night; and when we entered the pass between the Catskill* Mountains, about midnight, I sincerely participated in their regret. We had an unclouded moon; but the banks of the river were so high and so precipitous, and the rocks projecting in large masses, or lying confusedly on each other,

* I follow the orthography of the American Geographer

Dr. Morse.

cast their dark shadows so thick around them, that we had only a dim and imperfect view of the effects of that violent disruption by which the Hudson has been enabled to force its way through the Mountains: *

A bugle sounded, as we passed the Military College, at West Point, and recalled to our recollection that we were in the vicinity of some of the most interesting scenes of the revolutionary war-scenes with which the names of Washington, Putnam, Arnold, and André, will long be associated.

When I rose the following morning, the banks of the river appeared to be losing much of their wild character; and the country seats,

*

"The Catskill Mountains are composed chiefly of granite and Gneiss, abounding in loose nodules and solid veins of magnetical iron ore. The width of the chain may be rated at about 16 miles. According to the barometrical observations of Captain Partridge, of the corps of engineers, Butternut, on the west side of the river, is 1529 feet above tide-water, and the New Beacon 1565 feet. This thick and solid barrier seems, in ancient days, to have impeded the course of the water, and to have raised a lake high enough to cover all the country to Quaker Hill, and the Taconick Mountains on the east, and the Shawangunk and the Catskill Mountains on the west. The lake may be calculated to have extended to the Little Falls of the Mohawk, and to Hadley's Falls, on the Hudson."-Dr. Mitchell's Observations in the American edition of Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.