old, and all armed with weapons which, in one minute, would shiver the strongest barrier to atoms; yet only one superintendent was with them, sitting at his ease upon a chair; and not any instance is upon record of an attempt at making a forcible escape. The prisoners are not allowed, upon any pretence, to speak to one another, and only on business to a turnkey, who can easily observe if any conversation takes place, as they are generally placed with their faces in the same direction. The weavers were the most numerous body, there being nearly one hundred sitting at their looms in a row, and forty tailors, whose occupation is considered the most unhealthy, from the position requisite for the performance of their work. They are not permitted to look at any stranger who enters the room; but I observed several squinting at us out of the corners of their eyes when the keeper's back was turned. The most superior specimens of workmanship, of every description, are turned out of these shops, and are contracted for by merchants and store-keepers residing in Auburn; a sys. tem most injurious to the industrious mechanic, who cannot make a livelihood in the vicinity of the prison, being underworked by the convicts, whose labour is contracted for at various sums from 25 to 50 cents. (one to two shillings) per diem, the tailors at the former sum; those trades which derive assistance from a saw-mill, turningmachine, &c., which are worked by water (introduced from a stream that washes the southern wall of the prison) at 30, tool-makers at 40, and blacksmiths at 50 cents a day. A few invalids and convalescent convicts are employed in winding at 15 cents. There were only two stocking makers, who were employed solely in working for the convicts.

The contractors are not even permitted to give any orders to the workmen, and any instructions they wish to give are through the mechanic turnkey who superintends each shop. In any instance where the latter may not be acquainted with the trade, the contractor may give the necessary directions in his presence. The looms, jennies, tools, &c., appeared throughout the prison in

shop in a more workmanlike style than without the walls. The morning work commences at six o'clock in summer, breakfast between seven and eight, dinner at twelve (half an hour being allowed for each), and the labours of the day cease at six in the evening. The prisoners, being formed into as many companies as there are galleries of cells, are marched to them with the lock-step in the most orderly manner, eacn man inclining his face towards the keepers who accompany them, so that he may be observed, if he attempts to speak. As he passes through the mess-room, adjoining the kitchen, he stoops slightly, and taking up his supper, without breaking the line of march, enters his cell for the night, being locked in by the turnkey of the gallery. The mess-room was particularly clean, with platters and tin cans neatly arranged on wooden tables, so narrow that the convicts sit only on one side of them, with their faces in the same direction. They are waited upon by some of their fellow-prisoners; and, in case any one has more food than he requires, he raises his right hand, when a portion is taken from his plate and given to some one who elevates his left hand in token he has insufficient. The rations are ample, being 10 oz. of wheat, 10 oz. of Indian meal, 14 oz. of beef or 12 of pork; with 2 1-2 bushels of potatoes to every hundred rations, and half a gill of molasses per man, which is added to the mush, a kind of hasty pudding made of Indian meal, and boiled in coppers. The cooks were employed at this article of food when we visited the kitchen. I tasted some, and should imagine it to be very wholesome and nutritious. The bread was heavy and sad, but it had a good flavour. If a convict is unruly, or discovered speaking, he receivés summary punishment, by having a certain number of stripes with a cane on his back. Sueh a measure is, however, but seldom required. A false wall or passage round each room, with slits at intervals, through which a keeper may look unperceived, and where he stations himself if he suspects a convict, acts as an excellent check upon any conversation. I peeped through them into various shops; and the prisoners were busily employed in dead

The work appears to conduce much to their health, there being only six in the hospital, out of 667 prisoners; and a few days previously there had not been a single patient. Visitors are not admitted either into the hospital, which is in an upper story of the prison, or into the women's apartment, who are all confined together and work but little, as no compulsion could be used towards them, and, as to talking, all the art of man could avail nothing for its prevention. Altogether the prison is a most interesting sight, and should be visited by all travellers. A considerable revenue now arises from it to the State, so that convicts, instead of being an expense as formerly, are here a profit. Many who enter without any trade are taught one, by which, when released, they may gain an honest and ample livelihood; and numbers who have been sent into the world again have thoroughly reformed their former vicious habits. We saw one poor man, a sailor, who had become deranged since his imprisonment, and after a partial recovery was allowed to do what he pleased with regard to work. He had made several large models of ships, which stood in the square completely rigged; and another man, who had the use of one hand only, employed his time in carving rude figures of the most grotesque kind, afterwards gilding or paintng them. No one, in short, was allowed to be completely idle. The Government frequently par dons those who appear to have been misled, and by their conduct show an inclination to become good citizens; and only for very serious offences are any sentenced to imprisonment for life, the majority being for periods of five and seven years. The entire establishment is superintended by a governor, called "Agent and Keeper," with a salary of 1000 dollars, a deputy keeper at 600, and the other keepers 350 each; about forty officers are employed as keepers, turnkeys, guards, &c. When the prison is open for the admission of visitors (which was the case always until the appearance of the cholera in the State,) 25 cents (one shilling), is charged for each person. The keeper said that the convicts felt deeply the loss of their chewing tobacco, which is not permitted within the walls of the prison, and to which excellent re

gulation much of the cleanliness is owing. From the inspector's report it appears that "the frequency of pardons has arisen principally from the want of room in the prison, by the rapid accumulation of convicts;" and it is much to be regretted that ten or twelve acres were not enclosed within the wall in place of three or four, so that the building might be increased to any extent.

I think the steady and excellent behaviour of the pri soners may arise, in a great measure, from so many of them being confined for a short space of time, two-thirds being sentenced to a period not exceeding seven years. There is a Sunday school, which those only attend who wish it; and they are instructed gratuitously by the young men of the town and the Theological Seminary. The Chaplain takes opportunities of visiting them in their cells after divine service on that day, also in the hospital, and whenever time will allow, to afford them religious instruction, and give advice with regard to their future conduct. One of the main objects to be gained is to wean them from intemperance, a habit which the prison discipline has entirely eradicated from most determined drunkards, who have thus been restored to the world as sober and industrious men.

By comparing the returns from the Auburn prison with those furnished by other penitentiaries and gaols in the Union, the salutary effects of the system above detailed over that practised where solitary confinement night and day is enforced without work, and over any other mode of punishment as yet devised, have been most satisfactorily proved. If I might venture to propose any amend. ment in the system, it would be to make a larger pecuniary allowance than the present one (two dollars, I think) to the liberated prisoners; as instances are on record of men having been guilty of theft, a few days after their dismissal, from actual want.

The village of Auburn itself is tastefully built, within two miles of the Owasca Lake, whose outlet washes the prison wall. Its rapid rise is somewhat retarded by the quantity of work turned out by the convicts; yet at the same time a large sum of money is necessarily in cir

(which are at the rate of about 21 dollars (47. 7s. 6d.) per annum, each prisoner), and for payment of the articles received from the prison, which are retailed at a great per centage.

Proceeding to the village of Cayuga, situated near the northern extremity of a lake of the same name, we embarked in a steamer which plies upon the lake, and crossed to the opposite side, touching for some more pas. sengers at a village connected with Cayuga by a bridge exceeding a mile in length, over which the western road passes. The extreme length of the lake is 40 miles by 2 at its greatest breadth. The scenery is tame and uninteresting, until towards the southern end, when it as sumes a more pleasing appearance, the banks becoming high and craggy in some places, and in others cultivated to the waters's edge. But throughout there is an overpowering quantity of dense forest, with an intervening space of eight or ten miles between villages. For the last few miles, the face of the country presented a singular appearance, being broken every hundred yards, or thereabouts, with narrow and deep ravines, formed by the heavy rush of water from the hills in the spring of the year. In some, the rock was rugged and bare; in others the grass had sprung up again, or, where the ground more easily yielded to the force of the torrent, there were long and heavy undulations, like the swelling of the sea.

At the head of the lake, entering a coach again, after a drive of two miles across a plain which had once formed part of the lake, we arrived at the pretty town of Ithaca, containing 3300 inhabitants, surrounded on three sides by hills varying from 600 to 800 feet in height, with their slopes and summits partially cleared and cultivated. The plain between the town and the lake is so densely covered with forest that the water is not visible from the former; and in many places it is so boggy and unsound that no houses can be built upon it. Two adjoining squares in the town, encircled with a wooden railing and a grove of trees, are quite occupied by churches, there not being fewer than seven of them. The Clinton House,