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 passengers 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, one of the handsomest buildings of the kind in the States, but its bar-room is one of the dirtiest. There are many factories and mills in and about Ithaca, on the small streams which pour their waters into the lake. A rivulet within a mile of the town forms two of the prettiest Falls imaginable. The lower one, about 80 feet in height, falling over a series of small rocky ledges, appears like so many flakes of snow upon the dark masses of stone; and, where the sun strikes upon the foam, it glitters like the sparkling frost on a December's morn, after the preceding day's thaw. The other Fall, 200 yards higher up the hill, exhibits more water; but the fall is not quite so high, nearly one-third of the stream being diverted through a tunnel 90 yards long in the solid rock, above the lower Fall, for the purpose of turning several mill-wheels; and in course of time the latter cataract will be reduced to a few gallons per minute, like the Passaic at Patterson. In our land of small rivers, the cascade formed by the quantity of water conveyed to the mills would be considered of some magnitude, and an object of no small interest. These Falls certainly vie with those at Trenton in point of beauty, though so very dissimilar in their formation; the latter are almost subterraneous, while the former rush over the brow of a hill, between large impending crags, crowned with thick dark foliage, with scarcely a passage worn down the rocky ledge for their foaming waters. Trenton, too, they have acquired a melancholy interest from similar causes; a highly accomplished young lady being drowned at each place within these few years, when visiting the Falls in company with their friends and relatives. Like Not wishing to return up Cayuga Lake, and in fact having made a point of never returning by the same road when it could be avoided, we hired a carriage with two excellent horses, and at a quarter to three in the afternoon, on the 9th of August, departed from Ithaca, ascending a steep and long hill for two or three miles. While enjoying a most extensive and charming prospect from the summit, we encountered one of the heaviest gling against it for a quarter of an hour, we succeeded in gaining an open shed by the road side, already filled with half drowned pedestrians and equestrians, who were seeking shelter from the pitiless peltings of the storm. Such an arrival as ours, with a carriage loaded with heavy trunks, a pile of carpet bags and hat-boxes, with umbrellas, water-proof cloaks, and great coats innumerable, would have attracted the curiosity of less inquisitive people than thorough-bred Yankees. Five or six inmates of the shed busied themselves with examining the ivory Chinese handle of Mr. B.'s umbrella; and a person, whom they designated as "Doctor," dressed in a threadbare, shabby-genteel, frock coat, of blue cloth, with a collar originally black velvet, but which, by wear and tear of weather, had been transformed into a nondescript colour, observed that "they carved cleverly in New York." The patent leather hat-box soon fixed their attention, and, my answer not satisfying them that it was not made of wood, they took it out of the carriage and minutely inspected it both within and without. The patent boxes of the carriage wheels next became subjects for their conjectures and guesses; they had evidently seen none before. At this time we were joined by a most consequential person,-the landlord of an adjoining ta vern, whose curiosity had been excited by the crowd in his shed. Some one asked him whether he had ever seen such "mortal curious things in a carriage before;" he answered, "Yes ;" and just glancing at one of the fore wheels," but these are those poor Yankee things; I have been a teaming these fifteen years, and would never wear one of them;" then turning to a hind wheel, why here, this box is clear gone, the wheel will come off the first heavy lurch you have, and you'll be cast adrift." For once, curiosity proved of service, it being very evident that the first heavy jolt would throw the wheel from the carriage. Another by-stander, a blacksmith, and old weather-beaten man of sixty, whom the inn-keeper addressed as "Uncle Jack," said he would render it secure in five minutes, and carried the box away to his forge, which was "but a few rods up the road." 66 one of the handsomest buildings of the kind in the States, but its bar-room is one of the dirtiest. There are many factories and mills in and about Ithaca, on the small streams which pour their waters into the lake. A rivulet within a mile of the town forms two of the prettiest Falls imaginable. The lower one, about 80 feet in height, falling over a series of small rocky ledges, appears like so many flakes of snow upon the dark masses of stone; and, where the sun strikes upon the foam, it glitters like the sparkling frost on a December's morn, after the preceding day's thaw. The other Fall, 200 yards higher up the hill, exhibits more water; but the fall is not quite so high, nearly one-third of the stream being diverted through a tunnel 90 yards long in the solid rock, above the lower Fall, for the purpose of turning several mill-wheels; and in course of time the latter cataract will be reduced to a few gallons per minute, like the Passaic at Patterson. In our land of small rivers, the cascade formed by the quantity of water conveyed to the mills would be considered of some magnitude, and an object of no small interest. These Falls certainly vie with those at Trenton in point of beauty, though so very dissimilar in their formation; the latter are almost subterraneous, while the former rush over the brow of a hill, between large impending crags, crowned with thick dark foliage, with scarcely a passage worn down the rocky ledge for their foaming waters. Trenton, too, they have acquired a melancholy interest from similar causes; a highly accomplished young lady being drowned at each place within these few years, when visiting the Falls in company with their friends and relatives. Like Not wishing to return up Cayuga Lake, and in fact having made a point of never returning by the same road when it could be avoided, we hired a carriage with two excellent horses, and at a quarter to thrce in the afternoon, on the 9th of August, departed from Ithaca, ascending a steep and long hill for two or three miles. While enjoying a most extensive and charming prospect from the summit, we encountered one of the heaviest |