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        <dc:contributor>Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)</dc:contributor>
        <dc:creator>Jefferson, Thomas</dc:creator>
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        <dc:title>Notes On The State Of Virginia</dc:title>
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        <alex:sortTitle>Notes On The State Of Virginia</alex:sortTitle>
        <alex:fullText><![CDATA[        NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
        by Thomas Jefferson

        _ADVERTISEMENT_

        The following Notes were written in Virginia in the year 1781,
and somewhat corrected and enlarged in the winter of 1782, in answer
to Queries proposed to the Author, by a Foreigner of Distinction,
then residing among us.  The subjects are all treated imperfectly;
some scarcely touched on.  To apologize for this by developing the
circumstances of the time and place of their composition, would be to
open wounds which have already bled enough.  To these circumstances
some of their imperfections may with truth be ascribed; the great
mass to the want of information and want of talents in the writer.
He had a few copies printed, which he gave among his friends: and a
translation of them has been lately published in France, but with
such alterations as the laws of the press in that country rendered
necessary.  They are now offered to the public in their original form
and language.
         Feb. 27, 1787.

        QUERY I

         _An exact description of the limits and boundaries of the state of
Virginia?_

        Limits
        Virginia is bounded on the East by the Atlantic: on the North by a
line of latitude, crossing the Eastern Shore through Watkins&#39;s Point, being
about 37 degrees.57&#39; North latitude; from thence by a streight line to
Cinquac, near the mouth of Patowmac; thence by the Patowmac, which is common
to Virginia and Maryland, to the first fountain of its northern branch;
thence by a meridian line, passing through that fountain till it intersects a
line running East and West, in latitude 39 degrees.43&#39;.42.4&quot; which divides
Maryland from Pennsylvania, and which was marked by Messrs. Mason and Dixon;
thence by that line, and a continuation of it westwardly to the completion of
five degrees of longitude from the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania, in the
same latitude, and thence by a meridian line to the Ohio: On the West by the
Ohio and Missisipi, to latitude 36 degrees.30&#39;. North: and on the South by
the line of latitude last-mentioned.  By admeasurements through nearly the
whole of this last line, and supplying the unmeasured parts from good data,
the Atlantic and Missisipi, are found in this latitude to be 758 miles
distant, equal to 13 degrees.38&#39;. of longitude, reckoning 55 miles and 3144
feet to the degree.  This being our comprehension of longitude, that of our
latitude, taken between this and Mason and Dixon&#39;s line, is 3
degrees.13&#39;.42.4&quot; equal to 223.3 miles, supposing a degree of a great circle
to be 69 m. 864 f. as computed by Cassini.  These boundaries include an area
somewhat triangular, of 121525 square miles, whereof 79650 lie westward of
the Allegany mountains, and 57034 westward of the meridian of the mouth of
the Great Kanhaway.  This state is therefore one third larger than the
islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which are reckoned at 88357 square
miles.

        These limits result from, 1. The antient charters from the
crown of England.  2. The grant of Maryland to the Lord Baltimore,
and the subsequent determinations of the British court as to the
extent of that grant.  3. The grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn,
and a compact between the general assemblies of the commonwealths of
Virginia and Pennsylvania as to the extent of that grant.  4. The
grant of Carolina, and actual location of its northern boundary, by
consent of both parties.  5. The treaty of Paris of 1763.  6. The
confirmation of the charters of the neighbouring states by the
convention of Virginia at the time of constituting their
commonwealth.  7. The cession made by Virginia to Congress of all the
lands to which they had title on the North side of the Ohio.

        QUERY II
 
        _A notice of its rivers, rivulets, and how far they are
navigable?_

        Rivers and Navigation
        An inspection of a map of Virginia, will give a better idea of
the geography of its rivers, than any description in writing.  Their
navigation may be imperfectly noted.

        _Roanoke_, so far as it lies within this state, is no where
navigable, but for canoes, or light batteaux; and, even for these, in
such detached parcels as to have prevented the inhabitants from
availing themselves of it at all.

        _James River_, and its waters, afford navigation as follows.

        The whole of _Elizabeth River_, the lowest of those which run
into James River, is a harbour, and would contain upwards of 300
ships.  The channel is from 150 to 200 fathom wide, and at common
flood tide, affords 18 feet water to Norfolk.  The Strafford, a 60
gun ship, went there, lightening herself to cross the bar at Sowell&#39;s
point.  The Fier Rodrigue, pierced for 64 guns, and carrying 50, went
there without lightening.  Craney island, at the mouth of this river,
commands its channel tolerably well.

        _Nansemond River_ is navigable to Sleepy hole, for vessels of
250 tons; to Suffolk, for those of 100 tons; and to Milner&#39;s, for
those of 25.

        _Pagan Creek_ affords 8 or 10 feet water to Smithfeild, which
admits vessels of 20 ton.

        _Chickahominy_ has at its mouth a bar, on which is only 12 feet
water at common flood tide.  Vessels passing that, may go 8 miles up
the river; those of 10 feet draught may go four miles further, and
those of six tons burthen, 20 miles further.

        _Appamattox_ may be navigated as far as Broadways, by any
vessel which has crossed Harrison&#39;s bar in James river; it keeps 8 or
9 feet water a mile or two higher up to Fisher&#39;s bar, and 4 feet on
that and upwards to Petersburgh, where all navigation ceases.

        _James River_ itself affords harbour for vessels of any size in
Hampton Road, but not in safety through the whole winter; and there
is navigable water for them as far as Mulberry island.  A 40 gun ship
goes to James town, and, lightening herself, may pass to Harrison&#39;s
bar, on which there is only 15 feet water.  Vessels of 250 tons may
go to Warwick; those of 125 go to Rocket&#39;s, a mile below Richmond;
from thence is about 7 feet water to Richmond; and about the center
of the town, four feet and a half, where the navigation is
interrupted by falls, which in a course of six miles, descend about
80 feet perpendicular: above these it is resumed in canoes and
batteaux, and is prosecuted safely and advantageously to within 10
miles of the Blue ridge; and even through the Blue ridge a ton weight
has been brought; and the expence would not be great, when compared
with its object, to open a tolerable navigation up Jackson&#39;s river
and Carpenter&#39;s creek, to within 25 miles of Howard&#39;s creek of Green
briar, both of which have then water enough to float vessels into the
Great Kanhaway.  In some future state of population, I think it
possible, that its navigation may also be made to interlock with that
of the Patowmac, and through that to communicate by a short portage
with the Ohio.  It is to be noted, that this river is called in the
maps _James River_, only to its confluence with the Rivanna; thence
to the Blue ridge it is called the Fluvanna; and thence to its
source, Jackson&#39;s river.  But in common speech, it is called James
river to its source.

        The _Rivanna_, a branch of James river, is navigable for canoes
and batteaux to its intersection with the South West mountains, which
is about 22 miles; and may easily be opened to navigation through
those mountains to its fork above Charlottesville.

        _York River_, at York town, affords the best harbour in the
state for vessels of the largest size.  The river there narrows to
the width of a mile, and is contained within very high banks, close
under which the vessels may ride.  It holds 4 fathom water at high
tide for 25 miles above York to the mouth of Poropotank, where the
river is a mile and a half wide, and the channel only 75 fathom, and
passing under a high bank.  At the confluence of _Pamunkey_ and
_Mattapony_, it is reduced to 3 fathom depth, which continues up
Pamunkey to Cumberland, where the width is 100 yards, and up
Mattapony to within two miles of Frazer&#39;s ferry, where it becomes 2
1/2 fathom deep, and holds that about five miles.  Pamunkey is then
capable of navigation for loaded flats to Brockman&#39;s bridge, 50 miles
above Hanover town, and Mattapony to Downer&#39;s bridge, 70 miles above
its mouth.

        _Piankatank_, the little rivers making out of _Mobjack bay_ and
those of the _Eastern shore_, receive only very small vessels, and
these can but enter them.

        _Rappahanock_ affords 4 fathom water to Hobb&#39;s hole, and 2
fathom from thence to Fredericksburg.

        _Patowmac_ is 7 1/2 miles wide at the mouth; 4 1/2 at Nomony
bay; 3 at Aquia; 1 1/2 at Hallooing point; 1 1/4 at Alexandria.  Its
soundings are, 7 fathom at the mouth; 5 at St. George&#39;s island; 4 1/2
at Lower Matchodic; 3 at Swan&#39;s point, and thence up to Alexandria;
thence 10 feet water to the falls, which are 13 miles above
Alexandria.  These falls are 15 miles in length, and of very great
descent, and the navigation above them for batteaux and canoes, is so
much interrupted as to be little used.  It is, however, used in a
small degree up the Cohongoronta branch as far as Fort Cumberland,
which was at the mouth of Wills&#39;s creek: and is capable, at no great
expence, of being rendered very practicable.  The Shenandoah branch
interlocks with James river about the Blue ridge, and may perhaps in
future be opened.

        The _Missisipi_ will be one of the principal channels of future
commerce for the country westward of the Alleghaney.  From the mouth
of this river to where it receives the Ohio, is 1000 miles by water,
but only 500 by land, passing through the Chickasaw country.  From
the mouth of the Ohio to that of the Missouri, is 230 miles by water,
and 140 by land.  From thence to the mouth of the Illinois river, is
about 25 miles.  The Missisipi, below the mouth of the Missouri, is
always muddy, and abounding with sand bars, which frequently change
their places.  However, it carries 15 feet water to the mouth of the
Ohio, to which place it is from one and a half to two miles wide, and
thence to Kaskaskia from one mile to a mile and a quarter wide.  Its
current is so rapid, that it never can be stemmed by the force of the
wind alone, acting on sails.  Any vessel, however, navigated with
oars, may come up at any time, and receive much aid from the wind.  A
batteau passes from the mouth of Ohio to the mouth of Missisipi in
three weeks, and is from two to three months getting up again.
During its floods, which are periodical as those of the Nile, the
largest vessels may pass down it, if their steerage can be ensured.
These floods begin in April, and the river returns into its banks
early in August.  The inundation extends further on the western than
eastern side, covering the lands in some places for 50 miles from its
banks.  Above the mouth of the Missouri, it becomes much such a river
as the Ohio, like it clear, and gentle in its current, not quite so
wide, the period of its floods nearly the same, but not rising to so
great a height.  The streets of the village at Cohoes are not more
than 10 feet above the ordinary level of the water, and yet were
never overflowed.  Its bed deepens every year.  Cohoes, in the memory
of many people now living, was insulated by every flood of the river.
What was the Eastern channel has now become a lake, 9 miles in length
and one in width, into which the river at this day never flows.  This
river yields turtle of a peculiar kind, perch, trout, gar, pike,
mullets, herrings, carp, spatula fish of 50 lb.  weight, cat fish of
an hundred pounds weight, buffalo fish, and sturgeon.  Alligators or
crocodiles have been seen as high up as the Acansas.  It also abounds
in herons, cranes, ducks, brant, geese, and swans.  Its passage is
commanded by a fort established by this state, five miles below the
mouth of Ohio, and ten miles above the Carolina boundary.

        The Missouri, since the treaty of Paris, the Illinois and
Northern branches of the Ohio since the cession to Congress, are no
longer within our limits.  Yet having been so heretofore, and still
opening to us channels of extensive communication with the western
and north-western country, they shall be noted in their order.

        The _Missouri_ is, in fact, the principal river, contributing
more to the common stream than does the Missisipi, even after its
junction with the Illinois.  It is remarkably cold, muddy and rapid.
Its overflowings are considerable.  They happen during the months of
June and July.  Their commencement being so much later than those of
the Missisipi, would induce a belief that the sources of the Missouri
are northward of those of the Missisipi, unless we suppose that the
cold increases again with the ascent of the land from the Missisipi
westwardly.  That this ascent is great, is proved by the rapidity of
the river.  Six miles above the mouth it is brought within the
compass of a quarter of a mile&#39;s width: yet the Spanish Merchants at
Pancore, or St. Louis, say they go two thousand miles up it.  It
heads far westward of the Rio Norte, or North River.  There is, in
the villages of Kaskaskia, Cohoes and St. Vincennes, no
inconsiderable quantity of plate, said to have been plundered during
the last war by the Indians from the churches and private houses of
Santa Fe, on the North River, and brought to these villages for sale.
From the mouth of Ohio to Santa Fe are forty days journey, or about
1000 miles.  What is the shortest distance between the navigable
waters of the Missouri, and those of the North River, or how far this
is navigable above Santa Fe, I could never learn.  From Santa Fe to
its mouth in the Gulph of Mexico is about 1200 miles.  The road from
New Orleans to Mexico crosses this river at the post of Rio Norte,
800 miles below Santa Fe: and from this post to New Orleans is about
1200 miles; thus making 2000 miles between Santa Fe and New Orleans,
passing down the North river, Red river and Missisipi; whereas it is
2230 through the Missouri and Missisipi.  From the same post of Rio
Norte, passing near the mines of La Sierra and Laiguana, which are
between the North river and the river Salina to Sartilla, is 375
miles; and from thence, passing the mines of Charcas, Zaccatecas and
Potosi, to the city of Mexico is 375 miles; in all, 1550 miles from
Santa Fe to the city of Mexico.  From New Orleans to the city of
Mexico is about 1950 miles: the roads, after setting out from the Red
river, near Natchitoches, keeping generally parallel with the coast,
and about two hundred miles from it, till it enters the city of
Mexico.

        The _Illinois_ is a fine river, clear, gentle, and without
rapids; insomuch that it is navigable for batteaux to its source.
From thence is a portage of two miles only to the Chickago, which
affords a batteau navigation of 16 miles to its entrance into lake
Michigan.  The Illinois, about 10 miles above its mouth, is 300 yards
wide.

        The _Kaskaskia_ is 100 yards wide at its entrance into the
Missisipi, and preserves that breadth to the Buffalo plains, 70 miles
above.  So far also it is navigable for loaded batteaux, and perhaps
much further.  It is not rapid.

        The _Ohio_ is the most beautiful river on earth.  Its current
gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and
rapids, a single instance only excepted.

        It is 1/4 of a mile wide at Fort Pitt:
        500 yards at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway:
        1 mile and 25 poles at Louisville:
        1/4 of a mile on the rapids, three or four miles below
Louisville:
        1/2 a mile where the low country begins, which is 20 miles
above Green river:
        1 1/4 at the receipt of the Tanissee:
        And a mile wide at the mouth.

        Its length, as measured according to its meanders by Capt.
Hutchings, is as follows:
        From Fort Pitt
 
                              Miles.                            Miles.
      To Log&#39;s town           18 1/2      Little Miami          126 1/4
      Big Beaver creek        10 3/4      Licking creek           8
      Little Beaver cr.       13 1/2      Great Miami            26 3/4
      Yellow creek            11 3/4      Big Bones              32 1/2
      Two creeks              21 3/4      Kentuckey              44 1/4
      Long reach              53 3/4      Rapids                 77 1/4
      End Long reach          16 1/2      Low country           155 3/4
      Muskingum               25 1/2      Buffalo river          64 1/2
      Little Kanhaway         12 1/4      Wabash                 97 1/4
      Hockhocking             16          Big cave               42 3/4
      Great Kanhaway          82 1/2      Shawanee river         52 1/2
      Guiandot                43 3/4      Cherokee river         13
      Sandy creek             14 1/2      Massac                 11
      Sioto                   48 3/4      Missisipi              46
                                                                ____
                                                                1188

        In common winter and spring tides it affords 15 feet water to
Louisville, 10 feet to La Tarte&#39;s rapids, 40 miles above the mouth of
the great Kanhaway, and a sufficiency at all times for light batteaux
and canoes to Fort Pitt.  The rapids are in latitude 38 degrees.8&#39;.  The
inundations of this river begin about the last of March, and subside
in July.  During these a first rate man of war may be carried from
Louisville to New Orleans, if the sudden turns of the river and the
strength of its current will admit a safe steerage.  The rapids at
Louisville descend about 30 feet in a length of a mile and a half.
The bed of the river there is a solid rock, and is divided by an
island into two branches, the southern of which is about 200 yards
wide, and is dry four months in the year.  The bed of the northern
branch is worn into channels by the constant course of the water, and
attrition of the pebble stones carried on with that, so as to be
passable for batteaux through the greater part of the year.  Yet it
is thought that the southern arm may be the most easily opened for
constant navigation.  The rise of the waters in these rapids does not
exceed 10 or 12 feet.  A part of this island is so high as to have
been never overflowed, and to command the settlement at Louisville,
which is opposite to it.  The fort, however, is situated at the head
of the falls.  The ground on the South side rises very gradually.

        The _Tanissee_, Cherokee or Hogohege river is 600 yards wide at
its mouth, 1/4 of a mile at the mouth of Holston, and 200 yards at
Chotee, which is 20 miles above Holston, and 300 miles above the
mouth of the Tanissee.  This river crosses the southern boundary of
Virginia, 58 miles from the Missisipi.  Its current is moderate.  It
is navigable for loaded boats of any burthen to the Muscleshoals,
where the river passes through the Cumberland mountain.  These shoals
are 6 or 8 miles long, passable downwards for loaded canoes, but not
upwards, unless there be a swell in the river.  Above these the
navigation for loaded canoes and batteaux continues to the Long
island.  This river has its inundations also.  Above the Chickamogga
towns is a whirlpool called the Sucking-pot, which takes in trunks of
trees or boats, and throws them out again half a mile below.  It is
avoided by keeping very close to the bank, on the South side.  There
are but a few miles portage between a branch of this river and the
navigable waters of the river Mobile, which runs into the gulph of
Mexico.

        _Cumberland_, or Shawanee river, intersects the boundary
between Virginia and North Carolina 67 miles from the Missisipi, and
again 198 miles from the same river, a little above the entrance of
Obey&#39;s river into the Cumberland.  Its clear fork crosses the same
boundary about 300 miles from the Missisipi.  Cumberland is a very
gentle stream, navigable for loaded batteaux 800 miles, without
interruption; then intervene some rapids of 15 miles in length, after
which it is again navigable 70 miles upwards, which brings you within
10 miles of the Cumberland mountains.  It is about 120 yards wide
through its whole course, from the head of its navigation to its
mouth.

        The _Wabash_ is a very beautiful river, 400 yards wide at the
mouth, and 300 at St. Vincennes, which is a post 100 miles above the
mouth, in a direct line.  Within this space there are two small
rapids, which give very little obstruction to the navigation.  It is
400 yards wide at the mouth, and navigable 30 leagues upwards for
canoes and small boats.  From the mouth of Maple river to that of Eel
river is about 80 miles in a direct line, the river continuing
navigable, and from one to two hundred yards in width.  The Eel river
is 150 yards wide, and affords at all times navigation for periaguas,
to within 18 miles of the Miami of the lake.  The Wabash, from the
mouth of Eel river to Little river, a distance of 50 miles direct, is
interrupted with frequent rapids and shoals, which obstruct the
navigation, except in a swell.  Little river affords navigation
during a swell to within 3 miles of the Miami, which thence affords a
similar navigation into lake Erie, 100 miles distant in a direct
line.  The Wabash overflows periodically in correspondence with the
Ohio, and in some places two leagues from its banks.

        _Green River_ is navigable for loaded batteaux at all times 50
miles upwards; but it is then interrupted by impassable rapids, above
which the navigation again commences, and continues good 30 or 40
miles to the mouth of Barren river.

        _Kentucky_ river is 90 yards wide at the mouth, and also at
Boonsborough, 80 miles above.  It affords a navigation for loaded
batteaux 180 miles in a direct line, in the winter tides.

        The _Great Miami_ of the Ohio, is 200 yards wide at the mouth.
At the Piccawee towns, 75 miles above, it is reduced to 30 yards; it
is, nevertheless, navigable for loaded canoes 50 miles above these
towns.  The portage from its western branch into the Miami of Lake
Erie, is 5 miles; that from its eastern branch into Sandusky river,
is of 9 miles.

        _Salt_ river is at all times navigable for loaded batteaux 70
or 80 miles.  It is 80 yards wide at its mouth, and keeps that width
to its fork, 25 miles above.

        The _Little Miami_ of the Ohio, is 60 or 70 yards wide at its
mouth, 60 miles to its source, and affords no navigation.

        The _Sioto_ is 250 yards wide at its mouth, which is in
latitude 38 degrees, 22&#39;. and at the Saltlick towns, 200 miles above
the mouth, it is yet 100 yards wide.  To these towns it is navigable
for loaded batteaux, and its eastern branch affords navigation almost
to its source.

        _Great Sandy_ river is about sixty yards wide, and navigable
sixty miles for loaded batteaux.

        _Guiandot_ is about the width of the river last mentioned, but
is more rapid.  It may be navigated by canoes sixty miles.

        The _Great Kanhaway_ is a river of considerable note for the
fertility of its lands, and still more, as leading towards the
headwaters of James river.  Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether its
great and numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expence
to which it will require ages to render its inhabitants equal.  The
great obstacles begin at what are called the great falls, 90 miles
above the mouth, below which are only five or six rapids, and these
passable, with some difficulty, even at low water.  From the falls to
the mouth of Greenbriar is 100 miles, and thence to the lead mines
120.  It is 280 yards wide at its mouth.

        _Hock-hocking_ is 80 yards wide at its mouth, and yields
navigation for loaded batteaux to the Press-place, 60 miles above its
mouth.

        The _Little Kanhaway_ is 150 yards wide at the mouth.  It
yields a navigation of 10 miles only.  Perhaps its northern branch,
called Junius&#39;s creek, which interlocks with the western of
Monongahela, may one day admit a shorter passage from the latter into
the Ohio.

        The _Muskingum_ is 280 yards wide at its mouth, and 200 yards
at the lower Indian towns, 150 miles upwards.  It is navigable for
small batteaux to within one mile of a navigable part of Cayahoga
river, which runs into lake Erie.

        At Fort Pitt the river Ohio loses its name, branching into the
Monongahela and Alleghaney.

        The _Monongahela_ is 400 yards wide at its mouth.  From thence
is 12 or 15 miles to the mouth of Yohoganey, where it is 300 yards
wide.  Thence to Redstone by water is 50 miles, by land 30.  Then to
the mouth of Cheat river by water 40 miles, by land 28, the width
continuing at 300 yards, and the navigation good for boats.  Thence
the width is about 200 yards to the western fork, 50 miles higher,
and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids; which however
with a swell of two or three feet become very passable for boats.  It
then admits light boats, except in dry seasons, 65 miles further to
the head of Tygarts valley, presenting only some small rapids and
falls of one or two feet perpendicular, and lessening in its width to
20 yards.  The _Western fork_ is navigable in the winter 10 or 15
miles towards the northern of the Little Kanhaway, and will admit a
good waggon road to it.  The _Yohoganey_ is the principal branch of
this river.  It passes through the Laurel mountain, about 30 miles
from its mouth; is so far from 300 to 150 yards wide, and the
navigation much obstructed in dry weather by rapids and shoals.  In
its passage through the mountain it makes very great falls, admitting
no navigation for ten miles to the Turkey foot.  Thence to the great
crossing, about 20 miles, it is again navigable, except in dry
seasons, and at this place is 200 yards wide.  The sources of this
river are divided from those of the Patowmac by the Alleghaney
mountain.  From the falls, where it intersects the Laurel mountain,
to Fort Cumberland, the head of the navigation on the Patowmac, is 40
miles of very mountainous road.  Wills&#39;s creek, at the mouth of which
was Fort Cumberland, is 30 or 40 yards wide, but affords no
navigation as yet.  _Cheat_ river, another considerable branch of the
Monongahela, is 200 yards wide at its mouth, and 100 yards at the
Dunkard&#39;s settlement, 50 miles higher.  It is navigable for boats,
except in dry seasons.  The boundary between Virginia and
Pennsylvania crosses it about three or four miles above its mouth.

        The _Alleghaney_ river, with a slight swell, affords navigation
for light batteaux to Venango, at the mouth of French creek, where it
is 200 yards wide; and it is practised even to Le B;oeuf, from whence
there is a portage of 15 miles to Presque Isle on Lake Erie.

        The country watered by the Missisipi and its eastern branches,
constitutes five-eighths of the United States, two of which
five-eighths are occupied by the Ohio and its waters: the residuary
streams which run into the Gulph of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St.
Laurence water, the remaining three-eighths.

        Before we quit the subject of the western waters, we will take
a view of their principal connections with the Atlantic.  These are
three; the Hudson&#39;s river, the Patowmac, and the Missisipi itself.
Down the last will pass all heavy commodities.  But the navigation
through the Gulph of Mexico is so dangerous, and that up the
Missisipi so difficult and tedious, that it is thought probable that
European merchandize will not return through that channel.  It is
most likely that flour, timber, and other heavy articles will be
floated on rafts, which will themselves be an article for sale as
well as their loading, the navigators returning by land or in light
batteaux.  There will therefore be a competition between the Hudson
and Patowmac rivers for the residue of the commerce of all the
country westward of Lake Erie, on the waters of the lakes, of the
Ohio, and upper parts of the Missisipi.  To go to New-York, that part
of the trade which comes from the lakes or their waters must first be
brought into Lake Erie.  Between Lake Superior and its waters and
Huron are the rapids of St. Mary, which will permit boats to pass,
but not larger vessels.  Lakes Huron and Michigan afford
communication with Lake Erie by vessels of 8 feet draught.  That part
of the trade which comes from the waters of the Missisipi must pass
from them through some portage into the waters of the lakes.  The
portage from the Illinois river into a water of Michigan is of one
mile only.  From the Wabash, Miami, Muskingum, or Alleghaney, are
portages into the waters of Lake Erie, of from one to fifteen miles.
When the commodities are brought into, and have passed through Lake
Erie, there is between that and Ontario an interruption by the falls
of Niagara, where the portage is of 8 miles; and between Ontario and
the Hudson&#39;s river are portages at the falls of Onondago, a little
above Oswego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood creek to the Mohawks
river two miles; at the little falls of the Mohawks river half a
mile, and from Schenectady to Albany 16 miles.  Besides the increase
of expence occasioned by frequent change of carriage, there is an
increased risk of pillage produced by committing merchandize to a
greater number of hands successively.  The Patowmac offers itself
under the following circumstances.  For the trade of the lakes and
their waters westward of Lake Erie, when it shall have entered that
lake, it must coast along its southern shore, on account of the
number and excellence of its harbours, the northern, though shortest,
having few harbours, and these unsafe.  Having reached Cayahoga, to
proceed on to New-York it will have 825 miles and five portages:
whereas it is but 425 miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the
Patowmac, if it turns into the Cayahoga, and passes through that,
Bigbeaver, Ohio, Yohoganey, (or Monongalia and Cheat) and Patowmac,
and there are but two portages; the first of which between Cayahoga
and Beaver may be removed by uniting the sources of these waters,
which are lakes in the neighbourhood of each other, and in a
champaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to Patowmac will
be from 15 to 40 miles, according to the trouble which shall be taken
to approach the two navigations.  For the trade of the Ohio, or that
which shall come into it from its own waters or the Missisipi, it is
nearer through the Patowmac to Alexandria than to New-York by 580
miles, and it is interrupted by one portage only.  There is another
circumstance of difference too.  The lakes themselves never freeze,
but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudson&#39;s river is
itself shut up by the ice three months in the year; whereas the
channel to the Chesapeak leads directly into a warmer climate.  The
southern parts of it very rarely freeze at all, and whenever the
northern do, it is so near the sources of the rivers, that the
frequent floods to which they are there liable break up the ice
immediately, so that vessels may pass through the whole winter,
subject only to accidental and short delays.  Add to all this, that
in case of a war with our neighbours the Anglo-Americans or the
Indians, the route to New-York becomes a frontier through almost its
whole length, and all commerce through it ceases from that moment. --
But the channel to New-York is already known to practice; whereas the
upper waters of the Ohio and the Patowmac, and the great falls of the
latter, are yet to be cleared of their fixed obstructions.

        QUERY III
 
        _A notice of the best sea-ports of the state, and how big are
the vessels they can receive?_

        Having no ports but our rivers and creeks, this Query has been
answered under the preceding one.

        QUERY IV
 
        _A notice of its_ Mountains?

        Mountains
        For the particular geography of our mountains I must refer to
Fry and Jefferson&#39;s map of Virginia; and to Evans&#39;s analysis of his
map of America for a more philosophical view of them than is to be
found in any other work.  It is worthy notice, that our mountains are
not solitary and scattered confusedly over the face of the country;
but that they commence at about 150 miles from the sea-coast, are
disposed in ridges one behind another, running nearly parallel with
the sea-coast, though rather approaching it as they advance
north-eastwardly.  To the south-west, as the tract of country between
the sea-coast and the Mississipi becomes narrower, the mountains
converge into a single ridge, which, as it approaches the Gulph of
Mexico, subsides into plain country, and gives rise to some of the
waters of that Gulph, and particularly to a river called the
Apalachicola, probably from the Apalachies, an Indian nation formerly
residing on it.  Hence the mountains giving rise to that river, and
seen from its various parts, were called the Apalachian mountains,
being in fact the end or termination only of the great ridges passing
through the continent.  European geographers however extended the
name northwardly as far as the mountains extended; some giving it,
after their separation into different ridges, to the Blue ridge,
others to the North mountain, others to the Alleghaney, others to the
Laurel ridge, as may be seen in their different maps.  But the fact I
believe is, that none of these ridges were ever known by that name to
the inhabitants, either native or emigrant, but as they saw them so
called in European maps.  In the same direction generally are the
veins of lime-stone, coal and other minerals hitherto discovered: and
so range the falls of our great rivers.  But the courses of the great
rivers are at right angles with these.  James and Patowmac penetrate
through all the ridges of mountains eastward of the Alleghaney; that
is broken by no watercourse.  It is in fact the spine of the country
between the Atlantic on one side, and the Missisipi and St. Laurence
on the other.  The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge is
perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature.  You stand on a
very high point of land.  On your right comes up the Shenandoah,
having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek
a vent.  On your left approaches the Patowmac, in quest of a passage
also.  In the moment of their junction they rush together against the
mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea.  The first glance
of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth
has been created in time, that the mountains were formed first, that
the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly
they have been dammed up by the Blue ridge of mountains, and have
formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that continuing to
rise they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the
mountain down from its summit to its base.  The piles of rock on each
hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their
disrupture and avulsion from their beds by the most powerful agents
of nature, corroborate the impression.  But the distant finishing
which nature has given to the picture is of a very different
character.  It is a true contrast to the fore-ground.  It is as
placid and delightful, as that is wild and tremendous.  For the
mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the
cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance
in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the riot and
tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and participate of
the calm below.  Here the eye ultimately composes itself; and that
way too the road happens actually to lead.  You cross the Patowmac
above the junction, pass along its side through the base of the
mountain for three miles, its terrible precipices hanging in
fragments over you, and within about 20 miles reach Frederic town and
the fine country round that.  This scene is worth a voyage across the
Atlantic.  Yet here, as in the neighbourhood of the natural bridge,
are people who have passed their lives within half a dozen miles, and
have never been to survey these monuments of a war between rivers and
mountains, which must have shaken the earth itself to its center. --
The height of our mountains has not yet been estimated with any
degree of exactness.  The Alleghaney being the great ridge which
divides the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Missisipi, its
summit is doubtless more elevated above the ocean than that of any
other mountain.  But its relative height, compared with the base on
which it stands, is not so great as that of some others, the country
rising behind the successive ridges like the steps of stairs.  The
mountains of the Blue ridge, and of these the Peaks of Otter, are
thought to be of a greater height, measured from their base, than any
others in our country, and perhaps in North America.  From data,
which may found a tolerable conjecture, we suppose the highest peak
to be about 4000 feet perpendicular, which is not a fifth part of the
height of the mountains of South America, nor one third of the height
which would be necessary in our latitude to preserve ice in the open
air unmelted through the year.  The ridge of mountains next beyond
the Blue ridge, called by us the North mountain, is of the greatest
extent; for which reason they were named by the Indians the Endless
mountains.

        A substance supposed to be Pumice, found floating on the
Missisipi, has induced a conjecture, that there is a volcano on some
of its waters: and as these are mostly known to their sources, except
the Missouri, our expectations of verifying the conjecture would of
course be led to the mountains which divide the waters of the Mexican
Gulph from those of the South Sea; but no volcano having ever yet
been known at such a distance from the sea, we must rather suppose
that this floating substance has been erroneously deemed Pumice.

        QUERY V
 
        _Its Cascades and Caverns?_

        Falling Spring
        The only remarkable Cascade in this country, is that of the
Falling Spring in Augusta.  It is a water of James river, where it is
called Jackson&#39;s river, rising in the warm spring mountains about
twenty miles South West of the warm spring, and flowing into that
valley.  About three quarters of a mile from its source, it falls
over a rock 200 feet into the valley below.  The sheet of water is
broken in its breadth by the rock in two or three places, but not at
all in its height.  Between the sheet and rock, at the bottom, you
may walk across dry.  This Cataract will bear no comparison with that
of Niagara, as to the quantity of water composing it; the sheet being
only 12 or 15 feet wide above, and somewhat more spread below; but it
is half as high again, the latter being only 156 feet, according to
the mensuration made by order of M. Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada,
and 130 according to a more recent account.

        Madison&#39;s cave
        In the lime-stone country, there are many caverns of very
considerable extent.  The most noted is called Madison&#39;s Cave, and is
on the North side of the Blue ridge, near the intersection of the
Rockingham and Augusta line with the South fork of the southern river
of Shenandoah.  It is in a hill of about 200 feet perpendicular
height, the ascent of which, on one side, is so steep, that you may
pitch a biscuit from its summit into the river which washes its base.
The entrance of the cave is, in this side, about two thirds of the
way up.  It extends into the earth about 300 feet, branching into
subordinate caverns, sometimes ascending a little, but more generally
descending, and at length terminates, in two different places, at
basons of water of unknown extent, and which I should judge to be
nearly on a level with the water of the river; however, I do not
think they are formed by refluent water from that, because they are
never turbid; because they do not rise and fall in correspondence
with that in times of flood, or of drought; and because the water is
always cool.  It is probably one of the many reservoirs with which
the interior parts of the earth are supposed to abound, An
Eye-draught of Madison&#39;s cave, on a scale of 50 feet to the inch.
The arrows shew where it descends or ascends. And which yield
supplies to the fountains of water, distinguished from others only by
its being accessible.  The vault of this cave is of solid lime-stone,
from 20 to 40 or 50 feet high, through which water is continually
percolating.  This, trickling down the sides of the cave, has
incrusted them over in the form of elegant drapery; and dripping from
the top of the vault generates on that, and on the base below,
stalactites of a conical form, some of which have met and formed
massive columns.

        Another of these caves is near the North mountain, in the
county of Frederick, on the lands of Mr. Zane.  The entrance into
this is on the top of an extensive ridge.  You descend 30 or 40 feet,
as into a well, from whence the cave then extends, nearly
horizontally, 400 feet into the earth, preserving a breadth of from
20 to 50 feet, and a height of from 5 to 12 feet.  After entering
this cave a few feet, the mercury, which in the open air was at 50 degrees.
rose to 57 degrees. of Farenheit&#39;s thermometer, answering to11 degrees. of
Reaumur&#39;s, and it continued at that to the remotest parts of the
cave.  The uniform temperature of the cellars of the observatory of
Paris, which are 90 feet deep, and of all subterranean cavities of
any depth, where no chymical agents may be supposed to produce a
factitious heat, has been found to be 10 degrees. of Reamur, equal to 54
1/2 degrees. of Farenheit.  The temperature of the cave above-mentioned so
nearly corresponds with this, that the difference may be ascribed to
a difference of instruments.

        Blowing cave
        At the Panther gap, in the ridge which divides the waters of
the Cow and the Calf pasture, is what is called the _Blowing cave._
It is in the side of a hill, is of about 100 feet diameter, and emits
constantly a current of air of such force, as to keep the weeds
prostrate to the distance of twenty yards before it.  This current is
strongest in dry frosty weather, and in long spells of rain weakest.
Regular inspirations and expirations of air, by caverns and fissures,
have been probably enough accounted for, by supposing them combined
with intermitting fountains; as they must of course inhale air while
their reservoirs are emptying themselves, and again emit it while
they are filling.  But a constant issue of air, only varying in its
force as the weather is drier or damper, will require a new
hypothesis.  There is another blowing cave in the Cumberland
mountain, about a mile from where it crosses the Carolina line.  All
we know of this is, that it is not constant, and that a fountain of
water issues from it.

        Natural bridge
        The _Natural bridge_, the most sublime of Nature&#39;s works,
though not comprehended under the present head, must not be
pretermitted.  It is on the ascent of a hill, which seems to have
been cloven through its length by some great convulsion.  The
fissure, just at the bridge, is, by some admeasurements, 270 feet
deep, by others only 205.  It is about 45 feet wide at the bottom,
and 90 feet at the top; this of course determines the length of the
bridge, and its height from the water.  Its breadth in the middle, is
about 60 feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass at
the summit of the arch, about 40 feet.  A part of this thickness is
constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to many large
trees.  The residue, with the hill on both sides, is one solid rock
of lime-stone.  The arch approaches the Semi-elliptical form; but the
larger axis of the ellipsis, which would be the cord of the arch, is
many times longer than the transverse.  Though the sides of this
bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet
few men have resolution to walk to them and look over into the abyss.
You involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet
and peep over it.  Looking down from this height about a minute, gave
me a violent head ach.  If the view from the top be painful and
intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme.  It
is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime, to be felt
beyond what they are here: so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so
light, and springing as it were up to heaven, the rapture of the
spectator is really indescribable!  The fissure continuing narrow,
deep, and streight for a considerable distance above and below the
bridge, opens a short but very pleasing view of the North mountain on
one side, and Blue ridge on the other, at the distance each of them
of about five miles.  This bridge is in the county of Rock bridge, to
which it has given name, and affords a public and commodious passage
over a valley, which cannot be crossed elsewhere for a considerable
distance.  The stream passing under it is called Cedar creek.  It is
a water of James river, and sufficient in the driest seasons to turn
a grist-mill, though its fountain is not more than two miles above (*
1).

        (* 1) Don Ulloa mentions a break, similar to this, in the
province of Angaraez, in South America.  It is from 16 to 22 feet
wide, 111 feet deep, and of 1.3 miles continuance, English measures.
Its breadth at top is not sensibly greater than at bottom.  But the
following fact is remarkable, and will furnish some light for
conjecturing the probable origin of our natural bridge.  `Esta caxa,
6 cauce esta cortada en pena viva con tanta precision, que las
desigualdades del un lado entrantes, corresponden a las del otro lado
salientes, como si aquella altura se hubiese abierto expresamente,
con sus bueltas y tortuosidades, para darle transito a los aguas por
entre los dos murallones que la forman; siendo tal su igualdad, que
si llegasen a juntarse se endentarian uno con otro sin dexar hueco.&#39;
Not. Amer. II.  10.  Don Ulloa inclines to the opinion, that this
channel has been affected by the wearing of the water which runs
through it, rather than that the mountain should have been broken
open by any convulsion of nature.  But if it had been worn by the
running of water, would not the rocks which form the sides, have been
worn plane? or if, meeting in some parts with veins of harder stone,
the water had left prominences on the one side, would not the same
cause have sometimes, or perhaps generally, occasioned prominences on
the other side also?  Yet Don Ulloa tells us, that on the other side
there are always corresponding cavities, and that these tally with
the prominences so perfectly, that, were the two sides to come
together, they would fit in all their indentures, without leaving any
void.  I think that this does not resemble the effect of running
water, but looks rather as if the two sides had parted asunder.  The
sides of the break, over which is the Natural bridge of Virginia,
consisting of a veiny rock which yields to time, the correspondence
between the salient and re-entering inequalities, if it existed at
all, has now disappeared.  This break has the advantage of the one
described by Don Ulloa in its finest circumstance; no portion in that
instance having held together, during the separation of the other
parts, so as to form a bridge over the Abyss.

        QUERY VI
 
        _A notice of the mines and other subterraneous riches; its
trees, plants, fruits, &amp;c._

        1. Minerals
        Gold
        I knew a single instance of gold found in this state.  It was
interspersed in small specks through a lump of ore, of about four
pounds weight, which yielded seventeen pennyweight of gold, of
extraordinary ductility.  This ore was found on the North side of
Rappahanoc, about four miles below the falls.  I never heard of any
other indication of gold in its neighbourhood.

        Lead
        On the Great Kanhaway, opposite to the mouth of Cripple creek,
and about twenty-five miles from our southern boundary, in the county
of Montgomery, are mines of lead.  The metal is mixed, sometimes with
earth, and sometimes with rock, which requires the force of gunpowder
to open it; and is accompanied with a portion of silver, too small to
be worth separation under any process hitherto attempted there.  The
proportion yielded is from 50 to 80 lb. of pure metal from 100 lb. of
washed ore.  The most common is that of 60 to the 100 lb.  The veins
are at sometimes most flattering; at others they disappear suddenly
and totally.  They enter the side of the hill, and proceed
horizontally.  Two of them are wrought at present by the public, the
best of which is 100 yards under the hill.  These would employ about
50 labourers to advantage.  We have not, however, more than 30
generally, and these cultivate their own corn.  They have produced 60
tons of lead in the year; but the general quantity is from 20 to 25
tons.  The present furnace is a mile from the ore-bank, and on the
opposite side of the river.  The ore is first waggoned to the river,
a quarter of a mile, then laden on board of canoes and carried across
the river, which is there about 200 yards wide, and then again taken
into waggons and carried to the furnace.  This mode was originally
adopted, that they might avail themselves of a good situation on a
creek, for a pounding mill: but it would be easy to have the furnace
and pounding mill on the same side of the river, which would yield
water, without any dam, by a canal of about half a mile in length.
From the furnace the lead is transported 130 miles along a good road,
leading through the peaks of Otter to Lynch&#39;s ferry, or Winston&#39;s, on
James river, from whence it is carried by water about the same
distance to Westham.  This land carriage may be greatly shortened, by
delivering the lead on James river, above the blue ridge, from whence
a ton weight has been brought on two canoes.  The Great Kanhaway has
considerable falls in the neighbourhood of the mines.  About seven
miles below are three falls, of three or four feet perpendicular
each; and three miles above is a rapid of three miles continuance,
which has been compared in its descent to the great fall of James
river.  Yet it is the opinion, that they may be laid open for useful
navigation, so as to reduce very much the portage between the
Kanhaway and James river.

        A valuable lead mine is said to have been lately discovered in
Cumberland, below the mouth of Red river.  The greatest, however,
known in the western country, are on the Missisipi, extending from
the mouth of Rock river 150 miles upwards.  These are not wrought,
the lead used in that country being from the banks on the Spanish
side of the Missisipi, opposite to Kaskaskia.

        Copper
        A mine of copper was once opened in the county of Amherst, on
the North side of James river, and another in the opposite country,
on the South side.  However, either from bad management or the
poverty of the veins, they were discontinued.  We are told of a rich
mine of native copper on the Ouabache, below the upper Wiaw.

        Iron
        The mines of iron worked at present are Callaway&#39;s, Ross&#39;s, and
Ballendine&#39;s, on the South side of James river; Old&#39;s on the North
side, in Albemarle; Miller&#39;s in Augusta, and Zane&#39;s in Frederic.
These two last are in the valley between the Blue ridge and North
mountain.  Callaway&#39;s, Ross&#39;s, Millar&#39;s, and Zane&#39;s, make about 150
tons of bar iron each, in the year.  Ross&#39;s makes also about 1600
tons of pig iron annually; Ballendine&#39;s 1000; Callaway&#39;s, Millar&#39;s,
and Zane&#39;s, about 600 each.  Besides these, a forge of Mr.  Hunter&#39;s,
at Fredericksburgh, makes about 300 tons a year of bar iron, from
pigs imported from Maryland; and Taylor&#39;s forge on Neapsco of
Patowmac, works in the same way, but to what extent I am not
informed.  The indications of iron in other places are numerous, and
dispersed through all the middle country.  The toughness of the cast
iron of Ross&#39;s and Zane&#39;s furnaces is very remarkable.  Pots and
other utensils, cast thinner than usual, of this iron, may be safely
thrown into, or out of the waggons in which they are transported.
Salt-pans made of the same, and no longer wanted for that purpose,
cannot be broken up, in order to be melted again, unless previously
drilled in many parts.

        In the western country, we are told of iron mines between the
Muskingum and Ohio; of others on Kentucky, between the Cumberland and
Barren rivers, between Cumberland and Tannissee, on Reedy creek, near
the Long island, and on Chesnut creek, a branch of the Great
Kanhaway, near where it crosses the Carolina line.  What are called
the iron banks, on the Missisipi, are believed, by a good judge, to
have no iron in them.  In general, from what is hitherto known of
that country, it seems to want iron.

        Black lead
        Considerable quantities of black lead are taken occasionally
for use from Winterham, in the county of Amelia.  I am not able,
however, to give a particular state of the mine.  There is no work
established at it, those who want, going and procuring it for
themselves.

        Pit coal
        The country on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond,
and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with
mineral coal of a very excellent quality.  Being in the hands of many
proprietors, pits have been opened, and before the interruption of
our commerce were worked to an extent equal to the demand.

        In the western country coal is known to be in so many places,
as to have induced an opinion, that the whole tract between the
Laurel mountain, Missisipi, and Ohio, yields coal.  It is also known
in many places on the North side of the Ohio.  The coal at Pittsburg
is of very superior quality.  A bed of it at that place has been
a-fire since the year 1765.  Another coal-hill on the Pike-run of
Monongahela has been a-fire ten years; yet it has burnt away about
twenty yards only.

        Precious stones
        I have known one instance of an Emerald found in this country.
Amethysts have been frequent, and chrystals common; yet not in such
numbers any of them as to be worth seeking.

        There is very good marble, and in very great abundance, on
James river, at the mouth of Rockfish.  The samples

        Marble
        I have seen, were some of them of a white as pure as one might
expect to find on the surface of the earth: but most of them were
variegated with red, blue, and purple.  None of it has been ever
worked.  It forms a very large precipice, which hangs over a
navigable part of the river.  It is said there is marble at Kentucky.

        Limestone
        But one vein of lime-stone is known below the Blue ridge.  Its first
appearance, in our country, is in Prince William, two miles below the Pignut
ridge of mountains; thence it passes on nearly parallel with that, and
crosses the Rivanna about five miles below it, where it is called the
South-west ridge.  It then crosses Hardware, above the mouth of Hudson&#39;s
creek, James river at the mouth of Rockfish, at the marble quarry before
spoken of, probably runs up that river to where it appears again at Ross&#39;s
iron-works, and so passes off south-westwardly by Flat creek of Otter river.
It is never more than one hundred yards wide.  From the Blue ridge westwardly
the whole country seems to be founded on a rock of lime-stone, besides
infinite quantities on the surface, both loose and fixed.  This is cut into
beds, which range, as the mountains and sea-coast do, from south-west to
north-east, the lamina of each bed declining from the horizon towards a
parallelism with the axis of the earth.  Being struck with this observation,
I made, with a quadrant, a great number of trials on the angles of their
declination, and found them to vary from 22 degrees to 60 degrees but
averaging all my trials, the result was within one-third of a degree of the
elevation of the pole or latitude of the place, and much the greatest part of
them taken separately were little different from that: by which it appears,
that these lamina are, in the main, parallel with the axis of the earth.  In
some instances, indeed, I found them perpendicular, and even reclining the
other way: but these were extremely rare, and always attended with signs of
convulsion, or other circumstances of singularity, which admitted a
possibility of removal from their original position.  These trials were made
between Madison&#39;s cave and the Patowmac.  We hear of lime-stone on the
Missisipi and Ohio, and in all the mountainous country between the eastern
and western waters, not on the mountains themselves, but occupying the
vallies between them.

 
        Near the eastern foot of the North mountain are immense bodies
of _Schist_, containing impressions of shells in a variety of forms.
I have received petrified shells of very different kinds from the
first sources of the Kentucky, which bear no resemblance to any I
have ever seen on the tide-waters.  It is said that shells are found
in the Andes, in South-America, fifteen thousand feet above the level
of the ocean.  This is considered by many, both of the learned and
unlearned, as a proof of an universal deluge.  To the many
considerations opposing this opinion, the following may be added.
The atmosphere, and all its contents, whether of water, air, or other
matters, gravitate to the earth; that is to say, they have weight.
Experience tells us, that the weight of all these together never
exceeds that of a column of mercury of 31 inches height, which is
equal to one of rain-water of 35 feet high.  If the whole contents of
the atmosphere then were water, instead of what they are, it would
cover the globe but 35 feet deep; but as these waters, as they fell,
would run into the seas, the superficial measure of which is to that
of the dry parts of the globe as two to one, the seas would be raised
only 52 1/2 feet above their present level, and of course would
overflow the lands to that height only.  In Virginia this would be a
very small proportion even of the champaign country, the banks of our
tide-waters being frequently, if not generally, of a greater height.
Deluges beyond this extent then, as for instance, to the North
mountain or to Kentucky, seem out of the laws of nature.  But within
it they may have taken place to a greater or less degree, in
proportion to the combination of natural causes which may be supposed
to have produced them.  History renders probable some instances of a
partial deluge in the country lying round the Mediterranean sea.  It
has been often (* 1) supposed, and is not unlikely, that that sea was
once a lake.  While such, let us admit an extraordinary collection of
the waters of the atmosphere from the other parts of the globe to
have been discharged over that and the countries whose waters run
into it.  Or without supposing it a lake, admit such an extraordinary
collection of the waters of the atmosphere, and an influx of waters
from the Atlantic ocean, forced by long continued Western winds.
That lake, or that sea, may thus have been so raised as to overflow
the low lands adjacent to it, as those of Egypt and Armenia, which,
according to a tradition of the Egyptians and Hebrews, were
overflowed about 2300 years before the Christian aera; those of
Attica, said to have been overflowed in the time of Ogyges, about 500
years later; and those of Thessaly, in the time of Deucalion, still
300 years posterior.  But such deluges as these will not account for
the shells found in the higher lands.  A second opinion has been
entertained, which is, that, in times anterior to the records either
of history or tradition, the bed of the ocean, the principal
residence of the shelled tribe, has, by some great convulsion of
nature, been heaved to the heights at which we now find shells and
other remains of marine animals.  The favourers of this opinion do
well to suppose the great events on which it rests to have taken
place beyond all the aeras of history; for within these, certainly
none such are to be found: and we may venture to say further, that no
fact has taken place, either in our own days, or in the thousands of
years recorded in history, which proves the existence of any natural
agents, within or without the bowels of the earth, of force
sufficient to heave, to the height of 15,000 feet, such masses as the
Andes.  The difference between the power necessary to produce such an
effect, and that which shuffled together the different parts of
Calabria in our days, is so immense, that, from the existence of the
latter we are not authorised to infer that of the former.

        M. de Voltaire has suggested a third solution of this
difficulty (Quest. encycl. Coquilles).  He cites an instance in
Touraine, where, in the space of 80 years, a particular spot of earth
had been twice metamorphosed into soft stone, which had become hard
when employed in building.  In this stone shells of various kinds
were produced, discoverable at first only with the microscope, but
afterwards growing with the stone.  From this fact, I suppose, he
would have us infer, that, besides the usual process for generating
shells by the elaboration of earth and water in animal vessels,
nature may have provided an equivalent operation, by passing the same
materials through the pores of calcareous earths and stones: as we
see calcareous dropstones generating every day by the percolation of
water through lime-stone, and new marble forming in the quarries from
which the old has been taken out; and it might be asked, whether it
is more difficult for nature to shoot the calcareous juice into the
form of a shell, than other juices into the forms of chrystals,
plants, animals, according to the construction of the vessels through
which they pass?  There is a wonder somewhere.  Is it greatest on
this branch of the dilemma; on that which supposes the existence of a
power, of which we have no evidence in any other case; or on the
first, which requires us to believe the creation of a body of water,
and its subsequent annihilation?  The establishment of the instance,
cited by M. de Voltaire, of the growth of shells unattached to animal
bodies, would have been that of his theory.  But he has not
established it.  He has not even left it on ground so respectable as
to have rendered it an object of enquiry to the literati of his own
country.  Abandoning this fact, therefore, the three hypotheses are
equally unsatisfactory; and we must be contented to acknowledge, that
this great phaenomenon is as yet unsolved.  Ignorance is preferable
to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing,
then he who believes what is wrong.

        Stone
        There is great abundance (more especially when you approach the
mountains) of stone, white, blue, brown, &amp;c. fit for the chissel,
good mill-stone, such also as stands the fire, and slate-stone.  We
are told of flint, fit for gun-flints, on the Meherrin in Brunswic,
on the Missisipi between the mouth of Ohio and Kaskaskia, and on
others of the western waters.  Isinglass or mica is in several
places; load-stone also, and an Asbestos of a ligneous texture, is
sometimes to be met with.

        Earths
        Marle abounds generally.  A clay, of which, like the Sturbridge
in England, bricks are made, which will resist long the violent
action of fire, has been found on Tuckahoe creek of James river, and
no doubt will be found in other places.  Chalk is said to be in
Botetourt and Bedford.  In the latter county is some earth, believed
to be Gypseous.  Ochres are found in various parts.

 
        Nitre
        In the lime-stone country are many caves, the earthy floors of
which are impregnated with nitre.  On Rich creek, a branch of the
Great Kanhaway, about 60 miles below the lead mines, is a very large
one, about 20 yards wide, and entering a hill a quarter or half a
mile.  The vault is of rock, from 9 to 15 or 20 feet above the floor.
A Mr. Lynch, who gives me this account, undertook to extract the
nitre.  Besides a coat of the salt which had formed on the vault and
floor, he found the earth highly impregnated to the depth of seven
feet in some places, and generally of three, every bushel yielding on
an average three pounds of nitre.  Mr. Lynch having made about 1000
lb. of the salt from it, consigned it to some others, who have since
made 10,000 lb.  They have done this by pursuing the cave into the
hill, never trying a second time the earth they have once exhausted,
to see how far or soon it receives another impregnation.  At least
fifty of these caves are worked on the Greenbriar.  There are many of
them known on Cumberland river.

        Salt
        The country westward of the Alleghaney abounds with springs of
common salt.  The most remarkable we have heard of are at Bullet&#39;s
lick, the Big bones, the Blue licks, and on the North fork of
Holston.  The area of Bullet&#39;s lick is of many acres.  Digging the
earth to the depth of three feet, the water begins to boil up, and
the deeper you go, and the drier the weather, the stronger is the
brine.  A thousand gallons of water yield from a bushel to a bushel
and a half of salt, which is about 80 lb. of water to one lb. of
salt; but of sea-water 25 lb. yield one lb. of salt.  So that
sea-water is more than three times as strong as that of these
springs.  A salt spring has been lately discovered at the Turkey foot
on Yohogany, by which river it is overflowed, except at very low
water.  Its merit is not yet known.  Duning&#39;s lick is also as yet
untried, but it is supposed to be the best on this side the Ohio.
The salt springs on the margin of the Onondago lake are said to give
a saline taste to the waters of the lake.

        Medicinal springs
        There are several Medicinal springs, some of which are
indubitably efficacious, while others seem to owe their reputation as
much to fancy, and change of air and regimen, as to their real
virtues.  None of them having undergone a chemical analysis in
skilful hands, nor been so far the subject of observations as to have
produced a reduction into classes of the disorders which they
relieve, it is in my power to give little more than an enumeration of
them.

        The most efficacious of these are two springs in Augusta, near
the first sources of James river, where it is called Jackson&#39;s river.
They rise near the foot of the ridge of mountains, generally called
the Warm spring mountain, but in the maps Jackson&#39;s mountains.  The
one is distinguished by the name of the Warm spring, and the other of
the Hot spring.  The Warm spring issues with a very bold stream,
sufficient to work a grist-mill, and to keep the waters of its bason,
which is 30 feet in diameter, at the vital warmth, viz. 96 degrees of
Farenheit&#39;s thermometer.  The matter with which these waters is
allied is very volatile; its smell indicates it to be sulphureous, as
also does the circumstance of its turning silver black.  They relieve
rheumatisms.  Other complaints also of very different natures have
been removed or lessened by them.  It rains here four or five days in
every week.

        The _Hot spring_ is about six miles from the Warm, is much
smaller, and has been so hot as to have boiled an egg.  Some believe
its degree of heat to be lessened.  It raises the mercury in
Farenheit&#39;s thermometer to 112 degrees, which is fever heat.  It
sometimes relieves where the Warm spring fails.  A fountain of common
water, issuing within a few inches of its margin, gives it a singular
appearance.  Comparing the temperature of these with that of the Hot
springs of Kamschatka, of which Krachininnikow gives an account, the
difference is very great, the latter raising the mercury to 200 degrees
which is within 12 degrees of boiling water.  These springs are very much
resorted to in spite of a total want of accommodation for the sick.
Their waters are strongest in the hottest months, which occasions
their being visited in July and August principally.

        The Sweet springs are in the county of Botetourt, at the
eastern foot of the Alleghaney, about 42 miles from the Warm springs.
They are still less known.  Having been found to relieve cases in
which the others had been ineffectually tried, it is probable their
composition is different.  They are different also in their
temperature, being as cold as common water: which is not mentioned,
however, as a proof of a distinct impregnation.  This is among the
first sources of James river.

 
        On Patowmac river, in Berkeley county, above the North
mountain, are Medicinal springs, much more frequented than those of
Augusta.  Their powers, however, are less, the waters weakly
mineralized, and scarcely warm.  They are more visited, because
situated in a fertile, plentiful, and populous country, better
provided with accommodations, always safe from the Indians, and
nearest to the more populous states.

        In Louisa county, on the head waters of the South Anna branch
of York river, are springs of some medicinal virtue.  They are not
much used however.  There is a weak chalybeate at Richmond; and many
others in various parts of the country, which are of too little
worth, or too little note, to be enumerated after those
before-mentioned.

        We are told of a Sulphur spring on Howard&#39;s creek of
Greenbriar, and another at Boonsborough on Kentuckey.

        Burning spring
        In the low grounds of the Great Kanhaway, 7 miles above the
mouth of Elk river, and 67 above that of the Kanhaway itself, is a
hole in the earth of the capacity of 30 or 40 gallons, from which
issues constantly a bituminous vapour in so strong a current, as to
give to the sand about its orifice the motion which it has in a
boiling spring.  On presenting a lighted candle or torch within 18
inches of the hole, it flames up in a column of 18 inches diameter,
and four or five feet height, which sometimes burns out within 20
minutes, and at other times has been known to continue three days,
and then has been left still burning.  The flame is unsteady, of the
density of that of burning spirits, and smells like burning pit coal.
Water sometimes collects in the bason, which is remarkably cold, and
is kept in ebullition by the vapour issuing through it.  If the
vapour be fired in that state, the water soon becomes so warm that
the hand cannot bear it, and evaporates wholly in a short time.
This, with the circumjacent lands, is the property of his Excellency
General Washington and of General Lewis.

        There is a similar one on Sandy river, the flame of which is a
column of about 12 inches diameter, and 3 feet high.  General Clarke,
who informs me of it, kindled the vapour, staid about an hour, and
left it burning.

        Syphon fountains
        The mention of uncommon springs leads me to that of Syphon
fountains.  There is one of these near the intersection of the Lord
Fairfax&#39;s boundary with the North mountain, not far from Brock&#39;s gap,
on the stream of which is a grist-mill, which grinds two bushel of
grain at every flood of the spring.  Another, near the Cow-pasture
river, a mile and a half below its confluence with the Bull-pasture
river, and 16 or 17 miles from the Hot springs, which intermits once
in every twelve hours.  One also near the mouth of the North Holston.

        After these may be mentioned the _Natural Well_, on the lands
of a Mr. Lewis in Frederick county.  It is somewhat larger than a
common well: the water rises in it as near the surface of the earth
as in the neighbouring artificial wells, and is of a depth as yet
unknown.  It is said there is a current in it tending sensibly
downwards.  If this be true, it probably feeds some fountain, of
which it is the natural reservoir, distinguished from others, like
that of Madison&#39;s cave, by being accessible.  It is used with a
bucket and windlass as an ordinary well.

        Vegetables
        A complete catalogue of the trees, plants, fruits, &amp;c. is
probably not desired.  I will sketch out those which would
principally attract notice, as being 1. Medicinal, 2. Esculent, 3.
Ornamental, or 4. Useful for fabrication; adding the Linnaean to the
popular names, as the latter might not convey precise information to
a foreigner.  I shall confine myself too to native plants.

        1. Senna.  Cassia ligustrina.
        Arsmart.  Polygonum Sagittatum.
        Clivers, or goose-grass.  Galium spurium.
        Lobelia of several species.
        Palma Christi.  Ricinus.
        James-town weed.  Datura Stramonium.
        Mallow.  Malva rotundifolia.
        Syrian mallow.  Hibiscus moschentos.
                            Hibiscus virginicus.
        Indian mallow.  Sida rhombifolia.
                      Sida abutilon.
        Virginia Marshmallow.  Napaea hermaphrodita.
                             Napaea dioica.
        Indian physic.  Spiraea trifoliata.
        Euphorbia Ipecacuanhae.
        Pleurisy root.  Asclepias decumbens.
        Virginia snake-root.  Aristolochia serpentaria.
        Black snake-root.  Actaea racemosa.
        Seneca rattlesnake-root.  Polygala Senega.
        Valerian.  Valeriana locusta radiata.
        Gentiana, Saponaria, Villosa &amp; Centaurium.
        Ginseng.  Panax quinquefolium.
        Angelica.  Angelica sylvestris.
        Cassava.  Jatropha urens.

        2. Tuckahoe.  Lycoperdon tuber.
        Jerusalem artichoke.  Helianthus tuberosus.
        Long potatoes.  Convolvulas batatas.
        Granadillas. Maycocks. Maracocks. Passiflora incarnata.
        Panic.  Panicum of many species.
        Indian millet.  Holcus laxus.
                      Holcus striosus.
        Wild oat.  Zizania aquatica.
        Wild pea.  Dolichos of Clayton.
        Lupine.  Lupinus perennis.
        Wild hop.  Humulus lupulus.
        Wild cherry.  Prunus Virginiana.
        Cherokee plumb.  Prunus sylvestris fructu majori. }
        Wild plumb.  Prunus sylvestris fructu minori.  } Clayton.
        Wild crab-apple.  Pyrus coronaria.
        Red mulberry.  Morus rubra.
        Persimmon.  Diospyros Virginiana.
        Sugar maple.  Acer saccharinum.
        Scaly bark hiccory.  Juglans alba cortice squamoso.
        Clayton.
        Common hiccory.  Juglans alba, fructu minore rancido.
        Clayton.
        Paccan, or Illinois nut. Not described by Linnaeus, Millar, or
Clayton.  Were I to venture to describe this, speaking of the fruit
from memory, and of the leaf from plants of two years growth, I
should specify it as the Juglans alba,foliolis lanceolatis,
acuminatis, serratis, tomentosis, fructu minore, ovato, compresso,
vix insculpto, dulci, putamine, tenerrimo.  It grows on the Illinois,
Wabash, Ohio, and Missisipi.  It is spoken of by Don Ulloa under the
name of Pacanos, in his Noticias Americanas. Entret. 6.
        Black walnut.  Juglans nigra.
        White walnut.  Juglans alba.
        Chesnut.  Fagus castanea.
        Chinquapin.  Fagus pumila.
        Hazlenut.  Corylus avellana.
        Grapes.  Vitis. Various kinds, though only three described by
Clayton.
        Scarlet Strawberries.  Fragaria Virginiana of Millar.
        Whortleberries.  Vaccinium uliginosum?
        Wild gooseberries.  Ribes grossularia.
        Cranberries.  Vaccinium oxycoccos.
        Black raspberries.  Rubus occidentalis.
        Blackberries.  Rubus fruticosus.
        Dewberries.  Rubus caesius.
        Cloud-berries.  Rubus chamaemorus.

        3. Plane-tree.  Platanus occidentalis.
        Poplar.  Liriodendron tulipifera.
                   Populus heterophylla.
        Black poplar.  Populus nigra.
        Aspen.  Populus tremula.
        Linden, or lime.  Tilia Americana.
        Red flowering maple.  Acer rubrum.
        Horse-chesnut, or Buck&#39;s-eye.  Aesculus pavia.
        Catalpa.  Bignonia catalpa.
        Umbrella.  Magnolia tripetala.
        Swamp laurel.  Magnolia glauca.
        Cucumber-tree.  Magnolia acuminata.
        Portugal bay.  Laurus indica.
        Red bay.  Laurus borbonia.
        Dwarf-rose bay.  Rhododendron maximum.
        Laurel of the western country.  Qu. species?
        Wild pimento.  Laurus benzoin.
        Sassafras.  Laurus sassafras.
        Locust.  Robinia pseudo-acacia.
        Honey-locust.  Gleditsia. 1. Beta.
        Dogwood.  Cornus florida.
        Fringe or snow-drop tree. Chionanthus Virginica.
        Barberry.  Berberis vulgaris.
        Redbud, or Judas-tree.  Cercis Canadensis.
        Holly.  Ilex aquifolium.
        Cockspur hawthorn.  Crataegus coccinea.
        Spindle-tree.  Euonymus Europaeus.
        Evergreen spindle-tree.  Euonymus Americanus.
        Itea Virginica.
        Elder.  Sambucus nigra.
        Papaw.  Annona triloba.
        Candleberry myrtle.  Myrica cerifera.
        Dwarf-laurel.  Kalmia angustifolia.} called ivy
                           Kalmia latifolia } with us.
        Ivy.  Hedera quinquefolia.
        Trumpet honeysuckle.  Lonicera sempervirens.
        Upright honeysuckle.  Azalea nudiflora.
        Yellow jasmine.  Bignonia sempervirens.
        Calycanthus floridus.
        American aloe.  Agave Virginica.
        Sumach.  Rhus.  Qu. species?
        Poke.  Phytolacca decandra.
        Long moss.  Tillandsia Usneoides.

        4. Reed.  Arundo phragmitis.
        Virginia hemp.  Acnida cannabina.
        Flax.  Linum Virginianum.
        Black, or pitch-pine.  Pinus taeda.
        White pine.  Pinus strobus.
        Yellow pine.  Pinus Virginica.
        Spruce pine.  Pinus foliis singularibus.  Clayton.
        Hemlock spruce fir.  Pinus Canadensis.
        Abor vitae.  Thuya occidentalis.
        Juniper.  Juniperus virginica (called cedar with us).
        Cypress.  Cupressus disticha.
        White cedar.  Cupressus Thyoides.
        Black oak.  Quercus nigra.
        White oak.  Quercus alba.
        Red oak.  Quercus rubra.
        Willow oak.  Quercus phellos.
        Chesnut oak.  Quercus prinus.
        Black jack oak.  Quercus aquatica.  Clayton.  Query?
        Ground oak.  Quercus pumila.  Clayton.
        Live oak.  Quercus Virginiana.  Millar.
        Black Birch.  Betula nigra.
        White birch.  Betula alba.
        Beach.  Fagus sylvatica.
        Ash.  Fraxinus Americana.
              Fraxinus Novae Angliae.  Millar.
        Elm.  Ulmus Americana.
        Willow.  Salix.  Query species?
        Sweet Gum.  Liquidambar styraciflua.

        The following were found in Virginia when first visited by the
English; but it is not said whether of spontaneous growth, or by
cultivation only.  Most probably they were natives of more southern
climates, and handed along the continent from one nation to another
of the savages.

        Tobacco.  Nicotiana.
        Maize.  Zea mays.
        Round potatoes.  Solanum tuberosum.
        Pumpkins.  Cucurbita pepo.
        Cymlings.  Cucurbita verrucosa.
        Squashes.  Cucurbita melopepo.

        There is an infinitude of other plants and flowers, for an
enumeration and scientific description of which I must refer to the
Flora Virginica of our great botanist Dr. Clayton, published by
Gronovius at Leyden, in 1762.  This accurate observer was a native
and resident of this state, passed a long life in exploring and
describing its plants, and is supposed to have enlarged the botanical
catalogue as much as almost any man who has lived.

        Besides these plants, which are native, our _Farms_ produce
wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck wheat, broom corn, and Indian corn.
The climate suits rice well enough wherever the lands do.  Tobacco,
hemp, flax, and cotton, are staple commodities.  Indico yields two
cuttings.  The silk-worm is a native, and the mulberry, proper for
its food, grows kindly.

        We cultivate also potatoes, both the long and the round,
turnips, carrots, parsneps, pumpkins, and ground nuts (Arachis.) Our
grasses are Lucerne, St. Foin, Burnet, Timothy, ray and orchard
grass; red, white, and yellow clover; greenswerd, blue grass, and
crab grass.

        The _gardens_ yield musk melons, water melons, tomatas, okra,
pomegranates, figs, and the esculent plants of Europe.

        The _orchards_ produce apples, pears, cherries, quinces,
peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, and plumbs.

        Animals
        Our quadrupeds have been mostly described by Linnaeus and Mons.
de Buffon.  Of these the Mammoth, or big buffalo, as called by the
Indians, must certainly have been the largest.  Their tradition is,
that he was carnivorous, and still exists in the northern parts of
America.  A delegation of warriors from the Delaware tribe having
visited the governor of Virginia, during the present revolution, on
matters of business, after these had been discussed and settled in
council, the governor asked them some questions relative to their
country, and, among others, what they knew or had heard of the animal
whose bones were found at the Saltlicks, on the Ohio.  Their chief
speaker immediately put himself into an attitude of oratory, and with
a pomp suited to what he conceived the elevation of his subject,
informed him that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers,
`That in antient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to the
Big-bone licks, and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer,
elks, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the
use of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing
this, was so enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on the
earth, seated himself on a neighbouring mountain, on a rock, of which
his seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled
his bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big
bull, who presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as
they fell; but missing one at length, it wounded him in the side;
whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash,
the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living at
this day.&#39; It is well known that on the Ohio, and in many parts of
America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled
magnitude, are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of
the earth, and some a little below it.  A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner
by the Indians near the mouth of the Tanissee, relates, that, after
being transferred through several tribes, from one to another, he was
at length carried over the mountains west of the Missouri to a river
which runs westwardly; that these bones abounded there; and that the
natives described to him the animal to which they belonged as still
existing in the northern parts of their country; from which
description he judged it to be an elephant.  Bones of the same kind
have been lately found, some feet below the surface of the earth, in
salines opened on the North Holston, a branch of the Tanissee, about
the latitude of 36 1/2 degrees North.  From the accounts published in
Europe, I suppose it to be decided, that these are of the same kind
with those found in Siberia.  Instances are mentioned of like animal
remains found in the more southern climates of both hemispheres; but
they are either so loosely mentioned as to leave a doubt of the fact,
so inaccurately described as not to authorize the classing them with
the great northern bones, or so rare as to found a suspicion that
they have been carried thither as curiosities from more northern
regions.  So that on the whole there seem to be no certain vestiges
of the existence of this animal further south than the salines last
mentioned.  It is remarkable that the tusks and skeletons have been
ascribed by the naturalists of Europe to the elephant, while the
grinders have been given to the hippopotamus, or river-horse.  Yet it
is acknowledged, that the tusks and skeletons are much larger than
those of the elephant, and the grinders many times greater than those
of the hippopotamus, and essentially different in form.  Wherever
these grinders are found, there also we find the tusks and skeleton;
but no skeleton of the hippopotamus nor grinders of the elephant.  It
will not be said that the hippopotamus and elephant came always to
the same spot, the former to deposit his grinders, and the latter his
tusks and skeleton.  For what became of the parts not deposited
there?  We must agree then that these remains belong to each other,
that they are of one and the same animal, that this was not a
hippopotamus, because the hippopotamus had no tusks nor such a frame,
and because the grinders differ in their size as well as in the
number and form of their points.  That it was not an elephant, I
think ascertained by proofs equally decisive.  I will not avail
myself of the authority of the celebrated (* 2) anatomist, who, from
an examination of the form and structure of the tusks, has declared
they were essentially different from those of the elephant; because
another (* 3) anatomist, equally celebrated, has declared, on a like
examination, that they are precisely the same.  Between two such
authorities I will suppose this circumstance equivocal.  But, 1. The
skeleton of the mammoth (for so the incognitum has been called)
bespeaks an animal of five or six times the cubic volume of the
elephant, as Mons. de Buffon has admitted.  2. The grinders are five
times as large, are square, and the grinding surface studded with
four or five rows of blunt points: whereas those of the elephant are
broad and thin, and their grinding surface flat.  3. I have never
heard an instance, and suppose there has been none, of the grinder of
an elephant being found in America.  4. From the known temperature
and constitution of the elephant he could never have existed in those
regions where the remains of the mammoth have been found.  The
elephant is a native only of the torrid zone and its vicinities: if,
with the assistance of warm apartments and warm clothing, he has been
preserved in life in the temperate climates of Europe, it has only
been for a small portion of what would have been his natural period,
and no instance of his multiplication in them has ever been known.
But no bones of the mammoth, as I have before observed, have been
ever found further south than the salines of the Holston, and they
have been found as far north as the Arctic circle.  Those, therefore,
who are of opinion that the elephant and mammoth are the same, must
believe, 1. That the elephant known to us can exist and multiply in
the frozen zone; or, 2. That an internal fire may once have warmed
those regions, and since abandoned them, of which, however, the globe
exhibits no unequivocal indications; or, 3.  That the obliquity of
the ecliptic, when these elephants lived, was so great as to include
within the tropics all those regions in which the bones are found;
the tropics being, as is before observed, the natural limits of
habitation for the elephant.  But if it be admitted that this
obliquity has really decreased, and we adopt the highest rate of
decrease yet pretended, that is, of one minute in a century, to
transfer the northern tropic to the Arctic circle, would carry the
existence of these supposed elephants 250,000 years back; a period
far beyond our conception of the duration of animal bones left
exposed to the open air, as these are in many instances.  Besides,
though these regions would then be supposed within the tropics, yet
their winters would have been too severe for the sensibility of the
elephant.  They would have had too but one day and one night in the
year, a circumstance to which we have no reason to suppose the nature
of the elephant fitted.  However, it has been demonstrated, that, if
a variation of obliquity in the ecliptic takes place at all, it is
vibratory, and never exceeds the limits of 9 degrees, which is not
sufficient to bring these bones within the tropics.  One of these
hypotheses, or some other equally voluntary and inadmissible to
cautious philosophy, must be adopted to support the opinion that
these are the bones of the elephant.  For my own part, I find it
easier to believe that an animal may have existed, resembling the
elephant in his tusks, and general anatomy, while his nature was in
other respects extremely different.  From the 30th degree of South
latitude to the 30th of North, are nearly the limits which nature has
fixed for the existence and multiplication of the elephant known to
us.  Proceeding thence northwardly to 36 1/2 degrees, we enter those
assigned to the mammoth.  The further we advance North, the more
their vestiges multiply as far as the earth has been explored in that
direction; and it is as probable as otherwise, that this progression
continues to the pole itself, if land extends so far.  The center of
the Frozen zone then may be the Achme of their vigour, as that of the
Torrid is of the elephant.  Thus nature seems to have drawn a belt of
separation between these two tremendous animals, whose breadth indeed
is not precisely known, though at present we may suppose it about 6
1/2 degrees of latitude; to have assigned to the elephant the regions
South of these confines, and those North to the mammoth, founding the
constitution of the one in her extreme of heat, and that of the other
in the extreme of cold.  When the Creator has therefore separated
their nature as far as the extent of the scale of animal life allowed
to this planet would permit, it seems perverse to declare it the
same, from a partial resemblance of their tusks and bones.  But to
whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain such a one
has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all
terrestrial beings.  It should have sufficed to have rescued the
earth it inhabited, and the atmosphere it breathed, from the
imputation of impotence in the conception and nourishment of animal
life on a large scale: to have stifled, in its birth, the opinion of
a writer, the most learned too of all others in the science of animal
history, that in the new world,
        Buffon. xviii. 122. ed. Paris. 1764.
        `La nature vivante est beaucoup moins agissante, beaucoup moins
forte:&#39; that nature is less active, less energetic on one side of the
globe than she is on the other.  As if both sides were not warmed by
the same genial sun; as if a soil of the same chemical composition,
was less capable of elaboration into animal nutriment; as if the
fruits and grains from that soil and sun, yielded a less rich chyle,
gave less extension to the solids and fluids of the body, or produced
sooner in the cartilages, membranes, and fibres, that rigidity which
restrains all further extension, and terminates animal growth.  The
truth is, that a Pigmy and a Patagonian, a Mouse and a Mammoth,
derive their dimensions from the same nutritive juices.  The
difference of increment depends on circumstances unsearchable to
beings with our capacities.  Every race of animals seems to have
received from their Maker certain laws of extension at the time of
their formation.  Their elaborative organs were formed to produce
this, while proper obstacles were opposed to its further progress.
Below these limits they cannot fall, nor rise above them.  What
intermediate station they shall take may depend on soil, on climate,
on food, on a careful choice of breeders.  But all the manna of
heaven would never raise the Mouse to the bulk of the Mammoth.
 
        xviii. 100-156.
        The opinion advanced by the Count de Buffon, is 1. That the
animals common both to the old and new world, are smaller in the
latter.  2. That those peculiar to the new, are on a smaller scale.
3. That those which have been domesticated in both, have degenerated
in America: and 4. That on the whole it exhibits fewer species.  And
the reason he thinks is, that the heats of America are less; that
more waters are spread over its surface by nature, and fewer of these
drained off by the hand of man.  In other words, that _heat_ is
friendly, and _moisture_ adverse to the production and developement
of large quadrupeds.  I will not meet this hypothesis on its first
doubtful ground, whether the climate of America be comparatively more
humid?  Because we are not furnished with observations sufficient to
decide this question.  And though, till it be decided, we are as free
to deny, as others are to affirm the fact, yet for a moment let it be
supposed.  The hypothesis, after this supposition, proceeds to
another; that _moisture_ is unfriendly to animal growth.  The truth
of this is inscrutable to us by reasonings a priori.  Nature has
hidden from us her modus agendi.  Our only appeal on such questions
is to experience; and I think that experience is against the
supposition.  It is by the assistance of _heat_ and _moisture_ that
vegetables are elaborated from the elements of earth, air, water, and
fire.  We accordingly see the more humid climates produce the greater
quantity of vegetables.  Vegetables are mediately or immediately the
food of every animal: and in proportion to the quantity of food, we
see animals not only multiplied in their numbers, but improved in
their bulk, as far as the laws of their nature will admit.  Of this
opinion is the Count de Buffon himself in another part of his work:
         viii. 134.
         `en general il paroit que les pays un peu _froids_
conviennent mieux a nos boeufs que les pays chauds, et qu&#39;ils sont
d&#39;autant plus gros et plus grands que le climat est plus _humide_ et
plus abondans en paturages.  Les boeufs de Danemarck, de la Podolie,
de l&#39;Ukraine et de la Tartarie qu&#39;habitent les Calmouques sont les
plus grands de tous.&#39; Here then a race of animals, and one of the
largest too, has been increased in its dimensions by _cold_ and
_moisture_, in direct opposition to the hypothesis, which supposes
that these two circumstances diminish animal bulk, and that it is
their contraries _heat_ and _dryness_ which enlarge it.  But when we
appeal to experience, we are not to rest satisfied with a single
fact.  Let us therefore try our question on more general ground.  Let
us take two portions of the earth, Europe and America for instance,
sufficiently extensive to give operation to general causes; let us
consider the circumstances peculiar to each, and observe their effect
on animal nature.  America, running through the torrid as well as
temperate zone, has more _heat_, collectively taken, than Europe.
But Europe, according to our hypothesis, is the _dryest_.  They are
equally adapted then to animal productions; each being endowed with
one of those causes which befriend animal growth, and with one which
opposes it.  If it be thought unequal to compare Europe with America,
which is so much larger, I answer, not more so than to compare
America with the whole world.  Besides, the purpose of the comparison
is to try an hypothesis, which makes the size of animals depend on
the _heat_ and _moisture_ of climate.  If therefore we take a region,
so extensive as to comprehend a sensible distinction of climate, and
so extensive too as that local accidents, or the intercourse of
animals on its borders, may not materially affect the size of those
in its interior parts, we shall comply with those conditions which
the hypothesis may reasonably demand.  The objection would be the
weaker in the present case, because any intercourse of animals which
may take place on the confines of Europe and Asia, is to the
advantage of the former, Asia producing certainly larger animals than
Europe.  Let us then take a comparative view of the Quadrupeds of
Europe and America, presenting them to the eye in three different
tables, in one of which shall be enumerated those found in both
countries; in a second those found in one only; in a third those
which have been domesticated in both.  To facilitate the comparison,
let those of each table be arranged in gradation according to their
sizes, from the greatest to the smallest, so far as their sizes can
be conjectured.  The weights of the large animals shall be expressed
in the English avoirdupoise pound and its decimals: those of the
smaller in the ounce and its decimals.  Those which are marked thus
*, are actual weights of particular subjects, deemed among the
largest of their species.  Those marked thus +, are furnished by
judicious persons, well acquainted with the species, and saying, from
conjecture only, what the largest individual they had seen would
probably have weighed.  The other weights are taken from Messrs.
Buffon and D&#39;Aubenton, and are of such subjects as came casually to
their hands for dissection.  This circumstance must be remembered
where their weights and mine stand opposed: the latter being stated,
not to produce a conclusion in favour of the American species, but to
justify a suspension of opinion until we are better informed, and a
suspicion in the mean time that there is no uniform difference in
favour of either; which is all I pretend.

        A comparative View of the Quadrupeds of Europe and of America.

        I.  _Aboriginals of both_.

                                      Europe.          America.
                                        lb.              lb.
        Mammoth
      Buffalo. Bison                                   *1800
      White bear. Ours bla            Caribou. Renne
      Bear. Ours                      153.7             *410
      Elk. Elan. Orignal, mated
      Red deer. Cerf                  288.8             *273
      Fallow deer. Daim               167.8
      Wolf. Loup                       69.8
      Roe. Chevreuil                   56.7
      Glutton. Glouton. Ca   jou
      Wild cat. Chat sauva                               +30
      Lynx. Loup cervier               25.
      Beaver. Castor                   18.5              *45
      Badger. Blaireau                 13.6
      Red Fox. Renard                  13.5
      Grey Fox. Isatis
      Otter. Loutre                     8.9              +12
      Monax. Marmotte                   6.5
      Vison. Fouine                     2.8
      Hedgehog. Herisson                2.2
      Martin. Marte                     1.9               +6
                                       oz.
      Water rat. Rat d&#39;eau              7.5
      Wesel. Belette                    2.2              oz.
      Flying squirrel. Pol   uche       2.2               +4
      Shrew mouse. Musarai              1.

                   II. _Aboriginals of one only_.

              Europe.                       America.
                              lb.                                lb.
      Sanglier. Wild boar     280.    Tapir                      534.
      Mouflon. Wild sheep      56.    Elk, round horned         +450.
      Bouquetin. Wild goat            Puma
      Lievre. Hare              7.6   Jaguar                     218.
      Lapin. Rabbet             3.4   Cabiai                     109.
      Putois. Polecat           3.3   Tamanoir                   109.
      Genette                   3.1   Tamandua                    65.4
      Desman. Muskrat          oz.    Cougar of N. Amer.          75.
      Ecureuil. Squirrel       12.    Cougar of S. Amer.          59.
      Hermine. Ermin            8.2   Ocelot
      Rat. Rat                  7.5   Pecari                      46.3
      Loirs                     3.1   Jaguaret                    43.6
      Lerot. Dormouse           1.8   Alco
      Taupe. Mole               1.2   Lama
      Hamster                    .9   Paco
      Zisel                           Paca                        32.7
      Leming                          Serval
      Souris. Mouse              .6   Sloth. Unau                 27 1/4

                                      Saricovienne
                                      Kincajou
                                      Tatou Kabassou              21.8
                                      Urson. Urchin
                                      Raccoon. Raton              16.5
                                      Coati
                                      Coendou                     16.3
                                      Sloth. Ai                   13.
                                      Sapajou Ouarini
                                      Sapajou Coaita               9.8
                                      Tatou Encubert
                                      Tatou Apar
                                      Tatou Cachica                7.
                                      Little Coendou               6.5
                                      Opossum. Sarigue
                                      Tapeti
                                      Margay
                                      Crabier
                                      Agouti                       4.2
                                      Sapajou Sai                  3.5
                                      Tatou Cirquinson
                                      Tatou Tatouate               3.3

                      II. TABLE continued.

              Europe.                       America.
                                      Mouffette Squash
                                      Mouffette Chinche
                                      Mouffette Conepate.
                                        Scunk
                                      Mouffette. Zorilla
                                      Whabus. Hare. Rabbet
                                      Aperea
                                      Akouchi
                                      Ondatra. Muskrat
                                      Pilori
                                      Great grey squirrel         +2.7
                                      Fox squirrel of Virginia    +2.625
                                      Surikate                     2.
                                      Mink                        +2.
                                      Sapajou. Sajou               1.8
                                      Indian pig. Cochon
                                        d&#39;Inde                     1.6
                                      Sapajou. Saimiri             1.5
                                      Phalanger
                                      Coquallin
                                      Lesser grey squirrel        +1.5
                                      Black squirrel              +1.5
                                      Red squirrel                10. oz.
                                      Sagoin Saki
                                      Sagoin Pinche
                                      Sagoin Tamarin              oz.
                                      Sagoin Ouistiti              4.4
                                      Sagoin Marikine
                                      Sagoin Mico
                                      Cayopollin
                                      Fourmillier
                                      Marmose
                                      Sarigue of Cayenne
                                      Tucan
                                      Red mole                    oz.
                                      Ground squirrel              4.

                      III. _Domesticated in both_.

                                 Europe.         America.
                                   lb.             lb.
                 Cow              763.           *2500
                 Horse                           *1366
                 Ass
                 Hog                             *1200
                 Sheep                            *125
                 Goat                              *80
                 Dog               67.6
                 Cat                7.

        I have not inserted in the first table the (* 4) Phoca nor
leather-winged bat, because the one living half the year in the
water, and the other being a winged animal, the individuals of each
species may visit both continents.

        Of the animals in the 1st table Mons. de Buffon himself informs
us, [XXVII. 130. XXX. 213.] that the beaver, the otter, and shrew
mouse, though of the same species, are larger in America than Europe.
This should therefore have corrected the generality of his
expressions XVIII. 145. and elsewhere, that the animals common to the
two countries, are considerably less in America than in Europe, `&amp;
cela sans aucune exception.&#39; He tells us too, [Quadrup. VIII. 334.
edit. Paris, 1777] that on examining a bear from America, he remarked
no difference, `dans _la forme_ de cet ours d&#39;Amerique compare a
celui d&#39;Europe.&#39; But adds from Bartram&#39;s journal, that an American
bear weighed 400 lb. English, equal to 367 lb. French: whereas we
find the European bear examined by Mons. D&#39;Aubenton, [XVII. 82.]
weighed but 141 lb. French.  That the palmated Elk is larger in
America than Europe we are informed by Kalm, a Naturalist who visited
the

         I. 233. Lond. 1772.

         former by public appointment for the express purpose of
examining the subjects of Natural history.  In this

         Ib. 233.

         fact Pennant concurs with him.  [Barrington&#39;s Miscellanies.]
The same Kalm tells us that the Black Moose, or

         I. xxvii.

         Renne of America, is as high as a tall horse; and Catesby,
that it is about the bigness of a middle sized ox.  The

         XXIV. 162.

         same account of their size has been given me by many who
have seen them.  But Mons. D&#39;Aubenton says that the Renne of Europe
is but about the size of a Red-deer.

         XV. 42.

         The wesel is larger in America than in Europe, as may be
seen by comparing its dimensions as reported by Mons. D&#39;Aubenton and
Kalm.  The latter tells us, that the

         I. 359. I. 48. 221. 251. II. 52.

         lynx, badger, red fox, and flying squirrel, are the _same_
in America as in Europe: by which expression I understand, they are
the same in all material circumstances, in size as well as others:
for if they were smaller,

         II. 78.

         they would differ from the European.  Our grey fox is, by
Catesby&#39;s account, little different in size and shape from the
European fox.  I presume he means the red fox

         I. 220.

         of Europe, as does Kalm, where he says, that in size `they
do not quite come up to our foxes.&#39; For proceeding next to the red
fox of America, he says `they are entirely the same with the European
sort.&#39; Which shews he had in view one European sort only, which was
the red.  So that the result of their testimony is, that the American
grey fox is somewhat less than the European red; which is equally
true of the

         XXVII. 63. XIV. 119. Harris, II.387. Buffon. Quad. IX. 1.

         grey fox of Europe, as may be seen by comparing the measures
of the Count de Buffon and Mons. D&#39;Aubenton.  The white bear of
America is as large as that of Europe.  The bones of the Mammoth
which have been found in America, are as large as those found in the
old world.  It may be asked, why I insert the Mammoth, as if it still
existed?  I ask in return, why I should omit it, as if it did not
exist?  Such is the oeconomy of nature, that no instance can be
produced of her having permitted any one race of her animals to
become extinct; of her having formed any link in her great work so
weak as to be broken.  To add to this, the traditionary testimony of
the Indians, that this animal still exists in the northern and
western parts of America, would be adding the light of a taper to
that of the meridian sun.  Those parts still remain in their
aboriginal state, unexplored and undisturbed by us, or by others for
us.  He may as well exist there now, as he did formerly where we find
his bones.  If he be a carnivorous animal, as some Anatomists have
conjectured, and the Indians affirm, his early retirement may be
accounted for from the general destruction of the wild game by the
Indians, which commences in the first instant of their connection
with us, for the purpose of purchasing matchcoats, hatchets, and fire
locks, with their skins.  There remain then the buffalo, red deer,
fallow deer, wolf, roe, glutton, wild cat, monax, vison, hedge-hog,
martin, and water rat, of the comparative sizes of which we have not
sufficient testimony.  It does not appear that Messrs. de Buffon and
D&#39;Aubenton have measured, weighed, or seen those of America.  It is
said of some of them, by some travellers, that they are smaller than
the European.  But who were these travellers?  Have they not been men
of a very different description from those who have laid open to us
the other three quarters of the world?  Was natural history the
object of their travels?  Did they measure or weigh the animals they
speak of? or did they not judge of them by sight, or perhaps even
from report only?  Were they acquainted with the animals of their own
country, with which they undertake to compare them?  Have they not
been so ignorant as often to mistake the species?  A true answer to
these questions would probably lighten their authority, so as to
render it insufficient for the foundation of an hypothesis.  How
unripe we yet are, for an accurate comparison of the animals of the
two countries, will appear from the work of Mons. de Buffon.  The
ideas we should have formed of the sizes of some animals, from the
information he had received at his first publications concerning
them, are very different from what his subsequent communications give
us.  And indeed his candour in this can never be too much praised.
One sentence of his book must do him immortal honour.  `J&#39;aime

         Quad. IX. 158

         autant une personne qui me releve d&#39;une erreur, qu&#39;une autre
qui m&#39;apprend une verite, parce qu&#39;en effet une erreur corrigee est
une verite.&#39; He seems to have

         XXXV. 184.

         thought the Cabiai he first examined wanted little of its
full growth.  `Il n&#39;etoit pas encore tout-a-fait adulte.&#39; Yet he
weighed but 46 1/2 lb. and he found

         Quad. IX. 132.

         afterwards, that these animals, when full grown, weigh 100
lb.  He had supposed, from the examination of a

         XIX. 2.

         jaguar, said to be two years old, which weighed but 16 lb.
12 oz. that, when he should have acquired his full growth, he would
not be larger than a middle sized dog.

         Quad. IX. 41.

         But a subsequent account raises his weight to 200 lb.
Further information will, doubtless, produce further corrections.
The wonder is, not that there is yet something in this great work to
correct, but that there is so little.  The result of this view then
is, that of 26 quadrupeds common to both countries, 7 are said to be
larger in America, 7 of equal size, and 12 not sufficiently examined.
So that the first table impeaches the first member of the assertion,
that of the animals common to both countries, the American are
smallest, `et cela sans aucune exception.&#39; It shews it not just, in
all the latitude in which its author has advanced it, and probably
not to such a degree as to found a distinction between the two
countries.

        Proceeding to the second table, which arranges the animals
found in one of the two countries only, Mons. de Buffon observes,
that the tapir, the elephant of America, is but of the size of a
small cow.  To preserve our comparison, I will add that the wild
boar, the elephant of Europe, is little more than half that size.  I
have made an elk with round or cylindrical horns, an animal of
America, and peculiar to it; because I have seen many of them myself,
and more of their horns; and because I can say, from the best
information, that, in Virginia, this kind of elk has abounded much,
and still exists in smaller numbers; and I could never learn that the
palmated kind had been seen here at all.  I suppose this confined to
the more Northern latitudes (* 5).  I have made our hare or rabbet
peculiar, believing it to be different from both the European animals
of those denominations, and calling it therefore by its Algonquin

         Kalm II. 340.I. 82.

         name Whabus, to keep it distinct from these.  Kalm is of the
same opinion.  I have enumerated the squirrels according to our own
knowledge, derived from daily sight of them, because I am not able to
reconcile with that the European appellations and descriptions.  I
have heard of other species, but they have never come within my own
notice.  These, I think, are the only instances in which I have
departed from the authority of Mons. de Buffon in the construction of
this table.  I take him for my ground work, because I think him the
best informed of any Naturalist who has ever written.  The result is,
that there are 18 quadrupeds peculiar to Europe; more than four times
as many, to wit 74, peculiar to America; that the (* 6) first of
these 74 weighs more than the whole column of Europeans; and
consequently this second table disproves the second member of the
assertion, that the animals peculiar to the new world are on a
smaller scale, so far as that assertion relied on European animals
for support: and it is in full opposition to the theory which makes
the animal volume to depend on the circumstances of _heat_ and
_moisture_.

        The IIId. table comprehends those quadrupeds only which are
domestic in both countries.  That some of these, in some parts of
America, have become less than their original stock, is doubtless
true; and the reason is very obvious.  In a thinly peopled country,
the spontaneous productions of the forests and waste fields are
sufficient to support indifferently the domestic animals of the
farmer, with a very little aid from him in the severest and scarcest
season.  He therefore finds it more convenient to receive them from
the hand of nature in that indifferent state, than to keep up their
size by a care and nourishment which would cost him much labour.  If,
on this low fare, these animals dwindle, it is no more than they do
in those parts of Europe where the poverty of the soil, or poverty of
the owner, reduces them to the same scanty subsistance.  It is the
uniform effect of one and the same cause, whether acting on this or
that side of the globe.  It would be erring therefore against that
rule of philosophy, which teaches us to ascribe like effects to like
causes, should we impute this diminution of size in America to any
imbecility or want of uniformity in the operations of nature.  It may
be affirmed with truth that, in those countries, and with those
individuals of America, where necessity or curiosity has produced
equal attention as in Europe to the nourishment of animals, the
horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs of the one continent are as large as
those of the other.  There are particular instances, well attested,
where individuals of this country have imported good breeders from
England, and have improved their size by care in the course of some
years.  To make a fair comparison between the two countries, it will
not answer to bring together animals of what might be deemed the
middle or ordinary size of their species; because an error in judging
of that middle or ordinary size would vary the result of the
comparison.  Thus Monsieur D&#39;Aubenton considers a

         VII. 432.

         horse of 4 feet 5 inches high and 400 lb. weight French,
equal to 4 feet 8.6 inches and 436 lb. English, as a middle sized
horse.  Such a one is deemed a small horse in America.  The extremes
must therefore be resorted to.  The same anatomist dissected a horse
of 5 feet 9 inches height, French measure,

         VII. 474.

         equal to 6 feet 1.7 English.  This is near 6 inches higher
than any horse I have seen: and could it be supposed that I had seen
the largest horses in America, the conclusion would be, that ours
have diminished, or that we have bred from a smaller stock.  In
Connecticut and Rhode-Island, where the climate is favorable to the
production of grass, bullocks have been slaughtered which weighed
2500, 2200, and 2100 lb. nett; and those of 1800 lb. have been
frequent.  I have seen a (* 7) hog weigh 1050 lb. after the blood,
bowels, and hair had been taken from him.  Before he was killed an
attempt was made to weigh him with a pair of steel-yards, graduated
to 1200 lb. but he weighed more.  Yet this hog was probably not
within fifty generations of the European stock.  I am well informed
of another which weighed 1100 lb. gross.  Asses have been still more
neglected than any other domestic animal in America.  They are
neither fed nor housed in the most rigorous season of the year.  Yet
they are larger than those measured

         VIII. 48. 35. 66.

         by Mons. D&#39;Aubenton, of 3 feet 7 1/4 inches, 3 feet 4
inches, and 3 feet 2 1/2 inches, the latter weighing only 215.8 lb.
These sizes, I suppose, have been produced by the same negligence in
Europe, which has produced a like diminution here.  Where care has
been taken of them on that side of the water, they have been raised
to a size bordering on that of the horse; not by the _heat_ and
_dryness_ of the climate, but by good food and shelter.  Goats have
been also much neglected in America.  Yet they are very prolific
here, bearing twice or three times a year, and from one to five kids

         XVIII. 96.

         at a birth.  Mons. de Buffon has been sensible of a
difference in this circumstance in favour of America.  But what are
their greatest weights I cannot say.  A large

         IX. 41.

         sheep here weighs 100 lb.  I observe Mons. D&#39;Aubenton calls
a ram of 62 lb. one of the middle size.  But to say what are the
extremes of growth in these and the other domestic animals of
America, would require information of which no one individual is
possessed.  The weights actually known and stated in the third table
preceding will suffice to shew, that we may conclude, on probable
grounds, that, with equal food and care, the climate of America will
preserve the races of domestic animals as large as the European stock
from which they are derived; and consequently that the third member
of Mons. de Buffon&#39;s assertion, that the domestic animals are subject
to degeneration from the climate of America, is as probably wrong as
the first and second were certainly so.

        That the last part of it is erroneous, which affirms that the
species of American quadrupeds are comparatively few, is evident from
the tables taken all together.  By these it appears

         XXX. 219.

         that there are an hundred species aboriginal of America.
Mons. de Buffon supposes about double that number existing on the
whole earth.  Of these Europe, Asia, and Africa, furnish suppose 126;
that is, the 26 common to Europe and America, and about 100 which are
not in America at all.  The American species then are to those of the
rest of the earth, as 100 to 126, or 4 to 5.  But the residue of the
earth being double the extent of America, the exact proportion would
have been but as 4 to 8.

        Hitherto I have considered this hypothesis as applied to brute
animals only, and not in its extension to the man of America, whether
aboriginal or transplanted.  It is the opinion of Mons. de Buffon
that the former furnishes no exception to

         XVIII. 146.

         it.  `Quoique le sauvage du nouveau monde soit a-peu-pres de
meme stature que l&#39;homme de notre monde, cela ne suffit pas pour
qu&#39;il puisse faire une exception au fait general du rapetissement de
la nature vivante dans tout ce continent: le sauvage est foible &amp;
petit par les organes de la generation; il n&#39;a ni poil, ni barbe, &amp;
nulle ardeur pour sa femelle; quoique plus leger que l&#39;Europeen parce
qu&#39;il a plus d&#39;habitude a courir, il est cependant beaucoup moins
fort de corps; il est aussi bien moins sensible, &amp; cependant plus
craintif &amp; plus lache; il n&#39;a nulle vivacite, nulle activite dans
l&#39;ame; celle du corps est moins un exercice, un mouvement volontaire
qu&#39;une necessite d&#39;action causee par le besoin; otez lui la faim &amp; la
soif, vous detruirez en meme temps le principe actif de tous ses
mouvemens; il demeurera stupidement en repos sur ses jambes ou couche
pendant des jours entiers.  Il ne faut pas aller chercher plus loin
la cause de la vie dispersee des sauvages &amp; de leur eloignement pour
la societe: la plus precieuse etincelle du feu de la nature leur a
ete refusee; ils manquent d&#39;ardeur pour leur femelle, &amp; par
consequent d&#39;amour pour leur semblables: ne connoissant pas
l&#39;attachement le plus vif, le plus tendre de tous, leurs autres
sentimens de ce genre sont froids &amp; languissans; ils aiment
foiblement leurs peres &amp; leurs enfans; la societe la plus intime de
toutes, celle de la meme famille, n&#39;a donc chez eux que de foibles
liens; la societe d&#39;une famille a l&#39;autre n&#39;en a point du tout: des
lors nulle reunion, nulle republique, nulle etat social.  La physique
de l&#39;amour fait chez eux le moral des moeurs; leur coeur est glace,
leur societe froide, &amp; leur empire dur.  Ils ne regardent leurs
femmes que comme des servantes de peine ou des betes de somme qu&#39;ils
chargent, sans menagement, du fardeau de leur chasse, &amp; qu&#39;ils
forcent sans pitie, sans reconnoissance, a des ouvrages qui souvent
sont audessus de leurs forces: ils n&#39;ont que peu d&#39;enfans; ils en ont
peu de soin; tout se ressent de leur premier defaut; ils sont
indifferents parce qu&#39;ils sont peu puissans, &amp; cette indifference
pour le sexe est la tache originelle qui fletrit la nature, qui
l&#39;empeche de s&#39;epanouir, &amp; qui detruisant les germes de la vie, coupe
en meme temps la racine de la societe.  L&#39;homme ne fait donc point
d&#39;exception ici.  La nature en lui refusant les puissances de l&#39;amour
l&#39;a plus maltraite &amp; plus rapetisse qu&#39;aucun des animaux.&#39; An
afflicting picture indeed, which, for the honor of human nature, I am
glad to believe has no original.  Of the Indian of South America I
know nothing; for I would not honor with the appellation of
knowledge, what I derive from the fables published of them.  These I
believe to be just as true as the fables of Aesop.  This belief is
founded on what I have seen of man, white, red, and black, and what
has been written of him by authors, enlightened themselves, and
writing amidst an enlightened people.  The Indian of North America
being more within our reach, I can speak of him somewhat from my own
knowledge, but more from the information of others better acquainted
with him, and on whose truth and judgment I can rely.  From these
sources I am able to say, in contradiction to this representation,
that he is neither more defective in ardor, nor more impotent with
his female, than the white reduced to the same diet and exercise:
that he is brave, when an enterprize depends on bravery; education
with him making the point of honor consist in the destruction of an
enemy by stratagem, and in the preservation of his own person free
from injury; or perhaps this is nature; while it is education which
teaches us to (* 8) honor force more than finesse: that he will
defend himself against an host of enemies, always chusing to be
killed, rather than to (* 9) surrender, though it be to the whites,
who he knows will treat him well: that in other situations also he
meets death with more deliberation, and endures tortures with a
firmness unknown almost to religious enthusiasm with us: that he is
affectionate to his children, careful of them, and indulgent in the
extreme: that his affections comprehend his other connections,
weakening, as with us, from circle to circle, as they recede from the
center: that his friendships are strong and faithful to the uttermost
(* 10) extremity: that his sensibility is keen, even the warriors
weeping most bitterly on the loss of their children, though in
general they endeavour to appear superior to human events: that his
vivacity and activity of mind is equal to ours in the same situation;
hence his eagerness for hunting, and for games of chance.  The women
are submitted to unjust drudgery.  This I believe is the case with
every barbarous people.  With such, force is law.  The stronger sex
therefore imposes on the weaker.  It is civilization alone which
replaces women in the enjoyment of their natural equality.  That
first teaches us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect those
rights in others which we value in ourselves.  Were we in equal
barbarism, our females would be equal drudges.  The man with them is
less strong than with us, but their woman stronger than ours; and
both for the same obvious reason; because our man and their woman is
habituated to labour, and formed by it.  With both races the sex
which is indulged with ease is least athletic.  An Indian man is
small in the hand and wrist for the same reason for which a sailor is
large and strong in the arms and shoulders, and a porter in the legs
and thighs.  -- They raise fewer children than we do.  The causes of
this are to be found, not in a difference of nature, but of
circumstance.  The women very frequently attending the men in their
parties of war and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely
inconvenient to them.  It is said, therefore, that they have learnt
the practice of procuring abortion by the use of some vegetable; and
that it even extends to prevent conception for a considerable time
after.  During these parties they are exposed to numerous hazards, to
excessive exertions, to the greatest extremities of hunger.  Even at
their homes the nation depends for food, through a certain part of
every year, on the gleanings of the forest: that is, they experience
a famine once in every year.  With all animals, if the female be
badly fed, or not fed at all, her young perish: and if both male and
female be reduced to like want, generation becomes less active, less
productive.  To the obstacles then of want and hazard, which nature
has opposed to the multiplication of wild animals, for the purpose of
restraining their numbers within certain bounds, those of labour and
of voluntary abortion are added with the Indian.  No wonder then if
they multiply less than we do.  Where food is regularly supplied, a
single farm will shew more of cattle, than a whole country of forests
can of buffaloes.  The same Indian women, when married to white
traders, who feed them and their children plentifully and regularly,
who exempt them from excessive drudgery, who keep them stationary and
unexposed to accident, produce and raise as many children as the
white women.  Instances are known, under these circumstances, of
their rearing a dozen children.  An inhuman practice once prevailed
in this country of making slaves of the Indians.  It is a fact well
known with us, that the Indian women so enslaved produced and raised
as numerous families as either the whites or blacks among whom they
lived.  -- It has been said, that Indians have less hair than the
whites, except on the head.  But this is a fact of which fair proof
can scarcely be had.  With them it is disgraceful to be hairy on the
body.  They say it likens them to hogs.  They therefore pluck the
hair as fast as it appears.  But the traders who marry their women,
and prevail on them to discontinue this practice, say, that nature is
the same with them as with the whites.  Nor, if the fact be true, is
the consequence necessary which has been drawn from it.  Negroes have
notoriously less hair than the whites; yet they are more ardent.  But
if cold and moisture be the agents of nature for diminishing the
races of animals, how comes she all at once to suspend their
operation as to the physical man of the new world, whom the Count
acknowledges to be `a peu pres de meme stature que l&#39;homme de notre
monde,&#39; and to let loose their influence on his moral
         XVIII. 145.
         faculties?  How has this `combination of the elements and
other physical causes, so contrary to the enlargement of animal
nature in this new world, these obstacles to the developement and
formation of great germs,&#39; been arrested and suspended, so as to
permit the human body to acquire its just dimensions, and by what
inconceivable process has their action been directed on his mind
alone?  To judge of the truth of this, to form a just estimate of
their genius and mental powers, more facts are wanting, and great
allowance to be made for those circumstances of their situation which
call for a display of particular talents only.  This done, we shall
probably find that they are formed in mind as well as in body, on the
same module with