feel it may generally be denominated magnesian schistus." Sometimes it inclines towards argillaceous schistus, &c." Some additional information respecting this schistus is given us in the second paper above-mentioned. Towards West Haven village this slate is intermediate between argillacious and chlorite slate, and at the beach below West Haven, it is decidedly chlorite slate. This latter slate, which runs into the sea at West Haven beach, abounds with minute crystals of magnetic iron ore. The slate is easily disintegrated, the iron is washed out, broken by attrition, thrown back by the water on the shore, and covers the beach with very pure magnetic iron sand.

About five miles west of New Haven commences an extensive range of primitive limestone; in which a quarry of very beautiful variegated marble has recently been opened, and promises to be useful to the public. Steatite, tremolite, asbestus, dolomite, epidote, chlorite, actynolite, phosphate of lime and some other species have been found in the vicinity of New Haven.

This section of Connecticut appears to be particularly interesting. This is important to students in mineralogy; a branch of knowledge, which many of the young gentlemen of Yale College will be induced to cultivate by the very valuable collection of minerals, which, as we have mentioned, has recently been deposited in the cabinet of that college by colonel Gibbs.

ARTICLE 5.

Sketches of a tour to the western country, through the states of Ohio and Kentucky; a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi Territory, and part of West Florida. Commenced at Philadelphia in the winter of 1807, and concluded in 1809. With notes and an Appendix, containing some interesting facts, together

with a notice of an expedition through Louisiana. By F. Cuming. Pittsburg-Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, 1810. 12mo, pp. 504.

THE

HE state of Ohio and the adjacent country afford a very striking object of contemplation. The commencement of the settlement of this state by the Ohio company was in 1788, At that time there was a military garrison on the Muskingum, but no settlers except two Moravian towns, and a few trespassers on public lands. Its settlement was interrupted by the Indian war, which was terminated by general Wayne in 1795. Since that time it has progressed with a rapidity, of which perhaps there is no other example. It has grown up to be a powerful state in our Union, within far less than half the common period of human life. If one, who had visited this country thirty years ago, were now, without any knowledge of the circumstances that have since taken place, to return to it again, what would appear before him would seem almost like the work of enchantment. He would have left it inhabited by hostile tribes of natives, abounding with the wild animals which afforded them subsistence, and covered by forests, which for ages had been possessors of its soil. He would now find, that civilized men had poured themselves over the coun-, try, that a population, which in 1800 amounted to about 42,000, and which since that time has twice trebled, was every where spreading itself; that large towns with many of the principal manufactures of old countries were extending along its principal rivers; and a soil of unexhausted fertility subduing to the uses of man. He would find the promise of a future increase almost proportional to the past, in a country healthy, adapted to produce in abundance the most valuable articles, intersected by navigable rivers, and along whose whole extent the Ohio stretches its lazy length of almost uninterrupted waters. When his admiration at this rapid growth of a people had subsided, he might find in this state and in the neighbouring country other objects to engage his attention and curiosity. He might trace the remains of a populous nation, whose memory has perished from the earth; and who

are known to have existed only by the objects which they have left behind them of wonder and mystery. He might visit the mounds and works of earth of their erection, to be found in every part of the country, which contain their bones and the utensils and ornaments, which they deposited with the dead. He might examine those human skeletons of an unusual size, which are sometimes discovered; and trace those inscriptions, which none have been able to explain. He might view what is scarcely less an object of curiosity, the enormous bones of apparently different species of animals, the contemporaries perhaps of the ancient inhabitants of the country, and whose race and history, like theirs, has been swept from the earth. He might see the remains of the subsequent masters of the land; men in their original character, barbarous; of merciless cruelty to their enemies; with little open bravery, yet with some strong traits of generosity; with an occasional decorum in their intercourse, such as is scarcely to be found in civilized society; of no inconsiderable untutored strength of intellect; wonderful for their fortitude in enduring hunger, fatigue, disease, and torments; and still more remarkable for notions of religion, which seem to have been higher and more correct than those of any other people, not taught by revelation. He might find them here and there retaining something of their native character; but for the most part sunk into wretched debasement by the oppressive influence of their too powerful neighbours; or tamed into imperfect civilization by their care and humanity. Turning from these objects, he might find much worthy of observation in the different and strongly marked states of society, to be found in a newly settled country; where some are yet subsisting by the precarious life of hunters, slothful, savage, and sunk into the most degrading brutality; while others are toiling with patient industry to elear the soil, to build comfortable dwellings, and to provide themselves support by agriculture; and not a few have risen to wealth, some by persevering exertion, and others by the rapid increase of the value of their property. He might observe the striking contrasts produced by these different states

of society, and now pass the shire town of a county, where the courts are held in a log house, and a little further on see the clegant mansion-house of private opulence.

Much information with regard to this interesting country is contained in the volume under review. It consists of Mr. Cuming's account of his tour, some extracts from that of another person, whose name is not given, and a very copious appendix, consisting partly of matter selected from various publications, and partly of original communications to the editor, who, it seems, is not Mr. Cuming himself. It would be a valuable book to a traveller in the country to which it relates, or to one about to settle in it, or to any person desirous of obtaining very particular information respecting it. There is not a little however, which even to such a one would be of no value; and still more which is useless and uninteresting to one who wishes to obtain only general views of the country. Mr. Cuming, (whose tour occupies a little less than two thirds of the book), has no faculty of generalization, and apparently but very little power of discriminating the value of one fact from that of another. He accordingly relates, commonly with the most tedious, but sometimes with the most amusing minuteness, what he saw, and felt, and heard, and eat. He gives, with great accuracy we presume, and a conscientious regard to historical justice, the moral characters, and private lives of inkeepers on the road, travellers whom he met, and men from whom he hired horses, with occasional notices of their wives and children. If he describe a fine prospect, he begins at a certain point, and, proceeding through a circuit of half a dozen pages, goes quite round the circle, noticing in his way every object of considerable size, till he arrives again at the point from which he set out. But to his praise be it spoken, this painful minuteness, and we trust accuracy, extends to great things as well as small; and he gives us the most partieular notices of the country through which he passed, and statistical accounts of all the principal towns. In what follows we shall state some of the striking and important information, concerning the western country, which the present vol

ume affords; but which we fear that most readers would be too impatient and fastidious to collect for themselves.

In January 1807, Mr. Cuming set out on foot from Philadelahia, and after travelling several days arrived at Bedford. Here he notices the stream of people, which is continually flowing on the roads to and from the western country.

"The travelling on these roads in every direction is truly astonishing, even at this inclement season, but in the spring and fall, I am informed that it is beyond all conception.

"Apropos of travelling-A European, who had not experienced it, could form no proper idea of the manner of it in this country. The travellers are, waggoners, carrying produce to, and bringing back foreign goods from the different shipping ports on the shores of the Atlantic, particularly Philadelphia and Baltimore;-packers with from one to twenty horses, selling or trucking their wares through the country;— countrymen, sometimes alone, sometimes in large companies, carrying salt from M'Connelstown, and other points of navigation on the Potomac and Susquehannah, for the curing of their beef, pork, venison, &c.-families removing further back into the country, some with cows, oxen, horses, sheep, and hogs, and all their farming implements and domestic utensils, and some without; some with waggons, some with carts, and some on foot, according to their abilities:-The residue, who make use of the best accommodations on the roads, are country merchants, judges and lawyers attending the courts, members of the legislature, and the better class of settlers removing back. All the first four descriptions carry provisions for themselves and horses, live most miserably, and, wrapped in blankets, occupy the floor of the bar rooms of the taverns where they stop each night, which the landlords give them the use of, with as much wood as they choose to burn, in consideration of the money they pay them for whiskey, of which they drink great quantities, expending foolishly for that which poisons them, as much money as would render them comfortable otherwise.— so far do they carry this mania for whiskey, that to procure it, they in the most niggardly manner deny themselves even the necessaries of life." pp. 46, 47.

It is to be remarked that Bedford, the place where this account is suggested to Mr. Cuming, and beyond which the population of almost half of Pennsylvania, and of the whole state of Ohio, now spreads itself to the westward, was, but twenty five years ago, a frontier town, defended by a garrison against the natives.