single tree will, during the season, often produce as much as eight pounds of sugar; and a family will generally collect as much as eight or nine hundred weight, and in a good year twenty hundred weight. I could not learn that the trees suffered materially from this loss of sap. When the season terminates, small wooden plugs are inserted into the holes that have been bored, and are taken out again on the following season, each hole being merely cleared out with the auger.

This tree merits the attention of our English economists. It is very hardy, growing well both in New York and Pennsylvania, and I am nearly sure would thrive in England. The sugar made from it, is, in my opinion, superior in flavour to that made from the cane, though undoubtedly inferior in strength.

The whole of this part of the State of Ohio still felt the destructive effects, occasioned, the autumn before, by the host of squirrels that marched through the country. Every farmer lost a part of his crop of Indian corn, and many their whole. The consequence was, that their cattle, and particularly their hogs, suffered in such a remarkable degree, that I saw them starving to death even in the yards of the farmers.

Chillicothe, on the Sciota river, was a few years ago only an Indian village; but it is now a flourishing and rapidly increasing town, the second in the State of Ohio, and containing 3,400 inhabitants.

Within a short distance of this place are some old Indian mounds, on a small stream called “ Paint Creek." These, though much has been said and written about them, are merely the works of barbarians, and are utterly unworthy of attention.

I have seen many such, on the Ohio river, near the Mississippi, and in Kentucky; and as regarded the rudeness of their structure, there appeared to me a great similarity in all of them.

It has been a favourite theory with some American literati, that their country was in olden time inhabited by a somewhat civilized people, who dwelt there before the present race of Indians. To prove this they refer you to these mounds; and it is truly ludicrous to see how easily the learned antiquaries convert them into forts, fortifications, &c. &c. &c.

I have seen some hundreds of specimens of flint axes, unglazed earthenware, &c. collected from these mounds, both in public Museums and in the collections of private individuals. Judging from similar articles brought by Captain Cook from Owhyhee and other of the South Sea islands, it appears to me, that the savage islanders must have been far advanced in civilization, beyond these imaginary predecessors of the American Aborigines.

It has been said, that many of these Indian mounds resemble, in their exterior, our European Barrows; which is only saying that one rude mound of earth resembles another. The Barrows however, on being opened, present us with very different

contents,weapons made of metal, stamped coin, precious rings, &c. &c., all of which indicate a certain knowledge of the Arts. But in these Indian mounds there has not even been found a brick, or anything else that might prove the existence of people, capable of building any habitation superior to a wigwam.

But when once the true antiquarian spirit seizes the mind, a host of visions rise up and obscure reason. The following quotation will serve as an instance of this.

"Our authors mention that Dr. Drake, the highly respected naturalist of Cincinnati, had exhibited to them in his cabinet, two large marine shells, that had been dug out of ancient Indian tumuli in Ohio, one of which appears to be a Cassis Cornutus. All the authorities, except Linnæus, regard the cassis cornutus as an Asiatic shell; and Bruguiere, say our authors, has maintained that Linnæus was mistaken in referring it to America. The circumstance, that a shell of Asiatic origin has been found in an Indian tumulus in Ohio, would seem to establish an intercourse at least between the Indians of North America and those of Asia. Our authors justly adduce this discovery as a confirmation of the theory of the Asiatic origin of our native tribes; a theory which since the researches of M. de Humboldt has been very extensively adopted.” *

* North American Review for April, 1823; article, Major Long's Expedition.

Now there can be no doubt, but that the Indian who possessed this Asiatic shell, (which, however, is said to be American by no less a personage than Linnæus), must have been a great Conchologist, and it is a pity that no other specimens from his cabinet have been discovered. The bones of the Hyæna and other Asiatic animals, found in the cave at Kirkdale in Yorkshire, prove no doubt that our savage English ancestors had "an intercourse at least" with Asia. For my own part I think the animals whose bones are found in the cave, must have belonged to a travelling menagerie, brought over by the Asiatics for the amusement of the Picts. I am astonished indeed that this idea has never struck Mr. Buckland, especially as it does not involve the consideration of that inconvenient miracle the Deluge of Noah.

Two learned Americans, whose names I forbear to mention, have contended that the American Indians are descended from the ten lost tribes of the Jews. They have given divers learned reasons in support of this theory, which, together with all that has been written about it, ought of a truth to be classed with the "unutterable ponderings of Wouter Van Twiller the Doubter," first Dutch governor of New York.* The dissertation of our old friend the Antiquary on A. D. L. L. is a bagatelle compared to the lucubrations of these gentlemen.

* Vide Knickerbocker's New York.

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A nation may lose the knowledge of some of the fine arts, and of those contributing only to luxury; such as painting, the making glass or china, &c.An Emigrant people cannot be supposed to carry with them all the improvements and refinements of their fathers; but the knowledge of the more simple arts, such as those of working the metals, making bricks, &c., they could certainly never forget. This alone is sufficient to convince me, that the ances tors of the American Indians did not come from Asia. But the Mosaic account of the early ages of the earth has been made the basis of all reasoning concerning the people of America, and consequently I am astonished any one should attempt explaining, what must therefore necessarily be miraculous.

Some have pretended that the ancestors of the Americans came across Behring's Strait, which lies very nearly within the Arctic circle. I would advise those who can talk so easily of such a journey to read the account of Captain Francklin's. But the captain's journey must have been nothing compared to that of the primæval emigrants; for he was provided with every thing that could alleviate hardship, and he set out from a very high latitude where there were already inhabitants. Indeed if he had not returned to these inhabited spots he would have been starved to death. Perhaps then the pretended emigrants to America never existed; or if they did, I am surprised that on seeing such a mi