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Præ-adamite Lake, the water having forced a sage through the barrier of primitive rock which crosses the flat country. The curious and rugged rocks by which the river is pent up, and the large trees growing here and there out of the clefts, would form a fine subject for the pencil of an artist.

This part of the country was chiefly settled by the Dutch, and some exceedingly fertile low ground above the Little Falls has from this circumstance been called "The German Flats." These are in as high a state of cultivation as many of the best farms in England.

At Utica, a very flourishing little town, I embarked in one of the passage-boats which navigate the canal, and proceed at the rate of four miles an hour by night and by day. They are as comfortable as their size will admit. The cabin, which occupies nearly the whole of the boat, is well furnished; and the fare on board is very good.

Near Oneida Creek we passed a party of the Oneida Indians who were amusing themselves with fishing. When they sold their lands to the United States, they reserved a large tract in this neighbourhood for the use of the tribe, and they now live upon it to the number of about 1100. Though they are becoming somewhat civilized, they prefer hunting and fishing to cultivating the earth, a labour which they are but seldom willing to undertake.

The morning after leaving Utica, our boat passed the Cayuga Marshes, which some enterprising people in the neighbourhood are attempting to drain, by cutting away a barrier that prevents the waters from finding their way into Lake Ontario. This bold scheme, which will no doubt succeed, will almost entirely drain some of the group of Lakes that are situated in this part of the State of New York.

Nothing can be more ridiculous, than the names that have been given to the little insignificant villages in all this part of the country, as Rome, Athens, Sparta, or what is still more absurd, Tully, Pompey, Virgil, Dryden, Milton, &c. This bad taste infects to a certain degree the whole of the United States, innumerable little miserable towns being designated by the names of London, Paris, Madrid, Calcutta, Constantinople, &c. as if on purpose to excite the laughter and contempt of the traveller.

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On the second morning after leaving Utica, I disembarked at Rochester, having travelled on the canal 160 miles. Rochester is a very flourishing little town, situated on the Gennessee river, which the canal crosses on a superb stone aqueduct 780 feet long. In the lower part of the town is the magnificent fall of the Gennessee. The bed of the river is composed of a horizontal stratum of limestone, so that the river is precipitated down a perpendicular height of 96 feet, off a large shelf as it

may be called, 700 feet wide. Some settlers had lately been establishing themselves on the upper part of the river, and had been cutting down the trees, many of which falling into the water were washed away. I had the satisfaction of seeing two of these float down to the edge of the fall, where they were precipitated to the bottom with a tremendous crash.

The water has been conducted from the main channel of the river to several mills situated on each side of the gulf, and after having turned the wheels, forms some pretty little cascades on the side of the great fall. These mills are very useful to the neighbourhood, and grind a vast quantity of flour, besides sawing timber, &c. An old Indian, when he saw the first that was erected, after looking at it for some time, exclaimed: "White" man is very cunning, he makes even the water work." This fall was much the finest I had, up to that time, ever seen...

The road from Rochester to Lewistown, a small village on the Niagara river, is called "The Ridge Road," from its running along the top of a small natural ridge, which is so regular, that in many places it has the appearance of being artificial. As a great many settlers had lately fixed themselves in this part of the State, Log-cabins were rising in all directions, and the work of clearing was going on rapidly. Each little open spot was covered with masses of burning timber; and the large trees that

had been girdled the year before, were in many places in flames even to the tops, producing at night a very extraordinary and splendid effect. We now passed a very large cedar swamp, the road through which was a "corderoi" one, a term I have already explained. Our rickety old stage jolted so terribly, that we had to get out and walk the whole distance, assailed on every side by myriads of musquitoes. The swamps which I have seen in different parts of America have been, with out exception, covered with thick forests of cedar and cypress. These trees seem to delight in marshy spots, many of them actually growing out of the water. The ground, if ground it can be called, out of which they rise, appears to be the same that, in Ireland and Scotland, is called Peat Bog, or Peat Moss; and I am confident that the same kind of trees might be planted with great advantage in the bogs of both those countries. It would be well worth the while of those gentlemen who possess extensive tracts of this kind of land, to try the experiment; for should it succeed, what is now nearly useless would soon become exceedingly valuable...

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A curious conversation took place between two of the passengers in the stage, with regard to the system of smuggling carried on by the inhabitants of the Canadian frontier. One of them said, that he was well acquainted with a British subject, residing at Newark Upper Canada, who annually

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smuggled from 500 to 1000 chests of tea into that province from the United States. He mentioned the name of this man, who he said was growing and he stated the manner very rich in consequence; in which the fraud was managed. Now as all the tea ought to be brought from England, it is of course very expensive; and therefore the Canadian tea dealers, after buying one or two chests at Montreal or elsewhere, which have the customhouse mark upon them, fill them up ever afterwards with tea brought from the United States. It is calculated that near 10,000 chests are annually consumed in the Canadas, of which not more than 2 or 3,000 come from Europe. Indeed when I had myself entered Canada I was told that of every 15 pounds of tea sold there, 13 were smuggled. The profit upon smuggling this article is from 50 to 100 per cent, and with an extensive and wild frontier like Canada, cannot be prevented. Indeed it every year increases, and is brought to a more perfect system. But I suppose that the English government, which is the perfection of wisdom, will never allow the Canadian merchants to trade direct to China, in order (that from pure charity) the whole profit of the tea trade may be given up to the United States.imont

I was surprised to find, that notwithstanding the weather had been uncommonly hot, yet at every little tavern where we stopped, there was an abundant supply of ice, for cooling water, wine, &c.