course of 180 miles to its junction with the Mononga hela, at Pittsburgh, where it is 400 yards in width. The current runs at the rate of two miles an hour, when the waters are at a moderate height, but at double this rate during the spring floods. On the 11th of November 1810 the waters rose thirty-seven feet above the common level, which was more than five feet higher than the flood of 1807-8, which was the highest that had been seen for twenty or thirty years.

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The Monongahela river, which waters the southwestern parts, issues from the Laurel mountains in Virginia, and runs first in a north-east, and afterwards in a north-west direction, to its junction with the Alleghany, at Pittsburg, where it is 450 yards in width, and sufficiently deep in the spring and fall for the passage of ships of 400 tons burden. The mean velocity of the current is about two miles an hour, and nearly double when the waters are at their greatest elevation. In May 1807 they rose at Brownsville forty feet above the common level, and carried away a num, ber of grist mills; but this was an extraordinary circumstance. The mean height of water affords a boat navigation to Morgantown, a distance of 100 miles.

The counties of Huntingdon, Bedford, Centre, and Bellefonte, abound with springs, small rivers, and creeks.

Minerals.-Iron ore is found in great quantity, in different parts of the counties of Mackearse, Potter,

An Indian word, Meck mon awan getulak, which signifies the stream of the falling in, or mouldering banks.

Armstrong, Huntingdon, Bellefonte, Centre, and Bedfort; iron sand, which gives iron equal in quality to the best Swedish, in Chester county, and on Hedgehill, in Buck's county; brown scaly iron ore, or brown oxide of iron, in a cavern at Messenburgh; also near Lancaster, and at Jenkington, in Montgomery county; copper ore, said to be of a rich quality, was lately discovered in Miflin township, in Columbia county; it is also found at Perkiomen; native copper in Adam's county; lead ore, in Perkiomen Creek, twenty-four miles from Philadelphia, which is said to yield 20 per cent. of this metal, and to contain a small portion of silver. This ore is also found in the Bald Eagle valley, and on the Conostoga creek, nine miles from Lancaster. Black lead, or plumbago, is found in Buck's county, in considerable quantity. Basaltes, of a regular form, are found at Flourtown, thirteen miles from Philadelphia. Adaman. tine spar, in a rock of granite, at Chestnut hill, nine miles from the city of Philadelphia. Flint is common near Easton and Reading. Slate, of a good quality, is found on the banks of the Delaware, in Wayne county, seventy-five miles from Philadelphia, and at Northampton and other places near the Shuylkill, where it is employed to cover houses. Freestone and limestone is everywhere abundant; fibrous limestone, of the colour of amber and semitransparent, in Cumberland valley, fifteen miles from Bedfort; marble, black and white, in Scheigh and Northampton counties; black, with white specks, at Aaronsburg, in Northumberland county; talc, or soapstone, of which

chimneys and stoves are made, in the counties of Chester and Montgomery. Coal, of an excellent quality, abounds in the western parts, on the western branch of the Susquehannah, near Wyoming; on the Alleghany, Juniata, and Monongahela streams, towards the sources of the Leheigh, in the county of the same name, and on the Schuylkill, near Norristown. A A species of blind coal, or anthracite, has been lately found in Luzerne county, which, for printers' ink, paint, &c. is said to be preferable to lamp or ivory black; yellow earth, or brown ochre, near Fort Allon, in Northampton county.

Mineral Waters.-Cumberland sulphur spring, in the valley of the same name, five miles north-east from Carlisle, contains about half its bulk of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, to which its medicinal properties are ascribed. York sulphur springs, seventeen miles from Carlisle, on the road to Baltimore, through Hanover. The Yellow springs, in Chester county, are much frequented by valetudinarians, for the cure of rheumatism and chronic diseases, as are also the warm springs in Huntingdon county. A warm spring, in Alleghany county, 100 miles above Pittsburg, furnishes an oil, or bituminous substance, which is found to be a useful medicine for rheumatisms and ulcers, when applied outwardly, and for debility, when taken inwardly. The mineral waters at Bedford are salubrious, and much frequented.

Salt Springs.-Those of Conemaugh, on both sides of the river, fifteen miles north-east from Queensburg, produce a hundred bushels of salt per day, by means

of four furnaces.

The saline waters are found at the

depth of nearly 300 feet. The salt springs at Butler, in the bed of the Conequescossing creek, yield about two and a half per cent. Another spring has been lately discovered on the Sinnemahoning creek, a branch of the Susquehannah.

Bituminous or oil springs, in Venango county, eleven miles north-west of Franklin town, rise from the bed of Oil creek, about a mile from its entrance into the Alleghany river, where a gallon can be collected in the course of an hour or two.

Forest Trees.-In the western parts are found the oak, chestnut, beech, sugar maple, ash, black walnut, bass wood, elm, hickery, white ash, butternut, hemlock, and locust. Near the town of Erie, on Lake Erie, there is a forest of oak, which affords excellent timber for the construction of ships of war. Near the same waters the sugar maple tree is found, in the more hilly parts, in the proportion of six or eight to an acre. Along the streams of Warren county are forests of pine; the ash, persimmon, maple and sugar maple trees, water oak, and swamp sassafras, Magnolia glauca, are found on moist places, and near the borders of springs; the white oak, the cucumber or papaw tree, Magnolia acuminata, and the umbrella tree, Magnolia tripetala, and white oak and butternut tree, along the fertile sides of mountains and banks of rivers. In general, the oak, hickery, walnut, linden, and maple, indicate a superior quality of soil. The magnolia tree is not seen farther north than Pennsylvania; the liniodendrum and dogwood seem to have no choice of

situation; the ash prefers low fertile places; the red cedar a meagre arid soil; the sumach little eminences in the forest; the small bears' oak the summit of hills.

Shrubs.-The most common are the broad-leaved kalmia, (latifolia,) which grows on the highest sides of mountains to their very summit; the azalea, which abounds in dry places in the forest; the Rhus radicans, which climbs to the tops of trees; the wild grape vine, of different kinds, which cover the hedges and grassy vallies. Near Lake Erie there is a thick growth of the sertica whitlows, from five to six feet high; the myrtle, broom, common ivy, and blackberry, abound in all moist places.

Animals.-The elk was formerly numerous in the western parts, as shown by the name of Elk lands and Elk lake; but now this animal is rarely seen, and never except in the north-western parts. Deer are still common in the uncultivated districts, as also the brown bear, the wolf, wild cat, fox, racoon, opossum; the grey, striped, and flying squirrel; rabbit, hare, and minx. The musk rat is common in marshy places; the beaver and otter are nearly extinct; the cougouar is rarely seen.

Of Birds the most useful are the wild turkey, Meleagris gallipavo, which inhabits the hilly and mountainous parts; the ruffed grous, Tetrao umbellus; the Pennsylvanian pheasant, Tetrao cupido, different from the common pheasant of England; the Maryland partridge, Tetrao Virginianus; the wild or passenger pigeon, Columba migratoria, and the Carolina pigeon,