their numbers as they marched along, all following in single file from street to street in succession. A second band, composed of two long drums, two fifes, and a bugle, beat up for a second party, which they picked up, one by one, in the same manner. After this a third band, and then a fourth and fifth, till about noon there were perhaps a dozen different bands, all very feeble, followed each by from fifty to one hundred militia-men, in every conceivable variety of dress and accoutrements, and all in studied irregularity and disorder.

They then met all together in the open square near the centre of the town, and were there joined by the staff on horseback, when the bands all united in one, the long drums being the most numerous of the instruments. Forming in double file, they were next marched away to the parade-ground in the field, about a mile off, and there exercised in the manual exercise, which was perhaps the most ridiculous of all, as every one studied to do the thing he was not commanded to do, and to leave undone the thing that he was commanded to do. The officers, being just as averse to this drilling as the men, took no pains to correct these defects, so that no one could be improved by such a muster as this.

After parade they were marched back into the town again, both horse and foot being by this time literally covered with dust; and, after a few evolutions displayed in the square, they were dismissed, and broke up in "most admired disorder."

I inquired of those most competent to form an opinion on the subject, how it was that a law so generally obnoxious as this should so long remain upon the statute-book, and thus outlive its estimation in public opinion. The uniform answer I received to my inquiries was this: that a number of legal young men get appointed to county and municipal offices, in which they have to exercise a jurisdiction over the militia; that the profits arising from this were sufficient to induce them to act in concert, to preserve their privileges; and that their co-operative influence over the members of the State Legislature is sufficient to prevail upon them not to alter this law.

One great branch of expense, on which most of the fines for nonattendance are absorbed, is the holding of courts-martial over officers and men for various alleged breaches of discipline. These courts are organized with all due formality, presided over by a judge-advocate, and attended by witnesses, &c.; and the proceedings in them are carried on to a most vexatious length and inconvenient frequency, for the profit which they afford to the officeholders. This occasions great annoyance to the persons summoned, tried, and convicted, as well as even to those who may be acquitted, as to each and all of them the loss of time and expense is considerable. It is agreed on all hands, however, that this cannot last much longer.

One very pleasing feature of the scene was this: that though upward of a thousand men had been all day in motion in the heat and dust, and must have been both thirsty and fatigued, we did not see a single instance of any one being intoxicated, or the least affected by liquor; nor were there, as there would have been at any English assemblage of this description, any booths or places for the sale of drink, strewing every man's path with temptation. The same general prevalence of temperance we observed all along our route; for neither at the public tables at which we dined, sometimes in company with 100 persons, nor even when the Canandaigua Convention had drawn so many in from all parts of the country, did we see more, perhaps, than one solitary bottle of wine on the table, almost everybody drinking water, and not seeming to desire any other substitute; indeed, we never once saw spirits, cider, or beer on any table in all our extensive journey.

In the afternoon of our last day at Syracuse we went to see the Museum, at which two fine large serpents of the Anaconda tribe were to be seen, just fresh from South America, imported in a ship to New-York. This, like most of the museums we had yet seen in the country towns, was very poor in objects of natural history, or even in curiosities of any interest. They are not, as in England, attached to some literary institution, with a scientific man as a director, but they are the property of very unlearned persons, who use them as a sort of provincial theatre, for which they are in many instances a substitute. In the daytime a flag is hoisted on the building, or sometimes hung out of the window. A small band of three or four instruments is then employed to play at a balcony or other place in front; the band here consisted of a wretched violin, a hurdy-gurdy, and a long drum; but this seemed to attract passengers, who entered from the street, paid their shilling admission, gazed round their half hour, looked at the serpents, the stuffed beasts, and the waxwork figures, which attracted the largest share of attention, and then departed.

These waxwork figures, I observed, formed a prominent part of every provincial museum that I had yet seen. They represented, generally, prominent characters of the American Revolution, and sometimes popular officers of the United States navy and army; but the resemblances were so imperfect, and the dress and accompaniments so awkward and ill-fitted, that the most intimate acquaintances would have found it difficult to recognise their friends but for the inscription of their names over the figures themselves. There was one group here, however, which was even more attractive to the visiters than the figures of Washington, Franklin, and General Jackson; this was the scriptural personages of King Saul, the ghost of the Prophet Samuel, and the Witch of Endor. The former was arrayed in all his royal robes, with his diadem on his head, though the scriptural account of the interview represents

Saul as disguising himself, by putting on other garments: the ghost of Samuel was dressed in a white calico sheet, thrown around his head and body, leaving only the face and beard visible, and the Witch of Endor was dressed in an oldfashioned English gown of black bombasin, with a long waist and stays, her head covered with a pointed hat like the witches in Macbeth, and over her shoulders was a printed cotton handkerchief of Glasgow or Manchester manufacture! Yet this was thought an admirable group, and was evidently the most attractive of all the objects contained in the Museum. At night, a cheap theatre for farces, songs, dances, and similar entertainments is opened; and this, being frequented by labourers and children, forms the chief source of their

revenue.

During our stay at the Museum there were many Indians present, especially women and children, many of them very gayly dressed, with scarlet blankets, feathers, beads, and trinkets, and all appearing to enjoy the music very much, as well as to be greatly amused with the effect of a very poor electrical machine on those who held its chain. I ascertained, on inquiry, that these Indians belonged to the tribe of the Onondagas, who have a small settlement near Syracuse, and that free admission is given to them whenever they come to town, as the sight of them in the windows and about the buildings draws strangers to enter, for the sake of seeing them more at leisure than they could do in passing the streets. The females were more than usually gay and attractive in their apparel, and appeared, from their smiling countenances and flaunting manner, to have learned the art of coquetry from the whites, in which their visit to the Museum for the purpose of attracting others gave them abundant opportunities of practice, without much improvement to their morals.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Journey from Syracuse to Utica.- Beauty of the Country.-Commencement of the Autumnal Tints-Fruitfulness of American Orchards.-Fruit given to feed Cattle, instead of making Cider.-Lectures at Utica -Description of the City.-History and progressive Increase.-Convention of the Whigs-Excursion to Trenton Falls.-Stratification of the rocky Bed.-Fossil Remains.-Favosite.-Description of the Falls.-Fatal Accidents.-Beauty of the Scenery.-Variety of Views.-Comparison with Niagara. -Journey from Utica to Schenectady.-Beauty of the Mohawk Valley.-Journey from Schenectady to Saratoga.

HAVING examined everything of interest in and around Syracuse, we left that town for Utica on Wednesday, the 12th of September, taking, as was our usual practice where railroads did not exist, an extra-coach for our party, and thus travelling at our ease and pleasure. We left Syracuse at half past eight, and reached Utica

about five, being thus more than eight hours in performing a distance of fifty miles, though we had a lightly-laden coach and four good horses all the way; but the roads are really so bad, even in what the people of the country think the best parts of them, that the travelling is both slow and fatiguing in a very high degree. I think 200 miles might be performed in England with much less muscular motion, and with far less sense of fatigue, than 50 miles on the stage-roads of America.

As our route was the same as that by which we had before travelled when going westward, we observed nothing new beyond those changes which the more advanced state of the season had produced. The beautiful and extensive landscape views were as striking as ever, and impressed us at every step with the boundless fertility of the country, and the certainty of its future greatness, when an increased population shall have filled up all the present unoccupied tracts of forest and uncleared land, of which there are still millions of acres untouched by the axe of the woodman. The harvest of grain had all been gathered in, and was unusually abundant. The autumnal tints had begun to appear upon the trees, and gave additional richness to the foliage; and the orchards, of which we saw hundreds in the course of our journey, many adjoining the roadside, others attached to isolated dwellings, and others intermingled with the woods and fields, were literally bending beneath the weight of their fruit.

Abundant, however, as is the supply from the orchards of this part of the country, scarcely any of their produce is now devoted to the making of cider. The temperance societies have proved, to the entire satisfaction of the farmer, that it is more economical and more profitable to him to feed his cattle on the fruit than to convert it into a beverage which does not benefit, any more than simple water would do, those who use it ever so moderately, and which greatly injures those who take it to excess. This new appropriation of the fruits of the orchard to food instead of drink, being found by experience to be the most profitable to the grower, is likely to remain permanent, and cider has accordingly disappeared as a general beverage of the peasantry.

We remained in Utica three days, on the evenings of which I delivered three lectures descriptive of the monuments of Egypt, to a smaller audience than any I had yet found in either of the towns of the state, the number scarcely exceeding 100, though the population is above 12,000. This was the more remarkable, as the lectures were announced under the auspices of a committee, at the head of which was the mayor of the city, the president of the Young Men's Association, and about a dozen of the most influential and important men of the place. I learned from these, however, that Utica was undoubtedly far behind many towns of much less population in literary taste, and that, consequently, the number

who took any interest in promoting the diffusion of literary information was comparatively few indeed; while the great majority of the community were so immersed in business, that they could not, or would not, afford the time to turn aside from their ordinary occupations for anything but food and rest, and even to these they devoted much less time than the demands of nature for both require. This is, indeed, characteristic of the business-men of the country generally, who are so entirely absorbed in their various pursuits, that any and everything which does not strictly advance these is thought to be unworthy of their attention; a fault which time alone. is likely to correct.

Utica is very pleasantly situated, and is a remarkably fine town. It stands on the southern bank of the Mohawk River, just before its entrance into the valley of that name, and the great Erie Canal (now in progress of enlargement here) passes right through its centre. It is a much older place than Buffalo or Rochester, though not so large or so populous as either. A fort existed here, called Fort Schuyler, long before the war of the Revolution, some remains of which are still visible; and in its immediate neighbourhood a party of German settlers, who had fixed their abode here, were routed by the Indians, some being captured and made prisoners, and others, flying for safety, took shelter in some of the settlements farther east.

In 1784 the permanent settlement of this spot commenced by a single family, who took up their position about four miles west of Fort Schuyler; and in 1789 several other families were tempted to pitch their dwellings on the spot where Utica now stands. This nucleus once formed, soon drew others around it, and in 1798 it was advanced to a sufficient size to obtain a charter as an incorporated village; so rapid was its increase after this, that in 1832 it rose to the dignity of a city, and was incorporated as such. The progressive increase of its population has been steady from the commencement, and is now going on with an accumulated force, as will be seen by the following return:

And in the present year, 1838, the population exceeds 12,000; the advantages of its position as a depôt of supplies for all the surrounding country attracting merchants and traders every year to settle here.

The city, like all the other towns of this state, is well laid out; the streets regular, of ample breadth, 100 feet on the average, well furnished with flag-pavements for foot-passengers, and better paved in the centre than most places in this country. The wooden houses of the original settlers are almost wholly supplanted by large brick VOL. II.-K K