sparkling with carbonic acid gas. Besides these, it has a saline and sulphureous spring, which are of less value. Saratoga is particularly celebrated for its saline springs, of a purgative quality, also impregnated with carbonic acid gas. The Congress spring is the principal; but there are several others of a similar kind. There are also several chalybeate springs, little inferior to those of Ballston in pleasantness or efficacy. The Olympian springs, in Kentucky, have a similar variety of waters in the space of half a mile. A remarkably fine spring of aerated water was found at the foot of James's Peak, among the rocky mountains, by the party of Major Long. 172. Springs of petroleum are found in the United States, near Green River, Kentucky; in the western parts of Pennsylvania; in Ol.io, and in other places throughout the secondary region. It is often in connection with salt. At Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, and at Seneca Lake, New York, it is found floating on the surface of springs in considerable quantities. There are several places in which inflammable air or vapour issues from the ground, which are usually termed springs one of these is found in Virginia; another is in Canada, near the Niagara river; but these appear to be merely objects of curiosity. 173. OBJECTS OF CURIOSITY.-CATAEACTS. The numerous rivers of North America, and its varied surface, of course give rise to many fine cataracts. The most celebrated is, the Falls of Niagara, in the river of the same name, which surpasses all others of the known world in grandeur. The whole mass of water, which forms the great inland seas of America, is here compressed into a channel of three quarters of a mile in width, and plunges over a precipice of 150 to 160 feet in height, into an abyss whose depth has never been fathomed.

174. The river is divided by Grand and Navy Islands, more than a mile above the grand falls, and from this place has a gradual descent of fiftyseven feet. The banks preserve the level of the country, and rise in some parts 100 feet from the water. The rapidity of the current is such that the whole stream is covered with waves, and foams like the sea in a storm. At the grand falls the river is three-fourths of a mile broad, and the precipice winds nearly in a semicircle, extending in the longest line, on the American or eastern side. The falls are divided by Goat Island into two principal portions; the American Fall on the east, and the Horse-shoe Fall on the west, or Canada side. A portion of the fall on the American side is cut off by a small island on the precipice, and forms a narrow sheet between this and Goat Island. The rest descends in one body, from a precipice 164 feet in height, and 1000 feet in length. The water is more shallow than in the other fall, and descends almost perpendicularly. Both the falls on the American side are crossed by bridges. The Horse-shoe Fall is 14 feet less in height, but far superior in grandeur. The great body of the water passes over this fall, and with such force that it forms a curved sheet, and strikes the stream below at the distance of 50 feet from the base of the precipice. The wind and stream are frequently in a state which permits visitors to pass behind the sheet of

water; but there is much danger of injury from the fall of rocks, which occasionally break off from the precipice. The best view of the falls is from Table Rock, a projecting mass of rock on the Canada bank in front of the Horse-shoe Fall.

The concussion of the waters produces a shock and roar which has been described as a thunder which fills the heaven and shakes the earth.' The clouds of spray which rise from the bottom, and conceal the source of this tumultuous roar from the spectator, ascend to the height of 100 feet above the precipice, and float away in varied shapes to a considerable distance. They are frequently illuminated with a rainbow. Sometimes three are visible in different parts of the cloud, and crown the sublimity of the scene with their dazzling splendour. The whole river seems to be in a foam, and for some distance is agitated with a deep tremour, or vibration, like the heaving produced by the shocks of an earthquake. The emotions inspired by such a scene are beyond description. The mind is overwhelmed with a sense of the weakness and littleness of man, and the awful power of the Creator. In describing this wonderful cataract, the most sublime features of all the others are depicted. The foam, the roar, the clouds of vapour, and usually the rainbow, attend most cataracts in a greater or less degree and a minute account of others would involve the repetition of similar circumstances, less grand and interesting in their character.

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175. The River Montmorenci forms a cataract 220 feet in height, nine miles below Quebec, which is in full view from the St. Lawrence. The body of water is small, and the breadth only 50 feet; but the height is great. The waters appear like snow-white foam, enveloped in a cloud of vapour, and the whole effect is grand. The falls of the River Chaudiere, which are not far distant, are about 100 feet in height, and are surrounded with interesting scenery.

175. The Mississippi forms a cataract, 40 feet in height, above its junction with the Ohio, which is more conspicuous for beauty than grandeur. The stream is 700 feet in width; the country around is level and fertile, and there are no precipices to interrupt the view.

177. The Missouri, at the distance of 500 miles from its source, descends 360 feet in eighteen miles, generally in a series of rapids. There are three principal cataracts; the highest eighty-seven feet; the second forty-seven; and the third twenty-six feet in height. The river is 1000 feet broad; and the whole scene is said to be surpassed by no other of the kind except Niagara.

178. The falls of the Passaick, a small river in New Jersey, are among the most celebrated in the United States. They are situated in Patterson, about fifteen miles from Newark. The river is 120 feet broad, and falls in one entire sheet into a chasm seventy feet in depth, and twelve wide. Its waters form the moving power for the most considerable group of manufactories in the United States.

179. The Mohawk River, near its junction with the Hudson, forms the falls termed the Cohoes, about sixty feet in height. In the Housatonic River, in the north-western corner

of Connecticut, is a cataract of the same height, which is the finest in New England. When the river is high, it is said to surpass the Cohoes in grandeur. The small streams of the United States abound in cataracts and cascades too numerous to mention. In the mountainous districts of South Carolina, there are several of considerable height and beauty. The Catawba River, in one part of its course, is precipitated in several falls through a rocky channel, to the depth of 100 feet.

180. In Georgia there is an interesting cataract in the Tockoa Creek, which flows from the Cunawhee Mountain, the southern termination of the Allegany Ridge. It passes through a channel twenty feet wide, over a precipice 187 feet high. In a wet season it descends in one sheet; but in ordinary periods the waters are separated into a fine rain, or spray, before they reach the bottom. A similar cataract occurs in the small river Ache, in Bavaria: it falls over an elevation of 200 feet by five steps, and is entirely scattered in spray its noise is heard several miles; and the current of air is so strong as to drive back the visitor from the gulf.

181. The Connecticut River has several falls or rapids, of which the most remarkable is Bellows Falls, near Walpole. The river, when low, is compressed into a rocky passage sixteen feet in width, and rushes down with immense force, and a tumultuous roar. The whole scene is grand and striking. There is a similar rapid in the Hudson River, at Glen's Falls.

182. CAVES.-The secondary formation of the United States abounds in caverns, which are most frequent in limestone rocks. In these instances, the water trickling through the roof dissolves a portion of the lime, and again deposits it when dropping. It thus gradually forms a slender tube, or stalactite of pure and brilliant whiteness. In the progress of time these stalactites are lengthened into large pillars hanging from the roof. The water which falls on the floor of these caverns makes a similar deposit, and forms a pedestal, or stalagmite, which often unites with a stalactite, and completes a column. These columns are, in many of the caverns, enlarged to a great size, varied in their shape, and sometimes beautifully fluted. In some cases the parts are imperfect. A stalagmite rising from the floor seems like an altar, or a statue; or a number of stalactites depending from the roof are united into a curtain. In this way the most interesting and fantastic forms are produced; and one of these cavities often resembles an immense cathe dral lined with columns, or a magnificent palace

in ruins.

183. The deposit or spa, which forms the stalactites and stalagmites, is capable of being polished and wrought into the most beautiful ornaments. The most interesting cavern of this kind is, Madison's Cavern, Rockingham county, in Virginia. Its extent is 300 feet, and its incrustations assume the various and beautiful forms we have mentioned. To describe its several divisions, and their peculiar features, would occupy space, which, in so brief an account of a great continent, is devoted to more important subjects.

184. Wier's Cave, in the same county, is of the same kind, extending 800 yards, but extremely irregular in its course and size. It does not appear to fall short of any in the United States, in the beauties peculiar to such caverns. Near the north mountain in Frederick county, Virginia, is another cave 400 feet in extent. On the banks of the Swetara River, a branch of the Susquehannah, in Pennsylvania, and in Clarendon, Dorset, and Derby in Vermont, Watertown, New York, and many other places in the United States, are similar caves. At Rhinebec, Duchess county, New York, is a cave of this kind, composed of two chambers, one above the

other.

185. Another class of caves includes such as produce nitre and salts of different kinds. Near Corydon, Indiana, is a large cave which has been explored for the distance of several miles, celebrated for producing Epsom salts, which is continually forming in the earth on the bottom. In Kentucky and Tennessee, caves are numerous, which appear to have been used as burial-places. The earth found in them is often so impregnated with nitre, that great quantities of this article are manufactured from it. Some in Kentucky are said to be several miles in length, containing rooms of immense size, and frequently adorned with stalactites.

186. In the north-west part of Georgia is a cave of this kind called Nickojack Cave, fifty feet high, and 100 wide, which has been explored to the distance of three miles. A stream of considerable size runs through it, which is broken by a waterfall at this distance from the mouth. In the Allegany Ridge, in Virginia, is a blowing cave, from which wind constantly issues. It is 100 feet in diameter, and the current of air is so strong as to keep the weeds prostrate to the distance of sixty feet from its mouth. A similar one is found in the Cumberland Mountains. We have no account so particular as to enable us to describe objects of curiosity of this kind in other parts of the continent.

187. The natural bridge of Virginia is among the most interesting objects of curiosity of North America. It passes over Cedar Creek, in Rockbridge, with a lofty arch of solid rock sixty-five feet wide, and covered with a sufficient depth of earth to support a number of large trees. The chasm is from sixty to eighty feet in width; and the arch springs from perpendicular rocky abutments to the height of 210 feet above this stream. The bridge is bordered by a parapet of rocks, and the traveller might pass without being aware of his situation. Few have sufficient resolution, on perceiving the height, to walk to the edge. The passenger involuntarily falls on his hands and creeps to the parapet; and probably no one can look down without a degree of shuddering as well as astonishment. The view from below is as delightful as that from above is painful. The arch seems springing to the clouds; no scene of nature can produce higher emotions of the sublime. A similar bridge in Scott county, in Virginia, is 1000 feet long, but has attracted less attention.

188. POLITICAL DIVISIONS.-Previous to the discovery of America in 1492, it was exclusively

mhabited and possessed by the various tribes of Indians. As discoveries were made, and settlements established, each European nation claimed possession of the portions respectively seen, or occupied by their subjects, usually without any regard to the rights of the natives, or any compensation for their lands. In this way, the French laid claim to the Canadian provinces, and the English to the country south of the St. Lawrence, as far as Florida. The French were ultimately expelled from Canada, and the whole continent north of latitude 30° except Louisiana, was under their control. Disputes with the colonies south of Canada led to their declaration of independence in 1776, and the foundation of the United States, the first independent government of whites. On the new continent, Spain laid claim to the peninsula of Mexico and Florida by night of discovery and conquest; and to the extensive region of Louisiana, lying between the United and the Pacific Ocean. The purchase of Louisiana and Florida by the United States, extended the dominions of that government to the Pacific; and the continent is thus divided into three great portions; the British possessions, occupying the northern portion; the United States, the middle; and the late colony of Mexico, now an independent federal republic, the southern and peninsular part. The southern provinces of Mexico have recently separated themselves, and formed an independent government; and the Russians claim a small division of the north-west coast, thus adding two subdivisions, but of little importance in point of extent.

189. The two great lines of division have been carefully settled by treaties. The boundary between the United States and the British possessions, commences on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the river St. Croix, and proceeds to its source. 2. Thence north to the highlands, dividing the water of the St. Lawrence, and the Atlantic, and along those highlands to the 45th degree of latitude. 3. Thence by a line due west to the St. Lawrence, and up that river, and through the centre of the great lakes to the long lake, and lake of the woods. 4. Thence to the 49th degree of latitude, and along that parallel to the Rocky Mountains. Beyond these mountains the boundary is left unsettled.

190. The southern boundary of the United States, dividing them from Mexico, commences at the mouth of the Sabine River, proceeds along its western bank to the 32nd degree of latitude. 2. Thence it proceeds due north to the Red River, and along that river to the 100th degree of longitude west from London. 3. Thence due north to the Arkansaw River, and along that river to its source. 4. And thence to the 42nd degree of latitude, and along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean. The bounding streams in both instances are common to the respective nations, for the purpose of navigation.

191. The actual divisions, as in many other cases of the kind, do not correspond to the nominal. If the continent be divided by a line drawn northward from the mouth of the Mississippi, the whole western portion north of 30°. of latitude, and the whole eastern portion north of 50°. forming three quarters of the continent, are occupied and governed almost exclusively by the Indians, and a large part of it has scarcely been visited by a white man. A few trading houses here and there are the only emblems of the power of the whites, west of the Mississippi, and north of Canada; and they are in effect only in possession of one-fourth part of the territories they claim unitedly.

192. The proportion of population is very different. The territories occupied by civilized inhabitants, contain at least eighteen millions of inhabitants; while the Indians cannot be supposed to exceed two millions, and probably fall short of this number.

The relative population of each division is as follows: