it tapers into a narrow passage, where it is necessary to creep, which suddenly opens into a spacious chamber. From this a narrow crevice continues as far as it has been explored. Some of our party pursued it four hundred yards by the light of wax candles. It is very damp and chilly. There is a handsome stream of pure water running from its mouth. The temperature of the air in the cave was fifty-four degrees, that of the water forty-seven. As it is situated in sand-stone rock, it affords no stalactites, or spars. Some parts of the rock at the mouth are colored green, probably by the carbonate of copper. The bed of the brook is composed of a crystalline sand of the most snowy whiteness, originating from the disintegration of the surrounding walls. Scattered over this are a number of small pebbles, of so intensely black a color, as to create a pleasing contrast, when viewed through the medium of a clear stream. These, on examination, proved to be masses of limestone, granite, and quartz, colored externally by a thin deposit of earthy matter, and I conclude the color to proceed from the gallic acid, with which the water, percolating into the cavern, through the beds of oak leaves of the superincumbent forest, may be partially saturated. This cave has been visited by most persons who have passed up the Mississippi, if we may judge from the number of names found upon the walls. Among them, we were informed, was that of Captain Carver, who visited it in 1768, but we did not observe it. His grant of land from the Indians is dated in this cave, but the cave itself appears to have undergone a considerable alteration since that period, for he says that "about twenty feet from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and extends to an unsearchable distance." As the rock is of a very friable nature, and easily acted upon by running water, it is probable that the lake has been discharged, thus enlarging the boundaries of the cave. He also remarks, "at a little distance from this dreary cavern, is the burying-place of several bands of the Nawdowessie (Sioux) Indians. Though these people have no fixed residence, living in tents, and abiding but a few months in one spot, yet they always bring the bones of their dead to this place; which they take the opportunity of doing when the chiefs meet to hold their councils, and to settle the public affairs for the ensuing summer." We noticed no bones or traces of interment about the cave, but perhaps a further examination of the adjacent region would have led to a discovery.'

In Kentucky and Tennessee, caves are numerous, which appear to have been used for burial-places. In the county of Ulster, in New York, is a cave three quarters of a mile in length, caused by a stream running under ground. The rock which constitutes the roof and sides of the cave is a dark colored limestone, containing impressions of shells, calcareous spar, and beautiful white and yellow stalactites. At one end is a fall of water, the depth of which has not been fathomed. At Rhinebeck, near the Hudson, is a cave in which a narrow entrance leads to several spacious rooms, abounding with columns of stalactites. At Chester, in Warren county, there is a stream which passes under a natural bridge, and among many deep caverns; the waters enter in two streams, unite in the subterranean passage, and issue in a single current under a precipice sixty feet in height.

In the Laurel Mountain, in Pennsylvania, is a cavern with a very narrow entrance, and various winding passages, which has been traversed two

miles. It is formed of a soft sandstone, and its roof is covered with millions of bats. At Durham in Bucks county, on the Delaware, is a cave in the limestone rock, abounding with pools and rivulets of water. At Carlisle is another somewhat similar, in which human bones have been discovered.

GENERAL REMARKS ON CAVES.

Caves or grottoes are natural fissures in the solid crust of the earth, with walls and a natural roof. They are sometimes of immense extent and depth, and frequently the first excavation is only the vestibule to another much larger and deeper. Eldon Hole, in Derbyshire, has been sounded with a line of more than nine thousand six hundred feet, but without reaching its bottom. A cavern near Frederickshall, Norway, has been estimated at eleven thousand feet in depth. Many caverns are remarkable for various natural curiosities. The most interesting are those in which the dropping of water has caused the formation of stalactites, either suspended from the vaults of the caverns in the shape of long crystals, or assuming fantastic forms on the floor and along the wall. Antiparos and Peak caves in Derbyshire, England, owe their celebrity to those formations. Other caves are strewed with petrified bones, and have evidently been the burial-places of generations of human beings.

There are caverns which contain deep pits of water, or wells, of such an extent as to acquire the name of subterranean lakes. In some are the sources, and in others the receptacles, of large streams. In Norway you may sometimes walk upon an arched calcareous floor, and hear the roar of torrents under your feet. In Russia, many caverns have been evidently formed by means of water, and even masses of ice.

Fingal's Cave in the Isle of Staffa, on the western coast of Scotland, is the grandest in the known world. Its sides are formed of majestic columns of basalt, which are almost as regular as if they had been formed by art. These columns support a lofty roof, under which the sea rolls its waves, while the vastness of the entrance admits the light of day to the recesses of the cave. The origin of these basaltic formations is uncertain.

The caves of Kirkdale, in England, and Gailenreuth, in Germany, are remarkable for the quantities of bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena found in them. The mine of fluor spar, in Castleton, Derbyshire, passes through several stalactic caverns Other caverns in England contain subterraneous cascades. In the Rock of Gibraltar there are a number of stalactic caverns, of which the principal is called St. Michael's, and is one thousand feet above the sea. The most famous caves of Germany are those of Bauman and Bielstein, in the Hartz.

Caves sometimes exhale poisonous vapors. Of these, the most remarkable is near Naples, named the Grotto del Cane. In Iceland, there are many formed by the lava from its volcanoes. In the volcanic country near Rome, are many natural cavities of great extent and coolness, which form pleasant places of resort in the hot weather. The grottoes in the Cevennes Mountains, in France, are both numerous and extensive, and abound in objects of curiosity. In South America is the cavern of Guacharo, which is said to extend for leagues.

CHAPTER IX.-ISLANDS.

MOST of the coast of Maine is thickly strewn with islands. The largest Mount Desert, on the west side of Frenchman's Bay; it is fifteen miles .ong, and twelve broad. Many fine islands lie in Penobscot Bay, as Long Island, on which is the town of Islesborough; the Fox Islands, containing the town of Vinalhaven; and Deer Isle, on the east side of the bay, about eight miles from Castine.

The Isles of Shoals belong partly to New Hampshire, and partly to Maine. They lie about eight miles out at sea, between Portsmouth and Newburyport, and are hardly more than a cluster of rocks rising above the waters; but they are, on many accounts, worthy of notice. They have but a thin and barren appearance, yet for more than a century previous to the revolution they were quite populous, containing at one time six hundred inhabitants, who found there an advantageous situation for carrying on fisheries. To this day the best cod in the world are those which are known in the market as Isle of Shoals dun fish. These islands were discovered by the celebrated Captain Smith in 1614, and called at first Smith's Isles. The New Hampshire portion now constitutes the town of Gosport.

In all of them are chasms in the rocks apparently caused by earthquakes. There is a remarkable chasm on Star Island, where one of the female inhabitants secreted herself when the islands were invaded, and the people carried into captivity by the Indians. The largest is named Hog Ísland, and contains three hundred and fifty acres; Star Island has one hundred and fifty, Hayley's one hundred; they are in all seven. The inhabitants are about one hundred; they live solely by fishing, and in connection with those of the shore in their immediate neighborhood, who follow the same mode of life, are the most rude and uncivilized beings in New England, except the Indians. They supply the markets of Newburyport with fish, and have long been known there by the name of Algerines. Efforts have recently been made to improve their social condition.

In the northern part of Massachusetts, at the mouth of the Merrimack, lies Plum Island, nine miles long and one wide. On the side towards the ocean it consists of sand hills twenty or thirty feet high, thrown into a thousand fantastic shapes like snow drifts in a storm. These hills are covered with low bushes bearing the beach plum, a fruit about the size of a musket ball, and of a pleasant taste; wild cherries and grapes also grow in different parts. In autumn it is much frequented by parties of pleasure from the neighborhood. At the northern extremity are two lighthouses and a

hotel.

Nantucket, twenty miles south of the main land at Cape Cod, is an island of triangular form, about fifteen miles long and eleven broad in the widest part, containing twenty-nine thousand three hundred and eighty acres. It is removed at least twenty miles from the nearest land, and, during some parts of the winter, the water is frozen around it as far as the eye can reach, for a number of weeks. The climate is comparatively of an equal temperature. Springs of water on the island below a certain level have a peculiar

taste, and are disagreeable to those unused to them. The frequency of dense and heavy fogs has frustrated the attempts made here, to manufacture salt by evaporation from sea-water.

The inhabitants of this island are a robust and enterprising race, chiefly seamen and mechanics; and those employed in the whale fishery are said to be superior to all others; the island, being sandy and barren, is calculated only for such people as are willing to depend almost entirely on the ocean for subsistence.* The people are mostly of the society of Friends, and are warmly attached to their island; few wishing to remove to a more desirable situation.

There is a sand-bar at the entrance of the harbor of Nantucket, which effectually excludes large vessels, deeply laden. Some attempts have been recently made to remove this bank, and an appropriation of twenty-eight thousand dollars was made by government for this purpose; but the sand removed in summer was more than supplied in winter, and the project was abandoned. Ships now unlade at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, and their cargoes are taken in small vessels to the island. Some months in the year, they can unload at the bar. South-east of the island, and out of sight of land, lie Nantucket Shoals, a dangerous reef of sand, fifty miles in extent.

Martha's Vineyard, west of Nantucket, and lying nearer the continent, is twenty miles long, and ten broad. This island has a good soil, and in the western part is somewhat elevated; it has many productive farms, and contains the town of Edgartown, which has a good harbor. Holmes's Hole is a safe and commodious harbor in the north part of the island, much frequented during the winter by inward bound vessels. The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of sixteen small islands lying north-west of Martha's Vineyard, and forming the south-east side of Buzzard's Bay; a part of them only are inhabited. They were discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602. A multitude of islands lie in Boston Bay, many of them very beautiful, but none of sufficient importance to merit particular description.

Rhode Island, in Narraganset Bay, is fifteen miles long from north-east to south-west, and averages two and a half in width. In its most flourishing state it was called by travellers the Eden of America. It has a good soil well cultivated, and an agreeably varied surface, but it is destitute of trees, the whole island having been laid waste by the British in the revolutionary war. A mine of anthracite coal has been wrought to some extent in the north part of the island, but is not now much esteemed. The town of Newport, in the south-west part, is a fashionable summer resort.

Conanicut is an island lying on the west side of Rhode Island; it is eight miles long and about one in breadth. This is also a beautiful island, and has a fertile soil. At the southern extremity is a lighthouse. In the same part may be seen the ruins of an ancient circular fortification, which once defended the passage of the bay.

Prudence Island, farther up Narraganset Bay, is six miles in length. Block Island lies ten miles out at sea, and is eight miles long and from two

There are from fifteen to twenty thousand pounds' weight of wool annually produced on this island, the average quality of which is acknowledged to be superior for manufacturing purposes, to most of the native wool grown on the continent. We have no woollen factories, and but very small quantities of the staple article are wrought into fabrics by domestic labor. Consequently, says the Nantucket Inquirer, it may be an object for wool purchasers occasionally to look this way for a part of their supplies.

to four broad; it has an uneven surface, but produces maize and other grain. A lighthouse stands upon it. Among the other islands in Narraganset Bay are Patience, Hope, Dyers' and Hog Island.

Long Island extends along the coast of Connecticut, but belongs wholly to New-York. It is one hundred and forty miles long from east to west, and its average breadth is about ten miles. It is of alluvial formation, but there is a rocky ridge or spine, extending lengthwise through it, which presents summits of considerable elevation. On the south side of the island is Hempstead Plain, an extensive tract of wild savanna, fifteen miles in length and four in breadth. In favorable years, the best parts of the island have yielded thirty or forty bushels of wheat to the acre. In the western parts are many fine orchards. Deer are found in great numbers in the centre of the island; the shores abound with the finest oysters.

Shelter Island lies off the east end of Long Island. It contains about eight thousand acres of varied surface, with a soil generally light and sandy, but in some parts rich, level, and well cultivated. Fisher's Island lies near the east extremity of Long Island; it is twelve miles long and one wide; the surface is broken, but it affords a good farm, and its dairies are very fine. Gardiner's Island is on the north side of Long Island, and contains about three thousand acres of valuable land.

Staten Island lies at the mouth of New-York harbor; it is about eighteen miles long, and eight wide. The surface is generally rough and hilly, but on the south is a level tract of good land. This island forms the county of Richmond.*

The shores of Staten Island are finely indented, and sprinkled with the white, cleanlooking villas of this country. The island rises quickly to a considerable height, containing an area of about fifty-two square miles.

The quarantine establishment and the adjoining village are pictures of cleanliness, all painted of a bright white. The houses, hotels, &c. generally disjoined, and many of them inclosed in small gardens. The whole buildings are situated on a bank gently rising from the shore, and overhanging a beautiful bay below, in which there were some large ships, as well as a few of the elegant sailing craft, with which the Bay of NewYork is always adorned. Behind the village the ground becomes abrupt, to a point at which a building is erected called the Pavilion, expressly on account of the splendor of the view, the top of which is, I think, nearly two hundred and fifty feet above the sea, consisting of handsome saloons, with balconies, piazzas, &c. on all sides, and a look-out place from the summit, from which the prospect is most glorious. I have never been more delighted with any of the prospects of this description which have charmed me most, on the Frith of Forth, the Clyde, the Bay of Dublin, or in the Isle of Wight. I cannot help doubting whether there be a more magnificent prospect in the world. All the features which it contains are beautiful, and many of them splendid. Then the moving ships, pilot-boats, and small craft, never allow the view of the water to be for two moments the same.

The view comprehends half a dozen friths, dividing, by marked headlands, tracts of well wooded and waving country; and it embraces not only the city of New-York, sur rounded with a vast mass of shipping, but the city of New-Jersey, projected into the bay, quite as much as Burnt Island is into the Frith of Forth, as well as the village of Newark. The cities lie too low, but they serve to convince the beholder that he is in the heart of a densely peopled country. Peninsulas, promontories, islands, isthmuses, land, in a variety of shapes, lie before him, and beyond all, the boundless Atlantic. New. York, the magnificent Hudson, the Frith of Newark, and lands and hills of Jersey are on the north; Long Island and its Sound, the Narrows, and the Quarantine Ground, with the Atlantic on the east; and the coast of New-Jersey, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook, and the Atlantic to the south; the whole forming a noble prospect in the heart of as rich looking a country as is in the world.

I have hitherto seen nothing in this country to be compared to the prospect which I