the water, armed merely each with a club, for the purpose of driving away the alligators from the cattle; and you may then see men, mules, and those monsters, all swimming together, the men striking the alligators, that would otherwise attack the cattle, of which they are very fond, and those latter hurrying towards the opposite shores, to escape those powerful enemies. They will swim swiftly after a dog, or a deer, or a horse, before attempting the destruction of man, of which I have always remarked they were afraid, if the man feared not them.

'Although I have told you how easily an alligator may be killed with a single rifle-ball, if well aimed, that is to say, if it strike either in the eye or very immediately above it, yet they are quite as difficult to be destroyed if not shot properly; and, to give you an idea of this, I shall mention two striking facts.

My good friend Richard Harlan, M. D. of Philadelphia, having inti mated a wish to have the heart of one of these animals to study its compar ative anatomy, I one afternoon went out about half a mile from the plantation and, seeing an alligator that I thought I could put whole into a hogshead of spirits, I shot it immediately on the skull bone. It tumbled over from the log on which it had been basking, into the water, and, with the assistance of two negroes, I had it out in a few minutes, apparently dead. A strong rope was fastened round its neck, and, in this condition, I had it dragged home across logs, thrown over fences, and handled without the least fear. Some young ladies there, anxious to see the inside of his mouth, requested that the mouth should be propped open with a stick put vertically; this was attempted, but at this instant the first stunning effect of the wound was over, and the animal thrashed and snapped its jaws furiously, although it did not advance a foot. The rope being still round the neck, I had it thrown over a strong branch of a tree in the yard, and hauled the poor creature up swinging, free from all about it, and left it twisting itself, and scratching with its fore feet to disengage the rope. It remained in this condition until the next morning, when finding it still alive, though very weak, the hogshead of spirits was put under it, and the alligator fairly lowered into it with a surge. It twisted about a little; but the cooper secured the cask, and it was shipped to Philadelphia, where it arrived in

course.

Again, being in company with Augustin Bourgeat, Esq., we met an extraordinary large alligator in the woods whilst hunting; and, for the sake of destruction I may say, we alighted from our horses, and approached with full intention to kill it. The alligator was put between us, each of us provided with a long stick to irritate it; and, by making it turn its head partly on one side, afford us the means of shooting it immediately behind the fore leg and through the heart. We both discharged five heavy loads of duck-shot into its body, and almost all into the same hole, without any other effect than that of exciting regular strokes of the tail, and snapping of the jaws at each discharge, and the flow of a great quantity of blood out of the wound, and mouth, and nostrils of the animal; but it was still full of life and vigor, and to have touched it with the hand would have been madness; but as we were anxious to measure it, and to knock off some of its larger teeth to make powder charges, it was shot with a single ball just above the eye, when it bounded a few inches off the ground, and was dead when it reached it again. Its length was seventeen feet; it was

apparently centuries old; many of its teeth measured three inches. The shot taken were without a foot only of the circle that we knew the tail could form, and our shots went en masse.

As the lakes become dry, and even the deeper connecting bayous empty themselves into the rivers, the alligators congregate into the deepest hole in vast numbers; and, to this day, in such places, are shot for the sake of their oil, now used for greasing the machinery of steam-engines and cotton mills, though formerly, when indigo was made in Louisiana, the oil was used to assuage the overflowing of the boiling juice, by throwing a ladleful into the kettle whenever this was about to take place. The alligators are caught frequently in nets by fishermen; they then come without struggling to the shore, and are killed by blows on the head given with axes.

'When autumn has heightened the coloring of the foliage of our woods, and the air feels more rarefied during the nights and earlier part of the day, the alligators leave the lakes to seek for winter quarters, by burrowing under the roots of trees, or covering themselves simply with earth along their edges. They become then very languid and inactive, and, at this period, to sit or ride on one would not be more difficult than for a child to mount his wooden rocking-horse. The negroes, who now kill them, put all danger aside, by separating, at one blow with an axe, the tail from the body. They are afterwards cut up in large pieces, and boiled whole in a good quantity of water, from the surface of which the fat is collected with large ladles. One single man kills oftentimes a dozen or more of large alligators in the evening, prepares his fire in the woods, where he has erected a camp for the purpose, and by morning has the oil rendered.

'I have frequently been very much amused when fishing in a bayou, where alligators were numerous, by throwing a blown bladder on the water towards the nearest to me. The alligator makes for it, flaps it towards its mouth, or attempts seizing it at once, but all in vain. The light bladder slides off; in a few minutes many alligators are trying to seize this, and their evolutions are quite interesting. They then put one in mind of a crowd of boys running after a football. A black bottle is sometimes thrown also, tightly corked; but the alligator seizes this easily, and you hear the glass give way under its teeth as if ground in a coarse mill. They are easily caught by negroes, who most expertly throw a rope over their heads when swimming close to shore, and haul them out instantly."

The Tortoise is found in considerable numbers and variety. In the lakes west of the Mississippi, and near New Orleans, a soft shelled mud-tortoise is found, which epicures declare to be not much inferior to the sea-turtle of the West Indies. The gouffre is an animal apparently of the tortoise class, and is abundant in the pine barrens of the south-western states. Its shell is large and thick, and it burrows to a great depth in the ground; its strength and power are wonderful, and in many respects it is similar to the logger-head turtle. The siren is nearly two feet in length, and a very singular animal; it somewhat resembles the lamprey. It is amphibious, penetrates the mud easily, and seems to be of an order between fish and lizards. The whole of the republic is prolific in toads, frogs, and reptiles of that class; but they are found in the greatest number and variety in the regions of the warmest temperature.

V. INSECTS.

The insects of the United States are numerous, and many of them beautiful; many of the species are entirely new, and science has been much indebted to Mr. Say for additions of no inconsiderable importance to entomology. The moths and butterflies are exceedingly splendid, and one of them, the atlas moth, is the largest hitherto known. Among the spiders, is a huge species called the tarantula, supposed to inflict a dangerous bite. The annoyance inflicted by moschetos in hot weather is well known; by these and other stinging insects, damp and low situations are rendered very disagreeable during the summer. The fire flies, which glitter especially in the southern forests, are very interesting. The copper colored centiped, a creature of cylindrical form, and as long as a man's finger, is dreaded as noxious; a family is said to have been poisoned by taking tea in which one of them had been accidentally boiled.

One insect, the ægeria exitiosa, has committed great ravages among the peach trees. The larva begins the work of destruction about the beginning of October, by entering the tree, probably through the tender bark under the surface of the soil; thence it proceeds downwards, within the tree, into the root, and then turns its course upwards towards the surface, where it arrives about the commencement of the succeeding July. They voraciously devour both the alburnum and the liber, the new wood and the inner bark. The insects deposit from one to three hundred eggs within the bark of the tree, according to its capacity to support their progeny.

The United States are not free from the scourge of the locust. The males have under each wing a ribbed membrane as thin as a gossamer's web, which, when inflated, constitutes their musical organ. The female has a sting or drill, the size of a pin, and near half an inch in length, of a hard and brittle substance, which lies on the under surface of the body; with this the insect drills a hole into the small limbs of trees, quite to the pith; there it deposits through this hollow sting or drill some dozen or two of small white eggs. The time required to drill the hole and deposit the egg is from two to five minutes. When undisturbed, they make some half dozen or more insertions of their drill in the same limb, perhaps an inch apart, and these punctures usually produce speedy death to the end of the limb. They sometimes swarm about the forests in countless multitudes, making melancholy music,' and causing no less melancholy desolation.

GENERAL REMARKS ON ZOOLOGY.

The zoology of the United States opens a wide and interesting field of observation: it is more peculiar and striking than either the mineralogy or botany. The following general view of the mammiferous animals inhabiting North America is given by Dr. Harman. The number of species now ascertained is one hundred and forty-six, in which we do not include man; of these twenty-eight are cetacea, and one hundred and eighteen are quadrupeds. Among the quadrupeds, Dr. Harman reckons eleven species, of which no living trace is found in any part of the world; which cannot of course be considered as forming a part of our present zoology. The number of living species of quadrupeds is therefore one hundred and seven. The comparative numbers of the several orders are stated as follows, omitting man:

We may here introduce from Dr. Harman a statement of the number of North American quadrupeds, which he conceives to be common both to the new and old world.

Species. 1 Mole.

2 Shrew.

1 Bear.

1 Glutton.

1 Otter.

Species. 2 Wolf.

2 Fox.

2 Seal.

2 Weasel.

1 Beaver.

Species. 1 Field-mouse. 1 Campagnol (rat.) 1 Squirrel.

2 Deer.

1 Sheep.

The whole number of common species is twenty one; leaving eighty-six species as peculiar to North America, though not all of them to the United States.

Charles Lucien Bonaparte has arranged the birds of the United States in twentyeight families, eighty-one genera, and three hundred and sixty-two species, viz.: two hundred and nine land, and one hundred and fifty-three water-birds. Of the eighty-one genera, sixty-three are common to Europe and America, while eighteen have no repre. sentatives in Europe.

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CHAPTER XVII.-BOTANY.

THE vegetation of the United States is as various as the climate and soil. In Florida and the southern states, the superb magnolia, the majestic tulip tree and the deciduous cypress charm the traveller by their grandeur and beauty. The lofty oak, the stately fir and the gracefully-waving elm of the north, present a different and still a highly interesting study to the naturalist. As a general observation, the trees of the United States are larger, taller, and more generally useful for timber than those of Europe. As to height, it is observed by Michaux, that, while in France only thirtyseven species of trees arrive at thirty feet, in the transatlantic republic, one hundred and thirty exceed that elevation. A general idea of the American forest having thus been given, we will now notice, as largely as our limits will permit, the most remarkable trees.

Oak.-The White Oak is found throughout the United States, though it is by no means equally diffused. It abounds chiefly in the middle states, particularly in that part of Pennsylvania and Virginia which lies between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, where nine tenths of the forests are frequently composed of these trees, whose healthful appearance evinces the favorable nature of the soil. East of the mountains, this tree is found in every exposure, and in every soil which is not extremely dry or subject to long inundations; but the largest stocks grow in humid places. In the western districts, where it composes entire forests, the face of the country is undulated, and the yellow soil, consisting partly of clay with calcareous stones, yields abundant crops of wheat.

The white oak attains the elevation of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of six or seven feet; but its proportions vary with the soil and climate. Soon after their unfolding, the leaves are reddish above and white and downy beneath; when fully grown, they are smooth and of a light green on the upper surface. In autumn, they change to a bright violet color, and form an agreeable contrast with the surrounding foliage which has not yet suffered by the frost. This is the only oak on which a few of the dried leaves remain till the circulation is renewed in the spring. By this peculiarity and by the whiteness of the bark, from which it derives its name, it is easily distinguishable in the winter. This tree puts forth flowers in May, which are succeeded by acorns of an oval form, large, very sweet, contained in rough, shallow, grayish cups, and borne singly or in pairs, by peduncles eight or ten lines in length, attached, as in all species of annual fructification, to the shoots of the season. The fruit of the white oak is rarely abundant, and frequently, for several years in succession, a few handfuls of acorns could hardly be collected in a large forest where the tree is multiplied. Some stocks produce acorns of a deep blue color.

Of all the American oaks, this is the best and the most generally used, being strong, durable, and of large dimensions. It is less employed than formerly in building, only because it is scarcer and more costly. Among