TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



sand under the roots of a tree. A copper mine near 

 Brunswick yielded ore containing silver, but not enough 

 to warrant the expense of separation. The same thing 

 was told me by Mr. Peters, + (a member of the Con- 

 gress) in regard to a lead mine in Pensylvania, a share 

 in which he owns. 



In the evening, not without regret, we took leave of 

 these agreeable Congressmen, so as to reach Trenton 

 that night, ten miles from Princeton. The road lay 

 through a country at intervals well-cultivated. The 

 wheat harvest was over almost everywhere. Maize we 

 found nowhere in Jersey so advanced as that we had 

 left on Long Island and about York. Is it perhaps true 

 that the red soil of this region does not produce corn 

 so well ? Six miles from Princeton we came to Maiden- 

 head, a hamlet of five or six houses. There are in 

 America a number of such places called towns, where 

 one must look for the houses, either not built or scat- 

 tered a good distance apart. That is to say, certain dis- 

 tricts are set off as Townships, (market or town dis- 

 tricts), the residents of which live apart on their farms, 

 a particular spot being called the town, where the 

 church and the tavern stand and the smiths have their 

 shops because in one or the other of these community 

 buildings the neighbors are accustomed to meet. And 

 when later professional men, shop-keepers, and other 

 people who are not farmers come to settle, their dwell- 

 ings group themselves about the church and the shops. 



The thermometer at high-lying Princeton, in a large, 

 airy room stood at 91 Fahr., and even late in the even- 

 ing the weather was extraordinarily close. After sunset 

 we arrived at Trenton, a name familiar enough from 

 the history of the late war. This is a not inconsiderable 



