FROM PHILADELPHIA 135 



and from the orderliness (for America) of its large 

 houses, made from a distance the best impression, and 

 all the more because to reach this excellently chosen site 

 so long a road through such wild regions must be 

 followed. 



The whole way from Philadelphia we saw only a few 

 birds in the forests, chiefly woodpeckers and certain 

 birds of prey.* We had met with no wild beast nor 

 with any other indigenous quadruped. Moreover, very 

 few flowers appeared along the road, and no great 

 variety of plants. The woods are in large part com- 

 posed of the several kinds of North American oaks, 

 the sassafras, tulip-tree, sour gum, chestnut, birch, 

 wild-ash, and others, which are commonly found along 

 the coast as well. Nor did we find many mature seeds 

 nor many seed-bearing plants, so that we became un- 

 easy thinking that if we had no better fortune farther 

 on our journey would afford us little pleasure in these 

 respects. And especially, we had seen nothing thus far 

 which as a product of the country might be highly 

 recommended for adoption in other lands. In most 

 places the soil seemed to be only of a moderate good- 

 ness, in the valleys and flats a few conspicuously fertile 

 spots. The inhabitants of such a country might, to be 

 sure, call themselves happy under a mild government, 

 so long as they lived by the yield of their lands in 

 peace and satisfied with very inconsiderable returns, 

 extensive possessions balancing want of natural fertility 

 and unskilful cultivation. I do not yet observe any 



* Among others Picus principalis L. which at this season is 

 returning from the north ; I had never seen this bird about 

 New York We saw also the Picus varius, Picus villosus, Sitta 

 europaeaf, which likewise I had never before seen. 



