REVIEAV. 



ment, existing institutions, and misceilaneous matters, follow, as drawn from, but not cre- 

 dited to, the books and statistical tables of which he is possessed. 



Hailing from Buffalo, where our traveler spent an entire night, he dashes, in imagina- 

 tion, away to the far west, and by aid of the aforesaid statistical tables and maps, and geog- 

 raphies, and Lyell's, and other's American Geology, talks of Wisconsin, and the country 

 about Lake Superior, the "Hog crop," and " Cattle crop" of Ohio, and settles down 

 with a surprisingly "clever" act of " a gentleman introduced to him at Syracuse, but 

 whose name he did not know," who invited him to spend the night at his house, two miles 

 out of the city, which he declined, owing to the brief stay he should make, but who, nev- 

 ertheless, furnished him unsolicited, with free lodgings at the "American Hotel." This 

 is noted " as an instance of the proneness of our trans-atlantic cousins to the virtue of 

 hospitality," as also the truth of his own reiterated remark, that " blood is thicker than 

 water." 



Stepping in, while at Buffalo, at a butcher's, after asking hira sundry questions, which 

 were dwly answered, and then answering the butcher's questions in turn, he writes, — 

 " Well, sir, says he, (the butcher,) we live in a great country here — we are a great peo- 

 ple." NoAV we dare risk our veracity against that of Professor Johnston, that the afore- 

 said butcher never said any such thing; or, if he did say so, that he was a foreigner of 

 British birth. " It is unpleasant to a stranger to be always called upon to admire and 

 praise wjjat he sees in a foreign country; and it is a part of the perversity of human nature 

 to withhold, upon earnest request, what, if unasked, would be freely and spontaneously 

 given," Then a fling at the " brag and swagger among individuals in the United States." 

 An amiable man, too, is Professor Johnston. 



Leaving Buffalo on the morning of the 16th, for the Falls of Niagara, he tarried a full 

 twenty-four hours at the latter place. He viewed the f;ills from both sides of the river, 

 and treats us to a few trite remarks of moderate admiration, and a borrowed cut of the 

 geological formation of the rocks at that point. He then hurries off to Lewiston, on the 

 17th, and takes the boat, where " we steamed through the mouth of the Niagara river." 

 We really wish, for the reputation of all concerned, that our Professor had informed us 

 whether it was himself and his companions who did so much steaming, — whether it Avas 

 simply the tea-kettle steaming up the water for their whiskey-toddy, or, only the inno- 

 cent boat itself, driving her paddle-wheels by aid of steam through the water — for this 

 word " steaming" has sometimes an equivocal meaning on both shores of Lake Ontario, 

 among " our trans-atlantic cousins." 



On board the boat on the way to Oswego, another conversation was had " with a prac- 

 tical farmer from Syracuse." The result of this conversation was, a drawn conclusion as 

 to the profits and hopes of farming as a business. Yet he was impressed with the opin- 

 iou that the New-York farmers knew much more of the geological formation of their own 

 soils, than the English farmers did of theirs. From six to half past ten o'clock in the 

 morning, our author waited at Oswego, where he found that " the flouring mills were the 

 chief source of the prosperity of the town." The extensive commerce with the upper 

 lakes and with Canada, which that thriving town enjoys, he did not hear of. Thence to 

 Sackett's Harbor, which "shows nothing to attract attention, beyond its hotel, and some 

 signs of increase in size." From Sackett's Harbor "we steamed" again through the 

 Thousand Islands, to Kingston, Upper Canada, and " at 6 P. M. we landed on the 

 pier." " I almost felt myself at home again, as I set my foot on shore in sight of 

 itish flag." Herein "the kind welcome of a Kingston family," and under 

 folds and broad protection of " the British flag," he luxuriates for a full w 



