488 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



colour ; we also saw scores of small cetaceous fish, from ten 

 to sixteen feet in length. On the evening of the 24th of April 

 we had a pilot come on board ; since the loss of the Mexico, 

 these men are much better behaved, and come out 40 miles 

 from New York : soon after dark we saw the lighthouses at 

 the entrance of the outer bay. 



" The persons we met with at our hotel at New York, gave 

 me a good opinion of the Americans ; they were very civil, and 

 communicative, but tiot inquisitive. From all to whom we 

 had letters, we have received the greatest kindness. A gen- 

 tleman, to whom we had an introduction, accompanied us to 

 the custom-house, and all our luggage was passed without ex- 

 amination, or even uncording the boxes. We called on two 

 brothers of the name of Carey, Englishmen, botanists, and 

 very kind persons ; they know W. Christy, Newman, and 

 most of our Club ; we dined with them on the 30th. We 

 went to the Lyceum of Natural History. They have here 

 a good many minerals, some very fine fossils ; not many birds, 

 but some beautifully stuffed by Ward, who resides here ; also 

 a library. On the 1st May we went to a meeting at the 

 Lyceum ; there was not much to interest : a paper on a new 

 Arvicola, and a new Sorex : Cooper, who helped Bonaparte, 

 was there, and several other members ; all very pleasant people. 



" My first journey was on the 27th, to the residence of 

 J. S., directly after breakfast. I crossed the ferry to Jersey 

 city, where the rail-road to New Brunswick commences. The 

 first part of this is unfinished, and too uneven to allow the 

 passage of locomotives : we were therefore drawn by two 

 horses at length ; the tram is so near the cut made for the per- 

 manent road, that I consider it anything but safe. In some 

 places there is an intervening space of not more than six 

 inches between the tram and the edge of a precipice, cut per- 

 pendicularly through the rock, thirty or forty feet deep, and 

 not a morsel of fence to prevent the carriages going over : at 

 Newark we exchanged for locomotives, and soon got to Rah- 

 way, about ten miles further. Newark, Elizabethtown, and 

 Railway are all places of considerable trade in coals, and there 

 are some manufactories in the latter : all these are rather 

 irregularly built; the houses are mostly of wood. The country 

 around is salt marsh, with some good pasture land; in places 

 scattered about are large rocks, almost rising into considerable 



