22 NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



legislature is sitting, and many senators and members of the 

 Assembly were there. Next day I went to the Chambers, to 

 hear the deliberations. The members of the Assembly meet in 

 a large square room, with a gallery at one end, and a place 

 also below for strangers. Immediately opposite the door is 

 the speaker's seat, below are the clerks, and then six semi- 

 circles of desks for the members, divided by a pathway up the 

 centre. Each member has a chair, a spitting-box, and a desk 

 to lay his legs on, and occasionally to write letters on: the 

 most marked attitude of attention, either for a senator or 

 Assembly-man, is to lean back so that the chair rests only on 

 its hind legs, lay his legs on the desk, and put his hands in 

 his trowsers pockets. The debates were dull, but business 

 appeared to be got through quickly. The senate-house is 

 smaller, but nearly similar in its consti'uction. 



Albany is a tolerably well-built town, abounding in churches. 

 The Baptist's church is so grand a building, that I mistook it 

 for the Capitol. The persons with whom I met at the hotel 

 wei'e very pleasant and communicative, especially when they 

 found I was just landed from the old country, for few suspect 

 me to be from England. There is less difference between the 

 physiognomy of the Americans and English than I expected 

 to find ; in the youth of New York there is much more 

 evidence of consumptive habit than in the youth of London. I 

 I often thought, when there, of Theocritus : — 



" The crimson rose, the bulbul's pride, 



The purple violet in the shade, \ 



The lily white, the maiden's pride, ' 



Alike are bright, alike must fade ; 

 The purest flake of virgin snow 

 Its very being must forego. 



'Tis so with youth," &c. ; 



\ 



On the 11th of May I left Albany by the railroad to Sche- j 

 nectada, and thence to Utica, where R. Foster was to meet me. ^ 

 To Schenectada the road is rather dull, chiefly pine-barrens, 

 i. e. sandy plains, covered with low pines, and an under-growth 

 of Azaleas, Kalmias, Andromedas, &c. not yet in bloom. 

 Schenectada stands in rather a fine situation ; here we changed 

 carriages, and were quickly off for Utica — thirteen carriages, 

 each containing twenty-four passengers, and three luggage- 

 waggons and a lot of wood-carts behind. I regretted passing 



