* EMIGRATION, OR 



youngsters, from twelve to sixteen years of age, have the 

 airs of men and women, and females then enter the matri 

 monial state; there are instances at the earliest of the above 

 periods. A woman of twenty- five is undeservedly punished 

 with the vile and reproachful epithet of &quot; confirmed old 

 maid;&quot; even at twenty they do not entirely escape it. The 

 mistress of the house in which 1 lodge was married at four 

 teen years of age; though I may just note by the way there 

 are no mistresses or masters in this country, except for 

 blacks ; the mistresses are all misses, married as well as 

 single, with this distinction an unmarried female has her 

 Christian, or (as it is called) &quot; given &quot; name added to Miss, 

 which is not used to married females. 



March 22. Fine bright warm weather, thermometer 

 about 60 ; something like a fine English April. Had a 

 stroll into the country ; grass and wheat begin to shew 

 green; the last looks well; fruit trees budding; weeping- 

 willows green. Great quantities of fish tied in bunches, 

 lying along the Bay side, tainting the air. When the fisher 

 men are not able to dispose of them before being spoiled, 

 they are thus thrown into the water. Shad season just 

 commenced ; a fine fish of the herring kind, but ten times 

 as large, sold at from Is. Id. to Is. 6d. a pair, weighing from 

 one, to two or three Ibs. each. One fisherman, the first day, 

 caught 12,000, and sold them on the spot at 11. 2s. 6d. per 

 hundred, which is the general price. The fisheries for shad 

 and herring, in the bay, let for high rents. Great plenty of 

 vegetables at market ; greens, turnip-tops, turnips, beets, 

 parsnips, carrots, potatoes, celery, &c. and herbs, shrubs, 

 and fruit trees. 



March 3\. Took a long ramble into the country; the 

 clay warm and pleasant, thermometer 64. Saw a man break 

 ing up ley, which was rather stiff, with a pair of horses, 

 and another at plough on some short lands, with one horse : 

 their ploughs are very light and neatly made, better adapted 

 for light work than any I have seen in general use in Eng 

 land. The Americans appear to adopt things to circum 

 stances generally, not being chained with old customs and 

 prejudices; they likewise think their &quot; mingled descent from 

 various nations has a benign influence on genius, something 

 like the improving effects of an analogous state upon vege 

 tables, and other inferior animals.&quot; Been to see. some fat 



