MR LEA S COLLECTIONS. 317 



and employment among the native labourers of Great 

 Britain, and driven thousands to new homes beyond the 

 Atlantic. It may be said, also, that privations as great, 

 though arising from a different cause, drive the Irish 

 themselves from their paternal homes. And though the 

 evils of the coloured people are not diminished, because 

 they suffer in like manner with ourselves, yet we shall 

 spare both reproaches and blame if we consider how 

 much of all these evils is happening as the result of a 

 natural course of events which is absolutely beyond our 

 control. 



Among other persons in Philadelphia, I spent some 

 pleasant hours with Mr Lea, in looking over his exten 

 sive and very interesting collection of fresh-water shells, 

 and in examining the supposed sauroid footsteps in old 

 red-sandstone, of which he has published a figure. This 

 city is rich in two most valuable collections of shells, ot 

 which that of Mr Lea is one ; and there are few persons 

 possessed of a scientific taste, whatever may be their spe 

 cial pursuit, who will not find in it much to interest, to 

 instruct, and to suggest. 



Jan. 28. This morning, at 8^ A.M., I left Phila 

 delphia by railway for Baltimore, crossed the Susque- 

 hannah at 11^ A.M. by a steam-ferry which took across 

 both passengers and cars, and reached Baltimore at ! 

 P.M., a distance of ninety-seven miles. 



Along the Delaware, from Philadelphia to Wilmington, 

 the country is generally low and full of creeks. The neck 

 of land which separates the Delaware from the Susque- 

 hannah River is undulating, light, and sandy, and, when 

 submitted to culture, its chief grain crop is Indian corn. 

 It produces naturally thin forests of pine ; and where the 

 land has been left to itself, after these were cut down, 

 a second growth of scrub oak has taken their place. These 

 resemble the natural thin oak-barrens which overspread so 

 large a surface of indifferent soil in the State of Michigan. 



