IN THE HUDSON AND THE WEAR. 509 



stance shows how very much the drainage and conse 

 quent agricultural condition of an alluvial tract may be 

 improved, by clearing the outfalls of rivers that flow 

 through it ; and, at the same time, how comparatively 

 small the naturally accumulating obstructions in a river 

 bed may be, which will be sufficient in a large stream 

 like the Hudson to produce the tidal alterations which 

 have been observed at Albany. 



To the geologist who interests himself with questions 

 concerning the supposed alteration of the levels of land 

 and sea, changes such as those I have described form 

 matters of important study. How easy to solve the 

 rising of the tide at Albany, by supposing the whole 

 region to be gradually sinking ! And yet how unneces 

 sary any such extraordinary supposition. 



I reached New York about 1 P.M., staid there a day, 

 and came on to Newhaven this afternoon. The weather 

 here is mild and fine : signs of spring are appearing 

 on the fields and hill-sides, and the rows of elms, for 

 which the town is famous, have been a full fortnight in 

 flower. 



Boston^ April 2. Among the circumstances by which 

 the city of Boston is rendered agreeable to a stranger, 

 and by which he is enabled to meet many pleasant people, 

 are the numerous clubs, literary and scientific, which 

 exist in the city. Meeting successively in the houses of 

 the members, these re-unions make one or more evenings 

 of the week pass agreeably, and inoculate the purely 

 mercantile part of the community with that taste for 

 literature and science, to which their well-known liber 

 ality in endowing and promoting, by their pecuniary 

 means, these departments of knowledge is mainly to be 

 ascribed. I attended several of these evening meetings 

 during my stay in Boston the last one, on the eve of 

 my departure, at the house of Dr Warren. 



I allude to them, in this place, for the purpose of 



