

l &quot; JOtfRNEY FROM ALBANY TO BOSTON. 37 



hotels. X We reached Northampton about six in the evening^ 

 having travelled seventy-seven miles in sixteen hours. 



This day s travelling afforded opportunities of seeing the 

 American system of road-mending, or more correctly speak 

 ing, road-destroying. A plough, drawn by four, and occa 

 sionally six oxen, with two drivers, one man holding by the 

 stilts, and another standing on the beam, is passed along the 

 margins of the road, turning every fifty yards. The loosened 

 earth is then moved to the centre of the road, by men with 

 shovels, or by a levelling-box drawn by oxen, the stones, 

 great and small, being first carefully removed from amongst 

 the earth, and in many instances more were thrown aside than 

 sufficient to Macadamize the road. 



The country from Albany, has not an agricultural feature 

 worthy of notice, the soil being chiefly poor sand, interspersed 

 with rocks and innumerable stones. The crops were truly 

 miserable, and the pastures thinly clothed with sheep and 

 cattle, which were invariably lean. Some beautiful cows were 

 seen at Northampton, apparently descended from the North 

 Devon breed of England. 



The road in several places was so hilly that the stage pas 

 sengers walked on foot, which afforded an opportunity of 

 examining much that was interesting. This was one of the 

 happiest days of my life, almost every moving and stationary 

 thing on the earth s surface being new to me, and the weather 

 fitted for displaying them to the best advantage. Strawberries 

 of different kinds were gathered, tasted, and their seeds pre 

 served. Shrubs and flowers were culled and compared. In 

 sects and birds seemed to vie with each other in displaying 

 brilliant colours; squirrels and woodpeckers of every hue 

 were sporting around the trunks of aged trees, and the snakes 

 were basking in the glorious sunbeams. Nature seemed in 

 jubilee. 



The forests through which the road led were strewed with 

 decayed and decaying trees of former ages, and at the same 

 time exhibited living specimens of each variety in every stage 

 of growth, from the seedling budding into existence, to the 

 aged pine, bearing the white and flowing tresses of Spanish. 



