46 LOWELL MANUFACTORIES. 



everywhere. The people seem to be influenced by habit in 

 house-building at Lowell ; a wooden dwelling-house was be 

 ing erected where rock, which had_ been dug from the cellar, 

 was obstructing its progress, and thousands of loads of stones 

 quarried in forming a railway, were lying at not more than 

 one hundred yards distant. Here I saw a stone arch building 

 across a lateral branch of the canal, which was the only bridge 

 of that material I saw wood generally being used for their 

 construction. Many large sized dwelling-houses and factories 

 were in the progress of erection. 



Lowell is connected with the village Belvedere by a bridge 

 over the river Concord, the water of which is also employed 

 in propelling machinery. In Lowell there are seven news 

 papers published, one of which is a daily paper. There are 

 no less than forty religious and benevolent societies a mag 

 nitude of number, owing, perhaps, to the many religious 

 sects wishing to equal each other in good deeds. This village 

 may be taken as an instance of the giant strides by which the 

 United States are advancing to greatness, and the immeasur 

 able water power nature has lavished on them. The canal 

 supplies more water than the present machinery requires ; 

 and, after inspecting the surplus in the canal and rivers, I am 

 of opinion, there is water enough to propel nearly one hundred 

 times the machinery at present employed, and which might 

 employ a population of above a hundred thousand souls. 



Britain is said to owe much of her greatness to the supply 

 of coal with which she has been blessed ; but however exten 

 sive and available it may be, the water power of the United 

 States will excel it in cheapness and magnitude. The price 

 of labour is, and will likely continue, much cheaper in Bri 

 tain than in the United States, which seems the only circum 

 stance that can ultimately give a superiority to the manufac 

 tories of the former. 



The strawberry plant was met with in every direction 

 throughout our excursions, and the fruit was found to be 

 of superior quality on very poor soil on the banks of the Con 

 cord. In one instance I removed a plant from the earth, the 

 leaves of which did not cover three-fourths of an inch in dia- 



