WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 261 



Hudson, and there are eighty-one locks on the 

 canal. It is to the genius and perseverance of 

 De Witt Clinton that the United States owe the 

 almost incalculable advantages of this inland nav- 

 igation. **Exegit monumentum sere perennius." 

 You may either go along it all the way to Buffalo, 

 on Lake Erie, or by the stage; or sometimes on 

 one and then in the other, just as you think fit. 

 Grand, indeed, is the scenery by either route, and 

 capital the accommodations. Cold and phleg- 

 matic must he be who is not warmed into admira- 

 tion by the surrounding scenery, and charmed 

 with the affability of the travellers he meets on 

 the way. 



This is now the season of roving, and joy and 

 merriment for the gentry of this happy country. 

 Thousands are on the move from different parts 

 of the Union for the springs and lakes, and the 

 falls of Niagara. There is nothing haughty or 

 forbidding in the Americans; and wherever you 

 meet them, they appear to be quite at home. This 

 is exactly what it ought to be, and very much in 

 favour of the foreigner who journeys amongst 

 them. The immense number of highly polished 

 females who go in the stages to visit the different 

 places of amusement, and see the stupendous nat- 

 ural curiosities of this extensive country, incon- 

 testably proves that safety and convenience are 

 ensured to them, and that the most distant attempt 

 at rudeness would, by common consent, be im- 

 mediately put down. 



By the time I had got to Schenectady, I began 

 strongly to suspect that I had come into the wrong 

 country to look for bugs, bears, brutes, and buf- 



