xlviil LIFE OF WILSON. 



" The description of the Chactaw Bonepickers is a picture so 

 horrible, that I think nothing can exceed it. Many other pieces 

 in this work are new and interesting. It cannot fail to promote 

 the knowledge of natural history, and deserves, on this account, 

 every support and encouragement." 



TO MR. WM. BARTRAM. 



December 26, 1804. 



"I send for your amusement the ". Literary Magazine" for 

 September, in which you will find a well written, and, except 

 in a few places, a correct description of the great Falls of Nia- 

 gara. I yesterday saw a drawing of them, taken in 1768, and 

 observe that many large rocks, that used formerly to appear in 

 the rapids above the Horseshoe falls, are now swept away; and 

 the form of the curve considerably altered, the consequence of 

 its gradual retrogression. I hope this account will entertain you, 

 as I think it by far the most complete I have yet seen. " 



TO MR. WM. DUNCAN. 



Kingsessingj February 20, 1805. 



"'I received yours of January 1, and wrote immediately; but 

 partly through negligence, and partly through accident, it has 

 not been put into the post office; and I now sit down to give 



you some additional particulars. 



* * * * 



" This winter has been entirely lost to me, as well as to your- 

 self. I shall on the twelfth of next month be scarcely able to 

 collect a sufficiency to pay my board, having not more than 

 twenty-seven scholars. Five or six families, who used to send 

 me their children, have been almost in a state of starvation. The 

 rivers Schuylkill and Delaware are still shut, and wagons are 

 passing and repassing at this moment upon the ice. 



" The solitary hours of this winter I have employed in com- 

 pleting the poem which I originally intended for a description 

 of your first journey to Ovid. It is now so altered as to bear 

 little resemblance to the original; and I have named it the " Fo- 



