TH.E FAR 



(^ 5 



Vol. IV. 



M ARCH 1, 1837. 



No. 11. 



ED3IUND RUFFIIV, EDITOR AND PROPRII^TOR. 



Extract from Miscellanea Curiosa, published in 1707. 



Clayton's letters from Virginia in 1638. 



jlddressed to the Royal Society. 



(Continued from Farmers' Register, p. 5S1.) 



Being honour'd with f-Iic thank? of the Society 

 for my last, and receivinir hy my worthy friend, Dr. 

 MoiiUn, their commands to proceed, I have added 

 here my observations ol" the waters, and part, of 

 the earth and soil. I shall waive both comple- 

 ments and ajjolooies, since I have greater respect 

 and honor for the Society than I can possibly ex- 

 press, and have no reason to suspect their tii\-our, 

 whose candidiiess I so signally proved in my last. 



Of the Water. 



'Twixt the two capes, the southern, call'd the 

 Cape Henry, the more northerly call'd Cape 

 Charles, there runs up a great bay, call'd the bay 

 oi" Cheesepeak ; nine leagues over in some places, 

 in most, seven, lying much west, nore and south, 

 dividing Virginia into two unequal parts. On the 

 east side of this bay, there lies a narrow neck of 

 land, which makes the counties of Northampton 

 and Accomack. On the west side of the bay, there 

 branches forth four great rivers, James River, 

 York River, Rapahanack and Potomack, that rise 

 from a ridge of mountains, whereof more in the 

 sequel. These rivers plentifully water all the 

 other parts of Virginia, emptying themselves into 

 the great bay. The mouth ol' James River, which 

 is the most southerly of them, the mouth of Poto- 

 mack, which is the most northerly, may be a hun- 

 dred miles distance: but as I have been credibly 

 infbrm'd, that the falls of James River, are not 

 past thirty miles fi'om Potomack, which is a vast 

 large river, nine miles over, in many places. I 

 have been told it was navigable nigh two hundred 

 miles, much higher than any of the other rivers: 

 whence I conclude in future times, it will be the 

 most considerable for trade, when the country 

 comes to be inhabited further up into the main 

 land. The other rivers are much about three 

 miles over, a piece. And James River is naviga- 

 ble, at least eighty miles. Yv''ithin four or five 

 miles of James Toion, James River and Yoi-k 

 River are not past four or five miles asunder. 

 Yea, sloops of considerable carriage may sail up 

 the branches of the two rivers, till they come 

 within a mile, the one of the other; for I fake it 

 to be no morefroiii Col. Bollard s to Major Troop\s 

 landing, and I believe they may coma much what 

 as near again at Col. Cd.es,'' and several places. 

 York River, is distant from Rapahanack, in some 

 places, not past ten or twelve miles; Rapahanack. 

 from Potomack, not past seven miles in one place, 

 tho' it may be sixty in others. The heads of the 

 branches of the rivers interfere and lock one within 

 another, which I think is best expressed afier the 

 manner, that an Indian explained himself once to 

 me, when I enquired how nigh the rivers of Caro- 

 lina, Virginia and Maryland, arose out of the 

 mountains, from those that ran westerly on the 

 other side of the mountains, he clapt the fingers of 



Vol. IV— 81 



one hand 'twixt those of the other, crying, they 

 meet thus ; the branches of diflerent rivers rising 

 not past a hundred paces distant one from another: 

 so that no country in the world, can be more curi- 

 ously watered. But this conveniency, that in fu- 

 ture times may make her like the Netherlands, the 

 i-ichest place in all /Imerica. at the present, I look on 

 as the greatest impediment to the advance of the 

 country, as it is the greatest obstacle to trade and 

 commerce. For the great number of rivers, and 

 the thinness of the inhabitants, distract and dis- 

 perse a trade. So that all shi|is in general, gather 

 each their loading up and down an hundred miles 

 distant ; and the best of trade that can be driven, 

 is only a sort of Scotcli pedling ; for they must cany 

 all sort of truck that trade thither, having one 

 commodity to pass off another. This, (i. e. the 

 number of rivers,) is one of the chief reasons why 

 they have no towns; for everyone being more 

 solicitous for a private interest and conveniency, 

 than for a publick, they will either be for making 

 forty towns at once, that is, two in every county, 

 or none at all, which is the country's ruin. But to 

 return : the tides in these rivers regularly ebb and 

 flow about two foot perpendicular at James Town; 

 there is there, as they call it, a tide and half tide, 

 that is, it flows near two hours along by the shoar, 

 after that, it is ebb in the channel, and again it ebbs 

 near two hours by the shoar, after that, it is flood in 

 the channel. This is great advantage to the boats 

 passing up and down the river. I suppose this is 

 caused by many creeks and branches of the rivers, 

 which being considerable many, tho' only three or 

 four miles long, yet as broad as the Thames at 

 London J others ten miles long, some above twen- 

 ty, that have little fresh water which they carry of 

 their own, but their current primarily depending 

 upon the flux and re-flux of the sea. So that af- 

 ter the tide is made in the channel, it flows by the 

 shoar a considerable time aflerwards, being that 

 those creeks are still to fill, and therefore, as it 

 were draws up a source upwards by the shoar; 

 and likewise, when the tide returns in the channel, 

 the creeks that would not so readily disburse their 

 water, being still to empty themselves, they make 

 an ebbing by the shoar a considerable time afier 

 that it is flood, as I say, in the channel. So fiir as 

 the salt waters reach the country, is deemed less 

 healthy. In the freshes, they more rarely are 

 troui)led with the seasonings, and those endemical 

 distempers about Suptember and October. This 

 being very remarkable, I refer the reason to the 

 tnore piercing genius of those most judicious mem- 

 bers of.the Society : and it might, perhaps, be 

 worthy the disquisition of the most learned, to give 

 an account of the various alterations and fatal 

 eflects that the air has on humane bodies, espe- 

 cially when impregnated with a marine salt; more 

 peculiarly, when such an air becomes stagnant : 

 this miuht, perhaps, make several beneficial dis- 

 coveries, not only in relation to those distempers 

 in America, but, perhaps, take in your Kentish 

 agues, and man}' others remarkable enough in 

 our own nation. I lately was making some obser- 

 vations of this nature, on a lady of a delicate con- 



