LIFE OF WILSON. xxxv 



to Utica is almost an entire continued village. This evening we lodged on 

 the east side of the Mohawk, fifteen miles below Utica, near which I shot a 

 bird of the size of a mocking-lsird, which proves to be one never yet described 

 by naturalists. I have it here in excellent order. From the town called Her- 

 kimer we set off through deep mud, and some snow; and about mid-day, be- 

 tween East and West Canada Creeks, I shot three birds of the jay kind, all 

 of one species, which appears to be undescribed. Mr. Bartram is greatly 

 pleased at the discovery; and I have saved two of them in tolerable condition. 

 Below the Little Falls the road was excessively bad, and Isaac was almost in 

 despair, in spite of all I could do to encourage him. We walked this day 

 twenty-four miles ; and early on the 25th started off again through deep mud, 

 till we came within fifteen miles of Schenectady, when a boat coming down 

 the river, Isaac expressed a wish to get on board. I walked six miles after- 

 wards by myself, till it got so dark that I could hardly rescue myself from the 

 mud-holes. The next morning I entered Schenectady, but Isaac did not arrive, 

 in the boat, till noon. Here we took the stage-coach for Albany, the roads 

 being excessively bad, and arrived there in the evening. After spending two 

 days in Albany, we departed in a sloop, and reached New York on Saturday, 

 at noon, the first of December. My boots were now reduced to legs and upper 

 leathers ; and my pantaloons in a sad plight. Twelve dollars were expended 

 on these two articles. ****** 



" On Friday, the 7th December, I reached Gray's Ferry, having walked 

 forty-seven miles that day. I was absent two months on this journey, and I 

 traversed in that time upwards of twelve hundred miles. 



" The evening of my arrival I went to L***h's, whose wife had got twins, 

 a boy and a girl. The boy was called after me : this honor took six dollars 

 more from me. After paying for a cord of wood, I was left with only three 

 quarters of a dollar." 



To Mr. Wm. Bartram. 



" Union School, December 24th, 1804. 



" I have perused Dr. Barton's publication,* and return it with many thanks 

 for the agreeable and unexpected treat it has afforded me. The description of 

 the Falls of Niagara is, in some places, a just, though faint, delineation of that 

 stupendous cataract. But many interesting particulars are omitted; and much 

 of the writer's reasoning on the improbability of the wearing away of the pre- 

 cipice, and consequent recession of the falls, seems contradicted by every ap- 

 pearance there ; and many other assertions are incorrect. Yet on such a sub- 

 ject, everything, however trifling, seems to. attract attention : the reader's 

 imagination supplying him with scenery in abundance, even. amidst the feeble- 

 ness and barrenness of the meanest writer's description. 



"After this article, I was most agreeably amused, with 'Anecdotes of an 

 American Crow,' written in such a pleasing style of plajrful humor, as I have 

 seldom seen surpassed ; and forming a perfect antidote against the spleen ; 



*The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. I. 



