172 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



The weather continues to be very pleasant ; that is, about 

 80° in the house ; mornings and evenings cool — nights not 

 oppressive. I have felt nothing yet like a Cape hot day and 

 night ; but I suppose the severest heats are over. Stars not so 

 bright as I had heard of, but with cooler weather they will get 

 polished. The city grows considerably on me since my first 

 report. Broadway, when lit up at night, is in several respects 

 like Paris, from the splendidly fitted-up cafes, drinking-shops, 

 and oyster-cellars, many of which pay 3000 dollars rent, — of 

 great extent and very fine. I believe there is a great deal of 

 the same dissipation here which Paris is famous for. 



I have not yet seen either a mint -julep or a sherry-cobbler. 

 The former, I find, is considered vulgar and low ; the latter may 

 be taken both by ladies and gentlemen. I make experiments 

 in eating all the new vegetables I see at table. Some I find 

 tolerable. They have a very nice bean, with a skin as thin as, 

 a film, and a good flavour. I think it the best of the experi- 

 ments. The sweet-potatoes are like frost-bitten ones — mawkish. 

 The squashes " not very nasty," and with seasoning may be 

 rendered palatable. I have not yet witnessed a scramble for 

 dinner, and a rush when the bell rings ; but am told to expect 

 one in the river steamers, and at the large places, and to be 

 thankful if I get enough to eat at the table." 



From New York, Dr. Harvey proceeded to join the family 

 party at Hyde Park, stopping, however, at Westpoint for a few 

 days with his friend Mr. Bailey, Professor of Botany in the 

 Military Academy, with whom he had enjoyed the dredging ex- 

 cursion in Long Island, but whom he now found an invalid, 

 only beginning to mend. " He would not let me away," he 

 writes, " as soon as I should have come, though only able to 

 talk to me from his bed, where he was lying weak and ex- 

 hausted." Two of the days here were spent in examining and 

 naming a collection of Algse. 



Like all other travellers, Dr. Harvey was charmed with the 

 beautiful and varied scenery of "the noble Hudson River." 

 Writing from Hyde Park, he describes in glowing words its 

 successive beauties; its " precipitous wooded banks ;" the sin- 

 gular barrier of rock, looking like gigantic palisades ; the High- 

 lands, where the river winds through wooded mountains, the 



