VERMONT. 593 



From Rutland county, on the western side of the mountains, north- 

 ward to the Canada line, the country is rial and well adapted to tillage. 

 Large tracts of land in Vermont are still in tne wild state of nature. 

 Un.ouched by the hand of cultivation, these present to the view, 

 forests, abounding with trees, plants and flowers, almost infinite in 

 number, and of tne most various species. 



Chief towns... .There are no large towns in Vermont. Montpe- 

 lier, which is near the centre of the state, is the se.u of government. 

 It is a flourishing village, has two paper-mills, and two printing-offi- 

 ces, each of which publishes a weekly newspaper. It is situated 132 

 miles on a direct line north-west from Boston Windsor is the most 

 populous town in the state, containing 2,750 inhabitants. It is situ- 

 ated about 45 miles from the Massachusetts line, on the Connecticut 

 river. Bennington is one of the oldest towns in the state. It was 

 built in 1764. It contains about 2500 inhabitants, a number of hand- 

 some houses, a congregational church, a court-house, and jail. The 

 other towns are Woodstock and Brattleborough, on the east side of 

 the Green Mountains, and on the west Rutland, Middlebury, Ver- 

 genness, and Burlington the last of which is the only port of entry 

 in the state. 



Trade and manufactures. ...The inhabitants of this state trade 

 principally with Boston, New-York, and Hartford. The articles of 

 export are pot and pearl ashes ; beef, which is the principal article ; 

 horses, grain, some butter and cheese, lumber, &c. Vast quantities 

 of pot and pearl ashes are made in every part of this state: but one of 

 its most important manufactures is that of maple-sugar. It has been 

 estimated by a competent judge, that the average quantity made for 

 every family back of Connecticut river, is 200/6. a year. One man, 

 with but ordinary advantages, in one month, made 55016. of a quality 

 equal to imported brown sugar. In two towns in Orange county 

 containing no more than forty families, 13.000/6. of sugar were made 

 in the year 1791. 



The manufacture of cloth, particularly woollen, has lately, in this 

 state, become an object of attention. Carding machines, important 

 in the fabrication of this article, are set in motion by water, in almost 

 every township in the state, by which female labour is very much 

 abridged. From flax and wool raised on their own farms, most fami- 

 lies manufacture all their own cloathing among themselves. 



A state bank consisting of four branches, one at Burlington, one 

 at Middlebury, one at Woodstock, and one at Westminster, was es- 

 tablished in 18 6 It is under the management of thirteen directors, 

 appointed annually by the legislature. 



Natural curiosities. ...These are principally subterraneous ex- 

 cavations, in the sides of the mountains, and alterations in the direc- 

 tion and depth of some of the rivers. Among the caverns there is 

 one on the south-east side of a mountain, in the town of Clarendon, 

 whose entrance is two and a half feet in diamo.er. The passage, 

 descending, makes an angle with the I orizon of 35° or 40°, and con- 

 tinues of nearlj the same capruity for 3 I \, feet. Here it opens into a 

 spacious room, 20 feet long, 12 A wide, ard 1 8 or 20 high. The floor, 

 sides, and roof of the room, appear to be solid rock, very rough, and 

 uneven. The water percolates continually through the top, and has 

 formed stalactites of various forms. At the north part of the room,, 

 there opens another apet >ure of about 40 inches diameter, leading 

 down into another spacious room, SO feet in length, 20 in width, 



