(978 ) 
I. Mr. John CIayton.Re<5r^ f Cro ~ on a; Wake- 
field, bis Letter to the Royal Society, giving 
a farther Account of the Soil, and other Ob- 
fervables of Virginia. 
T Shall here prefent you with a Continuation of my 
1 Remarks on the River, Soil, . :;d Plants of Vir- 
ginia. And firft, as to the River on \:\z ether fide the 
Mountains, faid to Ebb and Flow. I have been aiuired 
by.Col. Bircl^ who is one of the Intelligenteft Gentle- 
men in all Virginia, and knows more of Indian Affairs 
than any Man in the Country, that it was a Miftake ; 
for that it muftrun into a Lake, now called Lake ?etite y 
which is frefh Water ; for fince that time a Colony of 
the French are come down from Canada^nd have feated 
themfelves on the back of Virginia, where Fallam and 
the reft fuppofed there might be a Bay, but is a Lake , 
to which they have given the Name of Lake Petite > 
there being feveral larger Lakes twixt that and Canada. 
The French poffeiling themfelves of thefe Lakes, no 
doubt will in fhort time be abfolute Matters of the Bea* 
ver Trade, the greateft number of Beavers being catch'd 
there. The Colonel told me likewife, that the com- 
mon Notion of the Lake of Canida, he was aflured was 
a Miftake, for the River fuppofed to come out of it, 
had no Communication with any of the Lakes, nor the 
Lakes one with another, but were difhindt. But not 
to ramble after hear-fay, and ether matters but 
to return to the Parts of Virginia inhabited by 
the Englifb, which in general is a very Fertile Soil, far 
furpaffing England, for there EngUJh Wheat (as they 
call it, to diftinguifh it from Maze, commonly called 
Virginia Wheat) yields generally ; twixt Fifteen and 
Thirty 
