LIFE OF WILSON. 
xxxv 
to Utica is almost an entire continued viilaue. Tliis evening wc loijgcil on 
the east side of the Mohawk, fifteen miles below Utiea, near which I shot a 
bird of the size of a mocking-bird, which proves to be one never jet 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 liim. 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 toiik 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 mucli 
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 tliis article, I was most agreeably amused with ' Anecdotes of an 
American Crow,' written in such a pleasing style of playful humor, as I have 
seldom seen surpassed; and forming a perfect antidote against the spleen; 
*The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. I. 
