#6 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA : 
every fortnight. There are two theatres here,, 
in which there are performances occasionally. 
The oldest of them, which stands in the road to 
Fell’s Point, is most wretched, and appears little 
better than a heap of loose boards; for a long 
time it lay quite neglected, but has lately 
been fitted up for a company of French actors, 
the only one I ever heard of in the country. 
Baltimore, like Philadelphia, has suffered from 
the ravages of the yellow fever. During the 
autumn it is generally unhealthy, and those 
who can afford it retire to country seats in the 
neighbourhood, of which some are, most de¬ 
lightfully situated. 
From Baltimore to Washington, which is 
forty miles distant, the country wears but a 
poor appearance. The soil in some parts con¬ 
sists of a yellow clay mixed with gravel: in 
other parts it is very sandy. In the neighbour¬ 
hood of the creeks and between the hills are 
patches of rich black earth, called bottoms, 
the trees upon which grow to a large size; 
but where there is gravel they are very small. 
The roads passing over these bottoms are 
driving over one of them, near the head wa¬ 
ters of a branch of Patuxent river, a few days 
after a heavy fall of rain, the wheels of a sulky 
which I was in sunk up to the very boxes. 
For a moment I despaired of being able i$ 
