canal is now constructing on each side of the Ohio, by which means vessels may descend at all seasons, and without the possibility of accident or danger. For some time back from eight to twelve boats have been lost annually, and many have been detained for want of water. Therefore the canal must prove a grand acquisition, and extend benefit far and wide. It is to be finished in two years, and will be about three miles in length.

LETTER XXIX.

Excursion from Louisville-view of the coun try and its productions-Kentuckyan mode of life-medicinal herbs-birds-list of snakes-remarkable mocking bird-a rich vale-Beardstown.

Louisville, Aug. 1806.

I HAVE just returned from an excursion, of which I transmit you my

notes.

Accommodated with two excellent saddle and one good pack horse for the conveyance of my tent, and a few common necessaries, I took a south course with the intention of reaching Beardstown, a rising settlement about fifty miles off. I was very glad to find that the hills were neither so rugged nor nu

merous as I had previously experienced in most other parts of the state; but I passed several swamps and ponds, which emitted a most noxious smell, and affected for a moment both the stomach and the head. I found the country exceedingly well timbered. Sugar maple, the coffee, the papaw, the hackberry, and the cucumber tree every where abounded. The coffee tree resembles the black oak, and bears a pod, which encloses a seed, of which a drink is made, thought by inferior tastes to be as good as coffee. Besides these, I met with the honey locust, black mulberry, and wild cherry of a very large size, and the magnolia, bearing a beautiful blossom and shedding an exquisite fragrance. Numerous farms chequered this rich scene, producing wheat, corn, oats, flax, hemp, tobacco, cotton, and vegetables of all kinds, common to a mild climate, and which appeared to yield

abundantly. The wheat promising sixty, and the corn one hundred bushels per acre, in many well cultivated plantations. The fruit made no appearance. The trees bear too much at a season and perish untimely. Some peach-brandy is manufactured, but no cider is made in the country. I rode about fifteen or seventeen miles through this kind of mingled scenery, when I stopt at the house of a cultivator whom I had fallen in with on the road, and took such refreshment as we found prepared. I shall mention it to you because it conveys a general idea of the mode of living through the State. On entering the house, which was a log one, fitted up very well, the Kentuckyan never exchanged a word with his wife or his children, who were worrying a kangaroo on the floor before him, notwithstanding he had been absent several days. No tender enquiry, no affection or senti

ment, but a contemptuous silence, and a stern brutality, which block up all the avenues to the heart. The poor woman, whom I pitied (for 'tis a fact that the women do not degenerate in proportion to the men, but continue to this day amiable) made a large bowl of drink, called toddy, composed of sugar, water, whiskey, and peach-juice, and handed it to her husband with all the servility of a menial; he drank and passed it to me, who followed his example, and found the liquor excellent.

The dinner consisted of a large piece of salt bacon, a dish of homslie, and a turcen of squirrel broth. I dined entirely on the last dish, which I found incomparably good, and the meat equal to the most delicate chicken. The Kentuckyan ate nothing but bacon, which indeed is the favorite diet of all the inhabitants of the State, and drank