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question. But as we have not, the conversion of a portion of the labor now devoted to agriculture in the other direction, could not fail to be highly salutary.

Notwithstanding the repugnance we all have to acknowledge our errors, I flatter myself you must acknowledge, that neither the editor nor the edition merited the censure you bestowed on them. MATHEW CAREY.

March 15, 1825.

Remark.

One word in reply. Mr. Carey is tilting against a shadow of his own conjuring. We have nowhere imputed to him, since he has avowed himself the publisher of the report, the slightest dishonesty of motive. Mr. Carey meant, no doubt, to make a genuine edition; all that we have done is to insist that it is not genuine. This is a mere matter of opinion, and, to our opinion, we have as much right as Mr. Carey has to his. What we said, we said deliberately, and now repeat deliberately. The ambiguity of the title-page-the conversion of unemphatic to emphatic passages-the interpolation, or appendage, (if that be a better word,) of a silly dialogue 'to fill up a void,'and, above all, the removal of the marks of emphasis which Alexander Hamilton himself affixed with his own hand to those passages which denied the superior productiveness of manufactures,are objections great enough, in all conscience, to impair the genuineness of the edition, without implicating, in the least, the motives of the editor.

AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY.

A work has been projected, and, we understand, is now in press in Philadelphia, which promises to form an era in the progress of American Natural Science. Its object is to accomplish what has long been regarded as a great desideratuma complete history, at once philosophical and popular, of the American Animal Kingdom. Dr. John D. Godman, who has devoted himself to this arduous undertaking, is peculiarly qualified for the task; and the reputation he has already gained as an able and indefatigable teacher of anatomy,-as a Professor of the Philadelphia Museum,-and as an Editor of the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, will, we are confident, be greatly confirmed and extended by the publication of his "American Natural History."

The first part will comprehend the quadrupeds of North

America, in three octavo volumes of about 400 pages each. The work will be rendered peculiarly valuable and interesting by a great number of beautiful engravings, from designs taken principally from the living animal, by Mr. C. A. Lesueur, Mr. Rider, and Mr. W. W. Wood. These gentlemen have, each of them, already given the most satisfactory evidence of their great ability and talent. Mr. Lesueur's reputation, in particular, both as a naturalist and an artist, stands too high to leave us room to doubt, for an instant, of the entire success of this part of the work. A great additional value will be conferred upon the "History" by the circumstance, that, among the numerous designs which are to be obtained, there will be many of animals now for the first time figured or engraved.

With respect to the authenticity and general merit of the descriptions, no question can be reasonably entertained, when it is known that in addition to the extensive observations and unwearied industry of Dr. Godman, we have the further guaranty of the zealous co-operation of the most distinguished naturalists of the United States. Professor Say, Mr. Charles Bonaparte, Dr. Harlan, Dr. Dekay, Dr. Mitchell, and Mr. Ord, have promised to contribute their assistance in rendering the contemplated History every way worthy of the most liberal support.

What peculiarly interests us in the success of Dr. Godman's work, is the gratifying reflection, that the honor will belong almost exclusively to our own countrymen, and that foreigners. will no longer have it in their power to reproach us with a dependence upon transatlantic writers, for nearly all the useful knowledge we possess of the riches and resources of the American animal world.

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SPIRIT OF SPRING.

-the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come."

Spirit, that from the breathing South
Art wafted hither on dewy wing,

By the softened light of that sunny eye,
And that voice of wild-wood melody,

And those golden tresses wantoning,

And the perfum❜'d breath of that balmy mouth,
We know thee, Spirit of Spring-

Spirit of beauty, these thy charms, Spirit of Spring!

Spirit of Spring! thou com'st to wake
The slumbering energies of earth;

The zephyr's breath to thee we owe,
Thine is the streamlet's silver flow,
And thine the gentle flowret's birth,
And their silence, hark! the wild birds break,
For thy welcome, Spirit of Spring-
Spirit of life, thy triumphs these, Spirit of Spring!

Spirit of Spring! when the cheek is pale,
There is health in thy balmy air,

And peace in that brow of beaming bright,
And joy in that eye of sunny light,
And golden hope in that flowing hair:
Oh! that such influence e'er should fail
For a moment, Spirit of Spring—

Spirit of health, peace, joy and hope, Spirit of Spring!

Yet fail it must-for it comes of earth,
And it may not shame its place of birth,
Where the best can bloom but a single day,
And the fairest is first to fade away.

But oh! there's a changeless world above,
A world of peace, and joy, and love,
Where, gather'd from the tomb,
The holy hopes that earth has crost,
And the pious friends that we lov'd and lost,
Shall enjoy immortal bloom.

Who will not watch, and strive, and pray,
That his longing soul inay soar away,
On Faith's untiring wing,

To join the throng of the saints in light,
In that world for ever fair and bright,
Of endless, cloudless SPRING!

March, 1825.

DIGAMMA.

THE

NEW-YORK REVIEW.

JULY, 1825..

ART. IX.-Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley: comprising Observations on its Mineral Geography, Internal Resources, and Aboriginal Population. [Performed under the sanction of Government, in the year 1821.] By HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. New-York. Collins and Hannay.

1825.

MR. SCHOOLCRAFT is already well known to the public, as the author of several interesting and instructive treatises, on the geography and natural history of various portions of our western territory. Among these, may be particularly noticed, his View of the Lead Mines of Missouri, a work, which first gave us any valuable information, with regard to the mineral wealth of that region of country; for neither Stoddard, nor Shultz, nor Breckenridge, nor even Austin himself, wrote with sufficient exactness or detail. Mr. Schoolcraft's Narrative Journal, is an interesting diary of travels through the northwestern districts of the United States, extending from Detroit, through the great chain of American lakes, to the sources of the Mississippi river. The objects of that journey, (which, like the present, was directed and superintended with great ability by Governor Cass,) were, to obtain a correct knowledge of the history, the habits, and the prevailing dispositions of the Indian tribes; to purchase the ground for a garrison at the foot of lake Superior; to collect the materials for an accurate map of the country, and to examine the more remarkable copper and lead mines, and quarries of gypsum, in that part of the northwestern territory, which the expedition had undertaken to explore. The results of that investigation, cannot of course be compared, with the fruits of the magnificent but expensive expeditions, suggested by the vanity of European princes, and upheld by the compulsory contributions of their subjects; but they are certainly very creditable to the gentlemen connected with the party, and greatly surpass what might have been reVOL. I.

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garded as proportionate to the necessary economy of our national expenditure.

The object of the journey, of which the volume before us is a diary, was to purchase from the Ottowa, Chippewa, and Pottowattomie tribes, the land lying between the northern boundary line of the state of Indiana, and the main brauch of the Grand River of lake Michigan. This constitutes the southwestern portion of the peninsula of Michigan, and comprises an extent of fertile territory, capable of supporting a very dense agricultural population. It is not a little remarkable, that until lately, the interior of this peninsula was considered altogether unworthy of the notice of the emigrant.* The shores of lakes Huron and Michigan exhibited, in most places, a forbidding line of arid pine-land; and the certainty of abundance of fertile soil, south of latitude forty-two, made an inquiry into the quality of the less accessible territory scarcely worth the toils and risks of exploration. Another circumstance, to which we think may be attributed the neglect of this part of Michigan, is the want of the facilities of internal navigation; the territory being traversed by no rivers of a larger size than the Saganaut and Grand River of Michigan. The St. Joseph's and Miami, (or Maumee, as Mr. Schoolcraft spells it, to distinguish it from the Miami of the Ohio,) are considerable streams, but they are principally confined to the southern sections of this territory. The smaller streams (particularly those which empty into lake Michigan) are, however, so numerous as to afford, when the country is once settled, abundant compensation for the want of larger water courses.

"The greater part of the newly explored lands," says Mr. Schoolcraft, "consists of an argillaceous soil, mellowed with sand and pebble-stones, and clothed with an open growth of oaks and hickories, forming the much esteemed open oak-lands, so favorable to all the staple products of temperate northern latitudes. These oak-lands frequently present themselves to the eye in sloping ridges, with apparently measured interstices between the trees, and together with the larger dry prairies, are principally covered with a species of native grass, of a nutritious quality, which grows to the height of five or six feet, and is

* In a map drawn in 1744, by Bellin, a French hydrographer, from data furnished by Charlevoix and others, the interior of Michigan is marked Terrain plus élevé, and this is the amount of the knowledge we possessed of its geography until the close of the last war.

Emptying into Saganau Bay, the Anse de Saguinam of Charlevoix.

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