northern states of America to France, and those which I brought with me in the spring of 1803, were some of the black oak, which have come up very abundantly in the nursery at Trianon. Mr. Cels has upwards of a hundred young plants of them in his garden.

The species and variety of nut trees natural to the United States are also extremely numerous, and might be the subject of a useful and interesting monography; but that work would never be precisely accurate provided the different qualities of those trees are not studied in the country itself. I have [19] seen some of those nut trees which, by the leaves and blossom, appeared of the same species, when the shells and nuts seemed to class them differently. I have, on the contrary, seen others where the leaves and blossoms were absolutely different, and the fruit perfectly analogous. It is true there are some, where the fruit and blossom are systematically regular at the same time, but very few. This numerous species of nut trees is not confined to the United States; it is remarked in every part of North America from the northern extremity of the United States as far as Mississipi; that is to say, an extent of more than eight hundred leagues from north to south, and five hundred from east to west. I brought over with me some new nuts of six different species, which have come up exceedingly well, and which appear not to have been yet described.

I left New York the 8th of June 1802, to go to Philadelphia; the distance is about a hundred miles. The stages make this journey some in a day, others in a day and a half; the fare is five piastres each person. At the taverns where the stages stop they pay one piaster for dinner, half one for supper or breakfast, and the same for a bed. The space of ground that separates the two cities is com

pletely [20] cleared, and the farms are contiguous to each other. About nine miles from New York is a place called Newark, a pretty little town situated in New Jersey. The fields that encompass it are planted with apple trees; the cyder that is made there is accounted the best in the United States; however, I conceived it by far inferior to that of Saint Lo, Coutance, or Bayeux. Among the other small towns by the road side, Trenton seemed worthy of attention. Its situation upon the Delaware, the beautiful tract of country that surrounds it, must render it a most delightful place of abode.

Philadelphia is situated upon the Delaware, a hundred miles distant from the sea; at this period the most extensive, the handsomest, and most populous city of the United States. In my opinion, there is not one upon the old continent built upon so regular a plan. The streets cut each other at right angles, and are from forty to fifty feet in breadth, except the middle one, which is twice as broad. The market is built in this street, and is remarkable for its extent and extreme cleanliness; it is in the centre of the town, and occupies nearly one-third of its length. The streets are paved commodiously before the houses with brick; pumps erected on both sides, about [21] fifty yards distant from each other, afford an abundant supply of water; upon the top of each is a brilliant lamp. Several streets are planted with Italian poplars of a most beautiful growth, which makes the houses appear elegantly rural.

The population of Philadelphia is always on the increase; in 1749, there were eleven thousand inhabitants; in 1785, forty thousand; and now the number is computed to be about seventy thousand. The few Negroes that are there are free, the greatest part of whom go out

to service. Provisions are not quite so dear at Philadelphia as New York; on which account the boarding houses do not charge more than from six to ten piastres per week. You never meet any poor at Philadelphia, not a creature wearing the aspect of misery in his face; that distressing spectacle, so common in European cities, is unknown in America; love, industry, the want of sufficient hands, the scarcity of workmanship, an active commerce, property, are the direct causes that contend against the introduction of beggary, whether in town or country.

During my stay at Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of seeing the Rev. Dr. Collin, minister of the Swedish church, and president of the Philosophical [22] Society; Mr. John Vaughan, the secretary; Messrs. Piles, John and William Bartram. These different gentlemen had formerly been particularly acquainted with my father, and I received from them every mark of attention and respect. Mr. Piles has a beautiful cabinet of natural history. The legislature of Pensylvania have presented him with a place to arrange it in; that is the only encouragement he has received. He is continually employed in enriching it by increasing the number of his correspondents in Europe, as well as in the remote parts of the United States; still, except a bison, I saw nothing in his collection but what may be found in the Museum at Paris.

'Dr. Nicholas Collin was one of the most prominent members of the Philosophical Society, elected in 1789, dying in 1831. It is a curious mistake of Michaux's to call him president, at a time when Jefferson held this position. Dr. Collin was often acting chairman, and had been chairman of the committee for raising funds for the elder Michaux's proposed Western exploration (1792).

Dr. John Vaughan was treasurer and librarian of the Society for many years.

The Bartrams were famous botanists of Philadelphia, whom the elder Michaux frequently visited. See ante, p. 97, note 177.- ED.

The absence of Mr. W. Hamilton deprived me of the pleasure of seeing him; notwithstanding, I went into his magnificent garden, situated upon the borders of the Schuylkill, about four miles from Philadelphia. His collection of exotics is immense, and remarkable for plants from New Holland; all the trees and shrubs of the United States, at least those that could stand the winter at Philadelphia, after being once removed from their native soil; in short, it would be almost impossible to find a more agreeable situation than the residence of Mr. W. Hamilton."

[23] CHAP. III

Departure from Philadelphia to the Western Country.Communications by land in the United States.- Arrival at Lancaster.- Description of the town and its environs.

Departure.- Columbia.- Passage from Susquehannah, York, Dover, Carlisle.- Arrival at Shippensburgh.- Remarks upon the state of agriculture during the journey.

THE states of Kentucky, Tennessea, and Ohio comprise that vast extent of country known in America by the name of the Western Country. Almost all the Europeans who have published observations upon the United States, have been pleased to say, according to common report, that this part of the country is very fertile; but they have never entered into the least particulars. It is true that, to reach these new settlements, one is obliged to travel over a considerable tract of uninhabited country, and that [24] these journies are tedious, painful, and afford nothing very interesting to travellers who wish to describe

The gardens of William Hamilton were at this time the most famous in the United States. They now form part of Woodlawn cemetery, West Philadelphia, where some rare trees planted by him still exist.- ED.

the manners of the people who reside in the town or most populous parts; but as natural history, and more especially vegetable productions, with the state of agriculture, were the chief object of my researches; my business was to avoid the parts most known, in order to visit those which had been less explored; consequently, I resolved to undertake the journey to that remote and almost isolated part of the country. I had nearly two thousand miles to travel over before my return to Charleston, where I was to be absolutely about the beginning of October. My journey had likewise every appearance of being retarded by a thousand common-place obstacles, which is either impossible to foresee, or by any means prevent. These considerations, however, did not stop me; accordingly I fixed my departure from Philadelphia on the 27th of June 1802: I had not the least motive to proceed on slowly, in order to collect observations already confirmed by travellers who had written before me on that subject; this very reason induced me to take the most expeditious means for the purpose of reaching Pittsburgh, situated at the extremity of Ohio; in consequence of which I took [25] the stage at Philadelphia, that goes to Shippensburgh by Lancaster, York, and Carlisle. Shippensburgh, about one hundred and forty miles from Philadelphia, is the farthest place that the stages go to upon that road.

'Till the year 1802, the stages that set out at Philadelphia did not go farther South than to Petersburg in Virginia, which is about three hundred miles from Philadelphia; but in the month of March of that year, a new line of correspondence was formed between the latter city and Charleston. The journey is about a fortnight, the distance fifteen hundred miles, and the fare fifty piastres. There are stages also between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as between Charleston and Savannah, in Georgia, so that from Boston to Savannah, a distance of twelve hundred miles, persons may travel by the stages.— F. A. MICHAUX. Y

* For historical sketch of Shippensburg, see Post's Journals, vol. i of this series, p. 238, note 76.— ED.