immediately below the fountain, where the wa- greater size than in Spain or Portugal. A sinter is almost as pellucid as air, and forms a little gle tree has been known to produce 4,000 lake of two hundred and fifty fathoms in depth. oranges. The population is about 5,000. The To a person in a skiff in the centre of this basin, palm, the date, and the orange all grow in the the appearance of the mild azure vault above, vicinity, and render the sight to a northern traand the transparent depth below, on which the veller, very novel and interesting-he may well floating clouds and the blue concave above are fancy himself in a foreign country. The olive painted, and repeated with wonderful softness, too, is becoming naturalized, and it is presumed the scene is so novel, that he feels as if suspend-that cocoa trees would succeed. ed between two firmaments. It was the scite of an English factory in former days, and here resided the famous Armbrister. The water of this lake swells up from its great depths as if it was a cauldron of boiling water. Mickasuke Lake, fifteen miles north-east of Tallahassee, is twelve miles long; on its shores many of the old Indian fields are covered with peach trees. Old Tallahassee Lake is near the town, and is twenty miles long and seven broad. Old Jonathan Dickinson, who was a prisoner among the Indians of Florida, describes them as cruel, and horrible cannibals. They are now remarkable for their activity, and gay and joyous dispositions, with the usual propensity to gambling and intoxication, and no doubt their propensity to cannibalism is a fiction. Pensacola, fifty miles from Mobile, situated on a bay of the same name, is, like St. Augustine, of an oblong form. and nearly a mile in length, and contains from 3,000 to 4,000 inhabitants. Small vessels only can get up to the town. Government has made it a naval station and depot, for which its harbor, and the fine ship timber near, render it very suitable. A fine stream of fresh water runs through the town, which is well supplied with oysters, turtles, beef, fish, and garden vegetables. The town is in a healthy position, and its naval residents enliven its society. St. Marks is a small seaport ten miles from Tallahassee, of which it is the port. Tallahassee is the new seat of government, and in a very salubrious position. It is an incorporated city with some fine buildings; and an increasing population now exceeding 1,000. The territorial capital is a fine building. Fine mahogany is cut from the neighborhood--mill seats abound, and industry and enterprise are conspicuous. There are many charming lakes in the vicinity. Vessels come from New Orleans in three or four days. When some contemplated internal improvements shall be completed, few places will present more attractions to emigrants. The number of inhabitants in Florida, by the census of last year, was about 40,000. They consist of emigrants from all foreign countries, and from every state in the Union, and among the creoles there are all possible admixtures of African and Indian blood. Many of the inhabitants are extremely poor, and a large proportion merely adventurers, but a great change in this particular is going on, since the arbitrary Spanish alcalde has given place to a mild and equitable ad- Florida was taken possession of about the year ministration of justice. Some of the planters are 1500, and the name was general in Spanish liteopulent, have good houses surrounded with piaz-rature for a long time, for the whole Atlantic zas, after the fashion of Havana, but live a so- coast of North America. The first effective colitary life, little enlivened by society or litera-lonization was made at St. Augustine, in 1565.ture, but they find every necessity of life in the fish and game, and the products of their vast fields. They practise hospitality in its most generous sense, conceiving the favor of a month's residence with them as a favor done to the visited. The traveller meets a cordial though rude welcome, accompanied with a patriarchal simplicity, and the surrender of time, slaves, and every thing the house affords to his comfort, which is extremely gratifying. The amusements are a compound of Spanish, French, and American manners. With many vicissitudes of fortune Florida remained in possession of the Spaniards until 1763, when it was ceded to England. In 1781 the Spanish Governor conquered West Florida, and by the treaty of Paris of 1783, the whole of both Floridas was re-ceded by Great Britain to Spain. In 1819, negotiations were opened between the United States and Spain, for the cession of Florida to us, and a treaty was ratified in October, 1820, and in July 1821, it was finally taken possession of by Gen. Jackson, by order of his government. For some strictly geographical information, the reader is referred to Darby's interesting View of the United States. LOUISIANA. The extremely interesting State of Louisiana presents so many striking points of character, that we shall have great difficulty in condensing our subject within our limits, and must necessarily omit some curious particulars, for which we refer our readers to the same authorities heretofore quoted, to whom as heretofore, we must acknowledge our obligations. St. Augustine, the largest town and the most populous in the country, is situated on the Atlantic coast, in north latitude 29 deg. 45 minutes. The most remarkable object in approaching it is Fort St. Mark, which was built for its defence in olden time. The town is an oblong, divided by four streets, at right angles, fortified by bastions, and surrounded by a ditch. Two carriages can barely pass each other, so narrow are the streets, but the houses have a terrace foundation, which shades the side walks and makes walking pleasant of a sultry day. Fort St. Mark is forty feet high, commanding the en- This State is in length 240 miles, and in trance of the harbor; it mounts sixty heavy can- breadth about 210. Under the Spanish governnon, and is capable of containing 1000 men.-ment in 1785 the population little exceeded The soil around the town though it looks sterile | 27,000. In 1820, the number was 163,407, having and sandy, is far from being unproductive. The more than doubled between 1810 and 1820; an lemon and orange grow most luxuriantly, and of extraordinary ratio, but by no means equal to that of some Western States. It possesses a situ- | above through which it rolls. In a state of nature ation, in New Orleans, for a great commercial city, which has few rivals in Geographical position, of which a glance at the map will abundantly testify. Taking the length of all the tributaries of the Mississippi which are navigable, it is within bounds to say, the aggregate would exceed 20,000 miles! the waters of these rivers pass through the most fertile soils, boundless prairies, fertile bottoms, numerous distinct communities and even governments, and through such a variety of climates that the products of every region are wafted to the port. It is in fact as if she had 20,000 miles of navigable canal all centering in her bosom. it was covered with a dark and heavy forest. Wheat and rye do not flourish in Louisiana, unless it be in the north-west angle of the State. Barley and oats succeed well; Indian corn is planted in many places, but proves an uncertain crop, being pushed forward by the heat too rapidly to attain_firmness-the middle States have a climate much more congenial to maize. Sweet potatoes have been known to attain the weight of nine pounds. This fine root, but of a different species from that we cultivate, is the favourite food of the blacks, and found on all tables. Irish potatoes are more difficult to cultivate, and when taken out of the ground do not keep; nearly all Probably no State in the Union has a greater the northern fruits come to perfection, with the body of first rate land, though much of it is over-exception of apples, while figs grow almost sponflowed annually, and sending forth unwholesome taneously, and previous to 1822, oranges along miasma. A proper concentrated effort of all the the whole shore of the gulf, were as abundant as slaves in the State applied to draining and ca- apples in Chester county, and laid under the nalling this vast dismal and noxious swamp, trees as plentifully for the hogs, or to rot. That would render Louisiana the greatest agricultural winter a severe frost destroyed the trees to the district in the world, and also render its com- roots, from which they have however again shot mercial city healthy. The time is coming when up, and in some places again promise well. The some great step of this kind will be taken, when vine and the olive, will no doubt, be sometime the effects produced will equal the magic of the extensively cultivated in Louisiana, and possibly Arabian Nights. The State even with its pre- the tea-plant. Rice and tobacco are raised, but sent advantages is making rapid strides to pow-cotton and sugar have been found so productive er, and as we have shown, steady advances in and bring such certain returns, that the attenpopulation. tion of the people has been but little awakened to trying experiments. Indigo formerly much cultivated, is now very much abandoned, not only here, but in other States. Generally speaking, Louisiana is one immense plain, divided into pine woods, prairies, alluvions, swamps, and hickory and oak lands. A large proportion of the State is without any eleLouisiana produces an average annual crop vation, even aspiring to be called a hill. The of more than 100,000 hogsheads of sugar, and prairies, near the gulf, are low, marshy, and in 5,000,000 gallons of molasses; no cultivation in rainy weather inundated; many of them having America yields so rich a harvest as the sugar a cold clay soil, while others are of inky black-cane, which is not liable to the diseases either of ness, and crack in dry weather into fissures of a size to admit a man's arm. The bottoms are rich, particularly those of the Mississippi and Red River, the fertility of which is sufficiently attested by the prodigious growth of the trees, the luxuriance of the cane and cotton, and the strength of vegetation in general. A fig tree and a sumack were measured by Mr. Flint, each of which were larger than a man's body. The levee, is an embankment of the river, for 40 miles below New Orleans, and 150 miles above; it is from six to eight feet high, and broad enough to form a fine highway. By it the water is prevented from spreading over the extraordinary rich bottom of from one to two miles in width; it is believed that no part of the world can furnish a richer tract. This levee extends something higher on the west than the east side of the river. Here reside some of the richest planters, some of whom have from 5 to 800 acres under cultivation, worked by gangs of slaves. Attakapas district on the coast, is of great fertility and celebrated for its produce of sugar. Approaching Red River from Opelousas, there occurs the richest cotton land in Louisiana. The extraordinary fertility of the bottoms of Red-River are well known, and this section is called the paradise of cotton planters. The soil is red, and impregnated slightly with salt, from which it derives moisture and fertility. Its soil has been accumulating for ages from the spoils of the Mexican Mountains, and the prairies indigo or cotton. One of the great desideratums on a sugar plantation is to have a good boiler; the boiling being the only nice process, the slave who arrives at a knowledge of the business, and is made principal boiler, is a person of as much consideration among his fellows, and as important in his own eyes, as the President, and very commonly takes the same liberty of putting his veto on such bills as he dont like. He keeps a good riding horse, very probably sends to our great Philadelphia taylors for his clothes, and except in the boiling season, is as lazy and ignorant as a native king of Africa. Louisiana contains more slaves in proportion to its population than any other state in the West; more than one half being in bondage, and since mild and humane treatment has been substituted, they multiply very rapidly, and the subject is an interesting one to know what will be the ultimate result. The great farms sometimes have three or four hundred acres in one enclosure, in which twenty or more ploughs may be seen making their straight furrows a mile in length with surprising regularity, through fields as level as a garden. The prairie land of Louisiana is of great extent, beauty and fertility; those included under the general name of Attakapas, are the first which occur west of the Mississippi, and the traveller emerging from the forest finds himself in a noble and cheerful plain, and feels the cool and salubrious breezes of the gulf; and before life, and yet there reigns here a perpetual tranquillity. The Presbyterian church is of brick, and a handsome building; an Episcopal and Mariner's Church, and a new catholic place of worship are the remaining conspicuous religious edifices. The French Theatre externally is by no means handsome, though the interior is ornamental. The American Theatre is in better taste. The prison frowns like a building of the inquisition upon the passer by. A charity hospital, particularly necessary in this city of strangers, has probably sheltered more miserable objects than any other in our country. him spread out like a map is an immense tract of beautiful country, containing in 1820, 12,000 inhabitants all subsisting by agriculture. In others, the occupation of the people is that of shepherds, who number their cattle by thousands. These prairies have a gentle and imperceptible slope to the waters of the gulf, and generally terminate in wet marshes, occasionally overflowed, and covered with a rank growth of cane, in which reside multitudes of animals whose habits and customs have been little examined. In some parts of these prairies, there are mounds or islands of timber lands, which look as if planted out by the hand of man in regular order. Be- The college is well endowed, but not yet emiyond the Opelousas prairie little cotton is raised, nent for its learning. A convent of Ursuline the people subsisting by raising cattle, horses nuns, receives day scholars and boarders for the and sheep all which find a market at New Or- rudiments of learning. The Female Orphan leans. Some years since three men of this region, Asylum, and one for boys endowed by the benenumbered more than 15,000 head of horned cat-volent Poydras, and several other respectable tle, and 2,000 horses and mules. It is the Arca- charities, prove that the better feelings of our dia of the country, where hospitality and good nature are not neglected. A Library for the feelings reign predominant. poorer classes has recently been opened, but very little attention is yet given to literature, New Orleans being a place to "stop in," and make money, to be spent, if life is spared, in more congenial spots. The Northern visiter is at first shocked to see so little observance of the Sabbath; the theatres are open in the evening of that day, many stores make their usual display, and a bull fight in the afternoon was till lately a common pastime, while billiards, and cards were played as usual. The French population, probably yet predominates over the American, and one half of the residents are black or coloured, exhibiting every contrast of manners, complexion, habits and disposition; the French displaying their usual fondness for gayety, balls and spectacles. Much gambling is allowed by law in licensed houses paying a large tax to the corporation. There are often five or six thousand boatmen here from the upper country, and it is by no means uncommon to see fifty vessels advertised for European ports at one time. In the months of February and March no place in the Union exhibits a greater amount of business and activity. Twelve millions of dollars has been estimated as the amount of its annual domestic exports, among the greatest items of which are cotton, sugar, and tobacco. New Orleans to be accurately described would fill a good sized newspaper-we can only glance at some of its principal features. It is on the east shore of the Mississippi, in a deep and sinuous bend, 105 miles from the Balize by the meanders of the river, and ninety in a direct line; about 1,000 miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and 1,200 below the mouth of the Missouri. It is about intermediate between Mexico and Boston, though the voyage to Vera Cruz is made in a shorter period. The unrivalled advantages this city possesses in a commercial point of view, are universally acknowledged. Very accessible from the sea, and yet well situated for defence, it has probably twice as much extent of boat navigation above it as any other city on the globe. Viewed from the harbor the panoramic view is extremely beautiful. A crescent of many acres covered with all the grotesque variety of flat boats, and water crafts of the most dissimifar descriptions from the distant points above, lines the upper part of the shore. Steam-boats arriving and rounding to, or sweeping away to their far destination, cast their long stream of waving smoke behind them. Ships, brigs, schooners, and sloops, occupy the wharves, showing a forest of masts. The foreign aspect of the stuccoed houses in the city, the massy buildings of the Fauxbourg St. Mary, the bustle on every side, the yo-heave-yo, all taken at one view in the bright sun, present a splendid spectacle. The city was formerly built of wood, but is now compactly constructed of brick, stuccoed with yellow or white, and presents the appearance of a French or Spanish town, rather than an American one. The Fauxbourg St. Mary, however, differs little from our other Atlantic cities. The Cathedral is a large building of brick, 90 feet by 120, covered with hollow tiles, and supported by ten columns. It is an imposing fabric; in the niches and recesses are the figures of saints, in appropriate dresses after the fashion of Catholic countries. The walls are so thick, that though situated in the very centre of business, the silence within is truly remarkable. Stepping from the crowd of Levee street, and its rattle of carriages, you find yourself in perfect stillness. The dead sleep beneath your feet; you are in the midst of Notwithstanding its reputation of being unhealthy, this great emporium of the West is increasing very rapidly, and its banking capital is commensurate with the demands of its extended and increasing commerce. Though vessels are departing so frequently for all parts of the world, so great is the quantity of produce constantly arriving, that the market is sometimes glutted with particular articles, and corn, pork, potatoes and flour are sometimes so cheap, as scarcely to pay the cost of bringing them down the river. The census of 1830 gives this city a population of 48,456 inhabitants, which has most probably by this time extended to 50,000. In the business periods ten thousand strangers would be a fair calculation as the number who throng the numerous boarding houses, lodging houses and hotels. The moral effect of a visit, to the young men of the West is not of the most advantageous character. Many a father who entrusted his son with the product of a year,s labour to 322 HEAT BY FIRE MY BIRTHDAY-HAPPINESS. vend in New Orleans, has seen him return stripped to his last suit by the sharpers and loose characters, and many have never been able to reclaim them from the seductive haunts of vice which they here are tempted with. But there is little doubt that the habits of the people are gradually undergoing a favourable change, and it is of vast importance to the whole valley of the Mississippi, that this city should be enlightened, moral and religious. On the whole, the morals of the inhabitants who pretend to any degree of self respect, are not behind those of any city in the Union. Donaldsonville, 90 miles above New Orleans, has a number of respectable houses, and is now the political capital. Baton Rouge is fifty miles higher up, pleasantly situated on a bluff, 30 or 40 feet above high water mark. The United States barracks here are very handsome and commodious. St. Francisville is a large village, on a bluff 160 miles above New Orleans. Madisonville is a small town near lake Ponchartrain; Alexandria, on Red River, 70 miles from the Mississippi is central to the rich cotton planting country of that stream, and its tributaries; it has a bank, and the usual variety of professions of our eastern villages. Vast quantities of cotton are exported from this place. Natchitoches is 80 miles above, and the last town of any size, towards the South Western frontier of the Union. It is the centre of the Spanish trade into the interior of the Mexican States, and the great thoroughfare for travellers. It is at the head of steam-boat navigation, and a growing place, which will probably become some day the largest town of the interior. The houses constructed an hundred years ago, present a fair sample of a Spanish town, and many Spaniards still remain here. Some attention has been paid to internal improvements, but our limits do not permit our noticing them particularly. The country being level, the roads are generally good. Ample and munificent appropriations have been made to the advancement of common school education, and social libraries are introduced into many of the villages. The Catholic is the predominant religion, but there is probably less public wor ship than in any other of our States. There is said to be but one Presbyterian church in Louisiana. The Baptists and Methodists are increasing and zealous. HEAT BY FIRE.-The first important discovery of mankind seems to have been that of fire. For many ages it is probable fire was esteemed a dangerous enemy, known only by its dreadful devastations; and that many lives must have been lost, and many danger. ous burns and wounds must have afflicted those who first dared to subject it to the uses of life. It is said that the tall monkeys of Borneo and Sumatra lie down with pleasure round any accidental fire in the woods; and are arrived to that degree of reason, that know. ledge of causation, that they thrust into the remaining fire the half-burnt ends of the branches to prevent its going out. One of the nobles of the cultivated people of Otaheite, when Captain Cook treated them with tea, catched the boiling water in his hand from the cock of the tea-urn and bellowed with pain, not conceiving that water could become hot like fire. Written for the Casket. MY BIRTHDAY. BY MRS. JANE E. LOCKE. Thou comest on the spring's soft wind, And fragrant mountain thyme. Thou comest with the loveliest Ah, fondly I remember, In childhood's gladsome way, And watched thee glide away; Than summer's mildest day. With a light and bounding heart, As numbering up my years. My birthday-oh, my birthday, The tenderest ties are thine- HAPPINESS. Original. And what is happiness? Is it a ray, CORDELIA. LONDON. city; but the salt water comes no farther than The subjoined picture of modern London, is thirty miles below it. However. such is the vofrom a late number of the Morning Chronicle, lume and depth of water, that vessels of seven or of that city, and will be perused with interest:- eight hundred tons reach the city on its eastern "When a stranger from the provinces visits quarter. Most unfortunately, the beauty of this London for the first time, he finds a vast deal to exceedingly useful and fine stream is much hid astonish him, which he had not previously calcu- from the spectator, there being no quays or prolated upon. Before he sees it, he has formed his menades along its banks, as is the case with the own ideas of its appearance, character, and ex- Liffey, at Dublin. With the exception of the tent; but his conceptions, though grand, are not summit of St. Paul's, the only good points of accurate; so that, when he actually arrives sight for the river are the bridges, which cross it within its precincts-when he is driven for the at convenient distances, and, by their length, first time from the Exchange to Charing-cross-convey an accurate idea of the breadth of the he is generally a good deal amazed, and, in no channel. During fine weather, the river is cosmall degree, stupified. London can neither be vered with numerous barges or boats of fanciful rightly described as a town, nor as a city it is and light fabric, suitable for quick rowing; and a nation; a kingdom in itself. Its wealth is that by means of these pleasant conveyances, the of half of the world, and its amount of population Thames forms one of the chief thoroughfares. that of some second rate countries. Its conven- "London consists of an apparently interminational system of society, by which the human ble series of streets, composed of brick houses, being is rounded down like a pebble in a rapid which are commonly four stories in height, and river, and its peculiarities of different kinds, never less than three. The London houses are mark it as quite an anomaly; something to not by any means elegant in their appearance; which the topographer can assign no proper title. they have, for the most part, a dingy ancient London was originally a town on its own ac- aspect; and it is only in the western part of the count. It is now composed of the cities of Lon- metropolis that they assume any thing like a sudon and Westminster-the latter having once perb outline. Even at the best, they have a been a seat of population on its western con- meanness of look in comparison with houses of fines-besides a number of villages, formerly at polished white freestone, which is hardly sura distance from it in different directions, but now mounted by all the efforts of art and the daubingrossed within its bounds, and only known by ings of plaster and stucco. The greater proporthe streets to which they have communicated tion of the dwellings are small. They are mere their appellations. All now form one huge town slips of buildings, containing, in most instances, in a connected mass, and are lost in the common only two small rooms on the floor, one behind the name of London. By its extensions in this man-other, often with a wide door of communication ner, London now measures seven and a half between, and a wooden stair, with balustrades, miles in length from east to west, by a breadth of five miles from north to south. Its circumference, allowing for various inequalities, is estimated at thirty miles, while the area of ground it covers is considered to measure no less than eighteen miles square. The increase of London has been particularly favoured by the nature of its site. It stands at the distance of sixty miles from the sea, on the north bank of the Thames, on ground rising very gently towards the north; and so even and regular in outline, that among the streets, with few exceptions, the ground seems perfectly flat. On the south bank of the river the ground is quite level; and on all sides the country appears very little diversified with hills, or anything to interrupt the extension of the buildings. The Thames, which is the source of greatness and wealth to the metropolis, is an object which generally excites a great deal of interest among strangers. It is a placid, majestic stream of pure water, rising in the interior of the country, at the distance of a hundred and thirty-eight miles above London, and entering the sea on the east coast about sixty miles below it. It comes flowing between low and fertile banks, out of a richly ornamented country on the west, and, arriving at the outmost houses of the metropolis, a short way above Westminster Abbey, it pursues a winding course between banks thickly clad with dwelling-houses, manufactories, and wharfs, for eight or nine miles, its breadth being here from a third to a quarter of a mile. The tides affect it for fifteen or sixteen miles above the from bottom to top of the house. It is only in the more fashionable districts of the town that the houses have sunk areas with railings; in all the business parts they stand close upon the pavements, so that trade may be conducted with the utmost facility and convenience. "The lightness of the fabric of the London houses affords an opportunity for opening up the ground stories as shops and warehouses. Where retail businesses are carried on, the whole of the lower part of the of the edifice in front is door and window, adapted to show goods to the best advantage to the passengers. The London shops seem to throw themselves into the wide expansive windows, and these, of all diversities of size and decoration, transfix the provincial with their charms. The exhibition of goods in the London shop-windows is one of the greatest wonders of the place. Every thing which the appetite can suggest, or the fancy imagine, would appear there to be congregated. In every other city there is an evident meagreness in the quantity and assortments. But here there is the most remarkable abundance, and that not in isolated spots, but along the sides of thoroughfares, miles in length. In whatever way you turn your eyes, this extraordinary amount of mercantile wealth is strikingly observable; if you even penetrate into an alley, or what you think an obscure court, there you see it in full force, and on a greater scale than in any provincial town whatsoever. It is equally obvious to the stranger, that there is here a dreadful struggle for business. Every species of lure is tried to induce |