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the woods. The hour was too early for beasts to prowl, and too late for birds to sing. Nature seemed to enjoy a calm, but to us gave a painful repose. Whereas now the

noise of our axe was returned from afar, the voice of labour reviberated in our ear, the smoke rose to the sky, and the vivid flames of the fire shed a blaze of comfort around, relieved the solemnity of the scene, and spread a golden radience over the surface of the water. I was drawn from this meditation by Cuff, (whose best talent, I find, to consist in a propensity to imitate wild beasts, and who professes to howl like a wolf better than any of his mation) he had just begun a solo so exquisite in judgment, so correct in expression, and so natural in cadence, that the very dæmons of the woods awoke and joined him in horrid chorus. Fearful his imitative powers might invite some unwelcome visitors to the neighbourhood of my camp, I begged of him to suppress his propensity till less danger should be apprehended from its exercise. He told me, what I indeed knew, that where there was fire, there was no danger; that if I would let him go into the wood with. my gun, he would cry like a young opossum, and bring me a wolf or a bear in half an hour. Though convinced of his capacity, and the little difficulty he had to personify a brute, I declined his intimation, but told him, if he wished to amuse himself, he might sit on the stern of the boat, while I took a glass of grog at the fire; and in a low voice, give me specimens of all the languages he had acquired in his early intimacies with the inhabitants of the woods.. Quite pleased with the serious manner I addressed him, and delighted with the term " Language, which I gave his art, he took his station, and asked me what he should begin with; whether he was to lure or to alarm? I told him first to lure and then to alarm, by way of safety for the night. On hearing this, Mindeth stepped into the boat, took some arms, and silently placed himself beside. Cuff began. I must do him the justice to acknowledge, that never was man more perfect, more inimitable in this profession, this science, for which the world yet wants a name.. He passed through all the varied modulations between infancy and old age; between a fawn and an elk; between a young calf and a buffalo bull. The beasts of the forest were deceived. Much commotion ensued. The stir and agitation approached. Mindeth fired a gun and renewed

his fire. Cuff next began to alarm. Savage must that beast have been, into which such cries did not strike fear. From the malignant yell of the tiger cat, up to the panther's bloody roar; the wolf's howl and the bear's rugged voice; all were heard, and all gave alarm. He ceased. A universal cry was uttered through the woods, which struck the Virginia shore, beat against the opposite hills, and at length died in the distant windings of the water.

I rewarded this extraordinary talent with a bumper of spirits, and asked if all the people of his nation were as learned as himself, or much versed in his accomplishments; he replied, that by this time he expected they were much more so, for that they could continue to improve; while be, from residing long among the whites, had not only not learned any thing, but lost much of the information he originally possessed. He formerly could imitate birds, gobble like a turkey, and crow like a cock; but now he does not know whether he could enveigle birds by these arts, or lure foxes and racoons to approach a snare or a trap. Yet he hoped to be exercised on the way and to recover his usual powers. Such is this poor fellow: Though he came to me without any character whatever, except the vague one, "of knowing something of the waters," I begin to think him a great acquisition, and shall afford him every possible opportunity of following his propensity, and improving his voice. I have just instructed him to crow in the morning like a cock, in order to rouse up all hands. That I may obey the fellow's summons which I have no doubt will be given, I hastily wish you a good night, and leave my intended description to my next. This fellow's nonsense has put every sublime idea out of my head.

K2

LETTER XIII.

Fogs-night and day currents, their variation, advantages and disadvantages Indian practical philosophy a sublime prospect an interesting breakfast-settlement of the banks of Long Reach-description of them-passage to Marietta-a dangerous fall-Little Muskingum RiverMarietta, a flourishing town deserted-ship-building and commercial enterprize-has the only church from Pittsburg, one hundred and eighty miles distant-the laws strictly enforced-its tradesmen, generals, colonels, ma-. jors, &c.

Marietta, State of Ohio, May, 1806.

I WAS roused at a very early hour by the Mandau Chanticlier, but as the fog was not off the waters, I deferred my departure till it was in some degree dispersed by the solar rays. I have known the fog remain till twelveat noon, and even for two or three hours after. At such times the navigation is more dangerous than on the dark-'est night. The channel, islands, rocks, ripples, snags, sawyers, and a variety of other dangers, are not visible.The true channel cannot be seen, nor the true current observed; and, possibly, owing to the density of the atmos-phere, the noise of the waters beating against objects necessarily to be avoided, remains drowned and unheard. I might with truth remark, that navigating at night is, in many respects, safer than in a foggy day. For at night: the noise of water in falls and ripples, and against rocks and impediments, is heard at a much greater distance than: it is on the finest day, much less on one,. when sound would be retarded by vapour and corrupted air. I have heard the water roar on a fine night, to such a degree, as to impose a belief that I was immediately approaching a. dreadful fall or tumbling cataract. After running two hours, nearly ten miles, with the utmost precaution and constant look-out, I found the terrific noise to proceed. from the current dashing through the top of a tree, whose root had got fast near the bed of the stream. In the day I have often seen a lerge tree almost erect, and in a similar

situation; but the noise the passing water made over it was only to be heard when close at hand. These facts, though I do not presume to account for them, are equally singular and fortunate: at night the navigator is warned of danger he cannot see: in the day he beholds a danger which cannot be heard. There are, however, two alarm-.. ing peculiarities belonging to the night, which should not go unnoticed. 1st. The current differs considerably in character from the current of the day. In the day its breadth is contracted, often to within the width of the boat, or less; and it delights in holding a favourite shore; so much so that it is difficult to steer clear of the bank, which, after caressing some hours, it hastily abandons, makes nearly aeross, as if to enjoy, for a certain time, the beauties of the opposite shore. In the night the current diffuses itself. more generally-spreads out, and finally reaches the middle of the river, where it maintains itself with grace and majesty till the morning, when it contracts in sphere, increases in power, and alternately visits either. bank. Were there no obstacles in the middle of the river, this circumstance of a nocturnal current, varying from the daily channel to the centre, would be highly favorable, but as islands and sand bars every three or four hours oc ́our, it becomes dangerous. I must confess my ignorance of the latent principle which occasions the variation of current. My loose opinion on the subject is derived from observing, that in the day, the air, nearly always, has an inclination to come up the river, or to traverse it from side to side and its action is also so high as to be seen on the leaves of the trees when the surface of the water is entirely unruffled. Whereas, at night, as the inclination of the air is always dowu the river, when unaffected by storms; and as the volume, density and weight of the air, are augmented to an incalculable degree, by the absence of the sun and the descent of his exhalations, it may be presumed that these great changes in the direction and power of the atmosphere may operate a change on the current of the waters. The more so as it is known that the air and body of vopour, rejected by the sky after the setting of the sun, seek for the centre of rivers and the sinuosities occasioned by valleys or creeks. This body of air then, of power, course and volume, so superior and contrary to that of the day, pressing on the centre of the river, either causes there

an additional current, or, by some secret law of attraction, draws the current of the day from the side to the centre. I find the observation made by all navigators to be, that a boat makes much more way at night, than in the day; and that it holds the middle of the river. You perceive, by this, that I am supported in my fact, but I have never met with any one who could assist me to its elucidation. As to a boat's going faster at night, I am not quite so much at a loss for an argument; having on her an encreased weight of atmosphere, and a course of air not running in opposi-tion to the water, she must proceed with more velocity than when the sun deprives her of this pressure, and, by shifting the action of the air gives her a contrary impetus. But why a boat holds the middle of the river at night, in an apparent current, whose principle is dissipated on the return of day, I cannot determine; and what I have said, you are to consider as loose hints, and not as the result of systematic and philosophical opinion.

The second alarming peculiarity belonging to nocturnal navigation, is in the falsity of vision, and in the little dependence which can be placed on the judgment in regard to the distance, character, extent, and even nature of ob-jects, have heard of a man, who ran his boat on the point of an island, mistaking it for an object, which, for upwards of an hour before, he had imagined floating before him. And, more than once, on hearing the roaring of water, or apprehending some other danger below me, I have dropped down six miles while pulling for safety into a shore on which I thought I could have cast a biscuit when I first began to work across the stream. At other times I have been greatly deceived, on making land at night, as to my opinion of the nearest bank, after taking the nearest for the most distant, I have run the boat's head against a bank I calculated far from me. My poor Mandanian, Cuff, whom I have more than once introduced to you, seeing me perplexed at a moment of expected danger, to know what shore to pull to, jumped on the roof of the boat, and giving it a sudden stroke with an oar, listening to the returning sound. The left shore first repeated the stroke; and next, after a small interval, the right. "The left shore," said Cuff, with a modest confidence," is but three hundred yards, and the right a mile from us." He was perfectly correct; I was grateful to him for his instruction,