three hundred years old! So that an orange grove, when once established, will not only last a man's life-time, but become a valuable inheritance for his children.

It should be observed that vessels can find safe anchorage off the mouths of these rivers, and there will be but little difficulty in getting the produce to market if once made.

The Chisewitska is another spring river, and is about ten miles long. Most of the lands upon this river, it is thought, will require draining. The hammock upon it extends south, so far as has been surveyed, two miles.

FLORIDA.-SUGAR LANDS OF FLORIDA.In passing the Withlacoochee, in Benton county, we must not fail to notice the large sulphur and iron springs not over a mile from the large hammock we have left (TenMile Creek hammock), and not more than The next twelve miles south to the Weetwo from the small one on the south side of kaiwachee, or Spring C. R., are not much the river. From these springs to the Cry-known, as no settlements were made between stal River, a distance of ten miles, there are the two, and there has been no survey. but two small hammocks, and they are not of Immediately east of this is the Annuttiliga sufficient size to attract much attention from the sugar planter.

On Crystal River (the most beautiful probably in Florida) there is land enough, it is said, for about four plantations. The land is similar in character, although thought not to be of the first quality, with that of the coast lands before described.

The river is formed by a lake of springsis wide and deep, and is but eight miles long. A high rolling pine country makes down to its head, and in view of its crystal springs, its lakes and islands, its evergreen woods, its Indian and shell mounds, its high

shell islands at its mouth, its harbor and bay, its fish, oysters and turtle, it certainly is a most beautiful and desirable place. There are no planters upon this river.

Between the Crystal and Homossassa rivers, a distance of six miles, it is a prairie, with the exception of one or two hammocks, one of which is owned by the state. It is a question if this prairie would not be a fine sugar land, and the most of it easily brought under cultivation.

hammock, containing nearly forty square miles of hammock. This might be termed in Florida “ up country;" but I notice it, as no part of this hammock is over sixteen miles from barge navigation on the rivers Chisewitska and Weekaiwachee, and neither river over ten miles long.

This hammock is well dotted around with

permit claims, but the majority of those who have settled had not the means to plant extensively, and located there on account of the prospective value of the land. The remainder, with the exception of some few tracts purchased, has been located by the

state.

Chocochata country is as fine and as desiraMany remark that the Annuttiliga and ble as any in the state; and if we think rich lands, a high rolling country and beautiful places for residences a desideratum, it should certainly claim as much attention as any part with which I am acquainted.

Chocochata hammock will not probably claim much attention from sugar planters, although the average distance from the Weekaiwachee River would not be upwards of fifteen miles.

The Homossassa is another spring river, about ten miles long, wide enough for steamboats, with rocky islands, shell islands, bayous, cross rivers and salt rivers enough On the Weekaiwachee River there are good for a person residing upon it to lose his way lands, but they are mostly unsurveyed. This even in the daytime. It is beautiful, never- is another spring river, rising in the high theless, and a person would hardly be satis-rolling country, about two miles long, and fied after a month's exploration It abounds emptying into the Gulf. South of Weekai

in fish, and near it there are fine oysters. wachee there are no rich lands north of On its northern bank there is land enough Tampa Bay, a distance of fifty miles, with probably for three or four sugar plantations; the exception of one or two small hammocks; and, on the south side the hammock, is but it is a very desirable country for raising about three miles deep, and extends to the Chisewitska River, six miles. Some of these lands are rocky, and this is made an objection to them; but although it may be more difficult to cultivate, yet the crop of corn, potatoes, pumpkins and turnips, and the patches of cane, show that the rocks do not interfere with their growth.

There are three plantations upon this river, but no sugar crop has yet been made. About sixty acres of cane have been planted this year, but it is intended mostly for seed, we presume.

stock. My estimate of the lands adapted to sugar culture, in Benton county, is seventyfive square miles unoccupied. This, with the amount in Levy county, will make two hundred square miles.

I have not estimated in this the small detached hammocks, nor any pine lands that may be used profitably for this crop. I have mentioned sugar, as I believe it will be the principal product of this section of the country, most of which is further south than Lake George, and a portion below Lake Monroe. These lands are as well adapted

to cotton, corn and tobacco, as any other in the South.

The state owns most of these lands. What is the best course to pursue to have them settled and to enhance their value? I propose to consider this in a future communication.

FIRES-STATISTICS OF.-In every city in the Union, the fire department has come to be of leading importance, and comprises the most active, energetic, and valuable citizens. They are a surety to our property and our lives-the watchmen who snuff the first approaches of danger.

It is true that their institution is of modern date. Other ages had little of the kind. The conflagration raged at will, and mocked the undisciplined efforts of mere crowds, awing them into blind dismay or stupid resignation!

The tire or forcing engine is ascribed to the inventive genius of Ptolemy Philadelphus. It is supposed the Romans were acquainted with some such invention, for the letter of Pliny to Trajan complains that Nicomedia was destroyed by a neglect in using it. The ancients, however, must have made little use of the engine, since it is ascribed as the independent invention of a German. In 1518, it was used in Augsburg, Germany. Engines began to be built in 1657 extensively by Hantsch, and were introduced into Paris, 1699. These were very rude, and it was long after that the air chamber was appended. Small engines of this construction, weighing sixteen pounds, and carried by one man, threw a jet of water thirty feet, and this was the model! The hose was invented by two Dutchmen at Amsterdam, and it is said that before its introduction the city lost 1,024,130 florins in ten years, and afterwards but 18,355 florins in five years, by fire. Mr. Perkins added the rivets, instead of seams. Of the subsequent impovement in the engine, the text has sufficiently spoken.

It would be a very interesting paper that traced the history of great fires in our own and foreign countries. What extraordinary statistics of ruin, death, misery, and devastation! Our friend has referred to several instances, but what are they; the frightful losses that have thus been sustained, who

can chronicle?

with some degree of accuracy the annual losses which are sustained in the United States by fires, and the whole expenses of the fire department. In many of the cities records are kept. The books of insurance companies will show how much they are called upon to pay, and some estimate may be made of the ratio of insured and uninsured. Statistics of this sort would be of great value to our insurance companies, and we marvel that some one has not collected and arranged them in a permanent form.

Having fallen into something like this train of thought, it occurred to us that an hour or two might be spent, not unprofit ably, in calling to mind some of these noted catastrophes which have befallen mankind. Of course it would require volumes to go back very far.

The great fire of London comes in first, and has furnished Mr. Ainsworth the groundwork of an interesting romance. Much of mystery hangs over it. Houses, towers, palaces, and temples were reduced to ashes at a blast. Two-thirds of the capital of Europe lay smouldering! 200,000 inhabitants fled to the fields to make their beds or collect their scattered and miserable rags!

However, we must be satisfied with a glance at the losses of the past fifteen or twenty years, for these are more within memory. They show that even yet, with all our art and science, the despot reign of fire has not been checked, but mocks and bafiles the impotent efforts of man.

In the memory of almost every reader, are many terrible conflagrations. We shall introduce some of the more notable of those which have occurred since 1833 in our own country and abroad, taking no notice of the thousands of minor losses.

In 1833, two tremendous and unparalleled fires swept over Constantinople within a week of each other, destroying, the one

2,500, and the other 850 houses!

houses in Charleston, S.C., and the famous
In 1835, a great fire destroyed 50 or 60
old church of St. Philip, consecrated by so
many memories of olden time.

15th-a little spark performed its mission,
In 1835, 15th December, the memorable
and fifty two acres, closely and compactly
built, of great and towering houses and
buildings!
stores were swept away in New-York-648

Who will forget the dismay and ruin-EIGHTEEN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in a few hours-the earnings of years of toil and enterprise are gone for ever, and beggars created by thousands!

But we have no time for these reflections. With some pains and labor we have collected together the chief fires that occurred between the years 1836, and September, 1846, ten years. Such of them where the

.$6,000,000
100,000

Another GREAT FIRE IN SMYRNAone mile and a half of town destroyed; loss, estimate. Canton, China, 1,259 PERSONS DESTROYED by the burning of theatre. Bordeaux, France, in Brandy 1846-Theatre, Quebec, 50 lives; La Prairie, Canada, $250,000. In three months, 1845, the losses in U. S. by fire were $15,000,000!

600,000 250,000

were, a contagious character, and occur at times almost simultaneously in different parts of the country, and often in the same place. Thus, we have two vast conflagra2,000,000tions in 1832 in Constantinople; two great fires in 1839 in Mobile, within a few days of each other; $9,000,000 of loss in the single month of October, 1839, in different parts of the Union; two enormous fires in Quebec, 1845, almost the same month, and in three months, in the United States, in 1845, upward of 13 or 14 millions of dollars destroyed! In cities, too, certain districts appear to be fated. We have known a square burnt three times to the ground in four or five years. Doubtless these are not all remarkable coincidences and inscrutable providences. The hand of man is not always idle!

Total in 10 years.... $137,362,950 Thus, from an imperfect view of a period of ten years, hurriedly collected, and taken only from important points, regardless of thousands of minor losses, we have one hundred and thirty millions of dollars in property and effects, committed to the devouring element. But this cannot be supposed more than half the truth, considering Europe, Asia, and America, throughout all this period, and taking into account the smaller losses, and that immense class of losses not noticed at all in our calculations, viz. : those which grow out of the interruption of trade, etc., etc. We have, then, in a fair estimate, $275,000,000. Two hundred and seventyfive millions of dollars lost to the world from 1836 to 1846, by the ravages of fire alonean average of $27,000,000 a year! sufficient to pay all the expenses of the American government in the same time; equal to the whole foreign commerce of the United States for one year; one fifth of the whole annual product of the United States in agriculture, manufactures and commerce; more than our whole banking capital from Maine to Louisiana; sufficient to purchase the absolute necessaries of life one year for all the inhabitants of the Union; double the cost of all the railroads in our country; more than the total of all state indebtedness! Who shall limit the ravages of this amazing influ

ence.

It will be observed of the catalogue of fires before given, that $37,000,000 of loss occurred in our country, being an average of $3,700,000 a year, which might be considered a fair average calculation annually for every period of ten years. Now, when it is considered, as before remarked, what numerous losses, direct and indirect, have not been chronicled by us; to which, were the whole expense of the fire department added, and all expenses of engines and machinery, and police, the average loss by fire during the last ten years will not be rated lower than $8,000,000 or $9,000,000 annually, and the average losses for years to come not less than $5,000,000 or $6,000,000, an amount sufficient to carry on the railroad proposed from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean, as fast as labor could urge it!

In the tables we have given it must be regarded extraordinary that fires have, as it

The great fire of London is said to have been predicted long before by zealous soothsaying enthusiasts, and occurred almost in the terms of the prediction.

But this interesting subject we must leave to the reader. It is capable of great extension, and we should be pleased if some one would resume it in our pages. For example, could we have the statistics of losses by fire since the Revolution, or in the history of our great cities, the loss of life, etc., how interesting and valuable this may be, and then the results of insurance companies, the losses and profits, the fire department, the fires at sea and by lightning-what a wide subject is there here.

GEORGIA* — SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, MINERALS, RESOURCES, &c., &c.-Georgia extends from the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the north, to the Okeefeenokee Swamp on the south, and from the Chattahoochee River on the west, to the Sa vannah on the east. From South Carolina, on the east, it is separated by a line running from the mouth of the Savannah River up that stream to the confluence of Tugaloo and Keowee, and thence along the most northern branch of the Tugaloo until it intersects the northern boundaries of South Carolina. From North Carolina and Tennessee on the north, it is separated by a line commencing on a summit of the Blue Ridge, where the same is crossed by the 35th degree of north latitude, and terminating at Nickajack. From Alabama, on the west, it is separated by the Chattahoochee, running from its southern boundary up to a position near West Point, and then by a line running thence directly to Nickajack. Several attempts have been made by commissioners to settle the line between Georgia and Florida on the south. All attempts at a definite settlement have, as yet, failed. This

Georgia is situated between 30° 21′ 39, and 350 north latitude. and 81° and 840 53 38" west longitude from Greenwich, and 3o 46′ and 7° 39′ 26′′ west longitude from Washington City.

Its length from north to south is.
Its breadth from east to west is
Square miles..
Acres...

272 miles. ...256 66 ..63,397%" ..40,574,400

66

line, however, is somewhere near a direct | said by those who know, that a more lovely course from the mouth of the Flint River to heaven does not smile upon the classic land the source of the St. Mary's, thence along of Italia than upon the highly favored inhabthat stream to the point where it empties in- itants of Georgia. The light sandy soil of to the ocean. the cordon of islets which border the seacoast of this state produces the fine and valuable description of cotton known as the "Sea Island." In the south are the tide swamp lands producing immense quantities of rice. The soil of these lands vary as they are situated upon the sea-shore, or upon larger or smaller rivers. On the Savannah they are very extensive, and are cultivated more than twenty miles from the brackish marsh up the river, and are considered the most valuable lands in the state. Next to these lands are those on the Altamaha River, which, in width, are equal to those of the Savannah. They do not extend from the marshes up more than sixteen miles. Beyond this, the freshets render them valueless, except for timber. Their soil has more of vegetable mould than the lands on the Savannah, and they are more easily cultivated. Their products are rice, black-seed cotton, Indian corn, and sugar-cane. Next come the tide lands of the Ogeechee, extending ten miles up from the marshes, which produce rice, but are not very well adapted to cotton. The tide lands of the great St. Illa are not as broad as the others, but are productive and fertile twenty miles up from the marshes, yielding good crops of rice and cotton. They are not so much liable to freshets as some others.

"No state in the Union presents a richer field for the geologist than Georgia. With a territory embracing the southern extremity of the great Atlantic chain of mountains, extending across them to the N. W. into the valley of the Mississippi, running to the S. W. into the cretaceous slope of the Gulf of Mexico, and occupying along its eastern boundary a wide belt of territory, it contains most of the important

geological formations.

Commencing at the Atlantic Ocean, and spreading out from 100 to 150 miles to the west, an extensive plain of a tertiary formation rises from the level of the sea, and gradually swells up to a height of about 500 feet, at a line passing near the head of navigation of the rivers Savannah, Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee, where it meets a primary formation. Between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers it leaves the primary formation to the right, and rests on the cretaceous from a point nearly midway between Macon and Knoxville, by a line running in a S. W. direc tion to another point between Petanla Creek and Fort Gaines on the Chattahoochee river.

Bounded by the last mentioned line to the S. E., and by the southern edge of the primary, as indicated by the heads of navigation in the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers, the cretaceous formation extends from Alabama into Georgia, forming an acute triangle. The primary, or non-fossiliferous, bounded on the east by the tertiary and cretaceous formations, as described above, crosses the state from N. E. to S. W., with a width of 160 miles at the northern limit, and 100 at the southern. The Blue Ridge range of mountains passes near its western edge, and forms the most elevated land of the state, varying in height from 1,200 to 4,000 feet. From this crest there is a gradual descent to the east, by a series of parallel and undulating ridges, until the tertiary plain is reached. On the west the descent is much more precipitous. The western boundary of the primary is not very accurately established, but is believed to be not far from a line running nearly north and south through the centre of Gilmer county, and continued in the same direction to near Canton, in Cass county; thence to the western base of the Allatoona Mountain on the Etowah River, where it turns to the S. W., and, passing near Van Wert, in Paulding county, and along the northern base of the Dugdown Mountain to the Alabama line,

"The north-west part of the state, bounded to the east and south by the western limit of the primary, consists of a transition, or older fossiliferous formation, except the extreme N. W. corner, where the carboniferous occurs."-White's Statistics, PP.

14 and 15.

Georgia embraces every variety of soil, climate and productions. While the inhabitants of Southern and Middle Georgia are being parched with heat, frequently so intense as to prevent comfortable rest, even at night, the more northern climate, among the mountains, is such as to render necessary a blanket in order to comfortable repose by sleep. The sky is of a deep blue, and it is

The inland swamp lands produce abundantly, but unless there be contiguous a reservoir of water, the produce is uncertain. Black-seed cotton is produced on the oak lands adjoining the inland swamps, though these lands are said to be of inferior quality. About sixty or seventy miles from the coast begin the pine lands, or, as they are some times called, "the pine barrens," which have heretofore been chiefly valuable for the immense quantity of timber which has been annually prepared for market. Within a short time past the attention of people has been turned to the manufacture of tar, pitch and turpentine, from the pines growing on these lands, and the time is at hand when these pine barrens will not afford the least source of wealth and prosperity to the citizens of Georgia. The middle region of the state contains land of a red, loamy soil, producing tobacco, cotton, and all the grains. It was once very productive, but owing to the system of cultivation adopted by our planters who have raised upon it year after year, with scarce any intermission, large crops of cotton, it has become, in many counties, much impoverished. Large gullies, and red barren hill-sides, often greet the eye in places which were once as fertile as any under the sun. Our planters are becoming awake to the folly of their past course, and hill-side ditch