and before the prominent spires of the distant city receded from our view, we hoisted sail, and soon found ourselves to be carried with the current, at the rate of about seven miles per hour. The agreeable change from the close streets of a city, to the cool surface of the river, united to the chanting of our canoemen, and the rapidity of our motion, produced an exhilaration of spirits, which was agreeably heightened by the constantly changing aspect of an uncommonly fine settlement on either shore.

Every person who has enjoyed a sight of the mild and impressive scenery along this stream, will preserve a lively recollection of the highly cultivated farms and large orchards; the antique French villes with their red painted Catholic chapels; and the modern seats of British and American emigrants, which are at once calculated to recall the antiquity, and the recent improvements of these opulent settlements. And there are few objects along the great chain of lakes, replete as their borders are with scenes of wild-wood freshness, and attractive coast scenery, which present so pleasurable a prospect to the eye, as the numerous verdant islands in the channel of this broad and majestic river; which at every stroke of the paddle throws up those clear and sparkling drops, that constantly remind one of the pure and unadulterated fountains of the north, from which it draws its ample volume.

We passed rapidly among these islands, with our thoughts employed awhile upon the deeply interesting events, to which the progress of the late war gave birth along the borders of this river; or in discriminating those places which are noted for occurrences in the civil, or localities in the natural history of the country. Sandwich, Spring-wells, Brownstown, Malden, and Grosse Isle, with its pearly blue crystals of strontian, successively faded away in the distance; and we almost imper

ceptibly entered Lake Erie, and felt our canoe mounting the larger swells of the lake.

Our course lay along the southern shore, and our steersman pointed out as we passed, the most prominent points of land which jut out into the lake, with their local or proper names. Several of the bays and indentations, which intervene between these points, are the recipients of small rivers, which have their sources in the table lands, sixty or seventy miles south. The most considerable of these are the Huron and the Raisin; the latter of which is famed as the scene of the defeat and massacre of a division of the American army, under Gen. Winchester in the winter of 1813.

We cannot persuade ourselves to describe those movements of the northwestern army, which led to this unfortunate catastrophe: nor to detail on the other hand the cruel and atrocious murders, which the officers of a Christian King permitted their savage allies to perpetrate upon wounded and defenceless prisoners. These sanguinary acts will long be remembered, both within and without the nation :

"Oh! where was the pride that a soldier should feel,
To temper with mercy the wrath of his steel,
When Proctor, triumphant, denied to the brave
Who had fallen in battle, the gift of a grave."

ANON.*

MONROE.

The town of Monroe, which is the seat of justice for a county of the same name in Michigan Territory, is seated upon this river. This town is stated to possess advantages for the lake trade, and to be environed by an extensive body of arable upland in a state of settlement,

* Poems on subjects connected with the late war.-NEW-YORK, 1817.,

which must, at no distant date, render it a place of business second only to Detroit. The course of emigration has induced Congress recently to establish an office for the sale of the public lands at this place.

As we approached the entrance of Maumee Bay, we could plainly descry on our left, some of the scattered members of that cluster of islands, which marks the scene of Perry's memorable victory. The wind blowing moderately at setting out, increased hourly as we advanced, and exposed us to a heavy surge soon after entering the lake :-Our slender mast bent under the still increasing pressure, and we were soon compelled to take in sail; and twice or thrice at considerable intervals, the waves broke over our bark at the height of our heads, running in copious streams from our shoulders. To those to whom this mode of voyaging is novel, an oc- “ currence of this kind on the open lake, must bring its alarms, and to persons whose experience has given them confidence in so slender a fabric, it cannot be numbered among those agrémens which give pleasure.

It has been remarked by experienced navigators, that there is a leading wave in the lakes-followed by two or three others, which are perceptibly larger than the rest of the series; and that this groupe, forming the edge or point of water, wrought up to its utmost force and fury, is to be observed constantly breaking and reforming, at somewhat regular intervals, during the prevalence of a storm. It is these leading surges only, that are to be dreaded by small craft and it must excite surprise in any person who has not previously tried the experiment, to observe how admirably the light birch canoe is calcu lated to rise over these formidable waves.

The gale being directly aft, we did not conceive ourselves in imminent danger, and beld our course under a reefed sail into the bay, and at eight o'clock in the eve

ning landed at Port Lawrence. The place so called, is situated at the point where Swan Creek discharges itself into Maumee Bay; being a computed distance of sixty miles from Detroit. We were invited to pass the night at the house of Benjamin F. Stickney, Esq.

NATIVE LEAD.

Mr. Stickney showed us by candlelight, a specimen of ore procured upon the Au Glaize river in Ohio, which is a sulphuret of lead, containing malleable slips or points. He represents it to be part of a mass, which the original discoverer describes, as "a round stone of a lead colour, weighing thirteen pounds." It appeared to have been much abraded, and moved from its parent bed by the force of water. It was found upon the rocky bed of the river, at a rapid about one mile above Fort Defiance, where a formation of bituminous shale, with iron pyrites Such is the account given.

occurs.

The mass which we examined would probably weigh about two ounces, and of this the native metal formed but a small portion. Its distinguishing characters, considered as a specimen of crystallized galena, are—a laminated structure, and a dull lead gray surface, with metallic lines, or maculæ, more or less splendent, and unequally malleable. Of the latter property, we satisfied ourselves by cutting: and there was no appearance to indicate, that this condition of the mineral had been caused by artificial heat.

Every fact connected with the discovery of a new or unsettled species in mineralogy, is interesting and important, and deserves to be perpetuated in works of higher authority, than we have reason to anticipate for these desultory sketches. But in our zeal to promote the physical, as in the moral sciences, it appears to be

equally the dictate of prudence, that we should be cautious in receiving that which has been long doubted, and in doubting that which has been long received.

It is remarked by Phillips* that "lead has never been found in its pure state;" and more recently by Cleaveland, that although—" several instances of the occurrence of Native Lead have been mentioned, in but few of them does the fact appear to be well established." We can consider the above-mentioned instance interesting only, as the discovery of a mineral out of place, and in so far as it may serve hereafter to direct mineralogical research. But neither Mr. Stickney, as he declares, nor any other person, can direct us where similar masses of this semi-mineralized galena can certainly be found.

MAUMEE BAY.

This bay forms an elongated sheet of water, contracting so gradually toward its head, that it requires a close attention to determine the precise point where the river is merged in the bay. It admits the entrance of vessels of moderate burden. Its banks are flat and thickly wooded, and conspicuously bordered with aquatic plants. Among them the common bulrush, and the wild oat, or rice,§ may be noticed. The latter plant, to which the natives apply the soft name of monömin,|| presents a beautiful aspect when in flower, but it does not attain that luxuriant growth, which we have observed near the sources of the Mississippi, and

* Phillips's Mineralogy.

+ Cleaveland's Mineralogy.

We understand the Commissioner and Engineer, appointed by the State of Ohio to survey the Maumee Valley, with a view to canalling, have found nine feet of water, on the shallowest part of the entrance into this bay, and pronounce it the best harbour on the lake.-STICKNEY.

§ Zizania Aquatica.-LIN.

|| Chippeway.