would not altogether perish, it must be remembered that this country was stocked, as the more distant prairies still are, with buffalo, which would, by their periodical occupation of the country in numberless herds, assist in exterminating plants of a vigourless constitution. These may be enumerated among the efficient causes of a prairie or meadow state of extensive tracts of country. This view of the subject is somewhat strengthened by the fact of plants, in modern times, encroaching on the prairies; for I have observed they encroach on the sides where vegetable matter has been washed and accumulated, finding a nutritious bed there, into which they can push their innumerable delicate fibres, secured from the devastating teeth and hoofs of the buffalo, which have now all left this part of the country; for where man settles, that animal never remains long. But there is also another view of the subject.

When it

"These vast prairies of the west, as well as the diminutive ones in question, must be admitted to be ancient floors of the ocean. abandoned them, they were, of course, without plants; and unless we admit their spontaneous growth, we must suppose them to have germinated from seeds derived from plants growing on lands which had been left with a higher level than the ocean, before it receded from these prairies, Their borders would, of course, be planted first, and thus we can conceive of every new generation of plants giving some of its seeds to the winds and the waters, and gradually extending the forests, like the present members of the human family, advancing upon, and settling the country for the uses of posterity. This seems a more natural and just method of accounting for the immense prairies of the West, and the pampas of the southern portion of the South American continent, than conjectural opinions founded on a convenient method adopted by the Indians of securing their game, and which they have practised at all times, certainly with the effect of thinning, but without destroying the timber, as we know from the immense forests of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas, which were once annually fired by the Indians, to burn the high grass, that they might better see their game-a practice which destroyed the undergrowth, but only thinned the trees; and now that the Indians have left these countries, we find the undergrowth rapidly occupying the ground again. Before we receive opinions altogether hypothetical in relation to the cause of the prairie condition of land, it seems as if we were bound to inquire what was their first condition, consistent with the geological fact that they are ancient floors of the ocean. It, therefore, appears to me to be probable that many of these prairies have never, since the ocean left them, been covered by any vegetables of greater importance than the gramina. Under this view of the matter, it is consistent to suppose, what is personally known to me to be the fact in many observed instances, that trees and plants may be transplanted to those prairies with perfect success."-pp. 76-78.

When speaking of the Arkansas river, the author states, that like some others in the same region, it is subject to a constant change in its course, and that a small circumstance will lead to the deflection of this noble stream, the mere lodgment of a single tree becoming often the commencement of a bar that will throw the current to the other side, which, beating against a low and weak part of the alluvial bank, will, in a short time, if the bank happens

to form a reach there, wear its way through, leaving an island and a chain of lagoons in its old bed. Every thing in the yet uncultivated districts seems to be upon a magnificently great scale; even that of desolation is perfect.

"In the vicinity of the Mammelle mountain is an immense swamp, through part of which I passed, and which contains, perhaps, thirty thousand acres. The timber on each side, being much killed by the water, stands dead in innumerable lofty bare masts, forming a picture of perfect desolation. The cypress, the cotton-wood poplar, and the populus monilifera, the hackberry, the triple-thorned acacia, and many other trees, attain an immense size here. The lagoons in this swamp extend for several miles where the old bed of the river was; wild geese, ducks, and other aquatic birds, are here in incredible numbers, as well as swans occasionally. Nothing can be more singular than the aspect of the trees in this wild place. Their trunks appeared to be painted red for about fifteen feet from the ground; at that height a perfectly level red line extended through the whole forest, marking the rise of the waters at the last great inundation, which occurred in June, 1833, when the Arkansas rose thirty feet. Millions of acres of rich bottom land of these countries are thus rendered useless, and can never be brought to their intrinsic value but by levées, constructed at particular points, to keep out the waters from the direct course of the river, and the back waters of the bayous that empty into the river. Until measures of this kind are taken, these districts will be a nuisance to the settlers, both in respect of their insalubrity, and their being the resort of the numerous gangs of wolves which infest the country. I spent one night in the swamp alluded to, that of the 22nd of November last. The thermometer had fallen to 24 deg. Fahrenheit, and strong ice was making. The noise made by the incessant howling and yelling of these animals exceeded any thing I had ever heard, some barking in one tone, some screaming in another, as if each was suffering bodily pain. This uproar is generally loudest just before the approach of day, and appears intended as a signal for stragglers to come into the wilderness, where they usually crouch during the day.

"From this point of the river down to its mouth, a distance of about three hundred miles, a fine opportunity presents itself of studying not only the structure of this vast body of rich alluvial land, but of the action of the river, and I passed a week in following it to its junction with the Mississippi, landing, and examining the country at many interesting points. The whole line presents a succession of reaches, sand bars, and mutations, produced in the manner I have before mentioned, and the serpentine course thus established doubles the distance. Its general course to the Mississippi is southeast, but it is constantly, every five or six miles, describing curves, and following the direction of southwest and northeast. The channel is thus alternately on the right and left bank of the river. Sometimes an extensive sandy beach will project itself from the opposite shore, and just so far into the channel as to render it very difficult to get over with a boat drawing three feet. These beaches sometimes cover more than fifty acres of land, and are thrown up by the stream as it abrades the banks at the foot of which it runs. The banks being thus constantly undermined by the action of the river, immense masses of timber, together with the lofty canes, twenty to twenty-five

feet high, that grow up with it, fall into the river with the earth about their roots, and thus at the same time form the snags and sawyers which embarrass the stream, and a point of resistance which gives a new direction to it. Sometimes, during the great freshets which descend from the upper country, the river not only breaks through the reaches of land which jut out into the river, but absolutely gets under the extensive sand beaches, and lifting them up above the general level of the country, deposits them upon it. In this way, I have observed considerable portions of rich plantations, distant several hundred yards from the edge of the river, buried several feet deep beneath a barren sand. At other times, the freshets plough the whole of the vegetation up from the ground for thirty or forty acres, and deposit it in a mass, with all its timber, upon some beach lower down. This is the general character of the Arkansas as I have observed it for several hundred miles, and I have been told by those who have visited it nearer to its sources, that it has, in some places, abraded the whole surface of the country for several miles in width.”- -pp. 84-86.

What the ingenuity of man is yet to accomplish over the surface of such regions, or dig from the bowels of the subjacent strata, we may believe will at some period be on a scale in some degree commensurate with the features and capabilities of these parts. The author thinks that a much greater number than fifty millions of inhabitants have yet to establish themselves in those fertile alluvial territories, penetrated as they are by many thousands of miles of river navigation; where the amount produced of sugar and cotton, that at present excites the admiration of mankind, will be referred to as the germ of production hereafter, and where all the arts and features of peace and traffic will have their seat, though at present these immense regions be but slightly known. The prospect is splendid and cheering.

Although the opinions submitted by the author in 1828 to the Geological Society of London, as to the series of rocks of the United States being the natural equivalent of that observed in Europe, be strengthened by the investigations recorded in this report, it is also true, he tells us, that that remarkable portion called the oolitic formation, lying above the coal measure, has not yet been found. But in every country where geology has hitherto been practically studied, some part or other of the series is wanting. The author continues

"At many points of our Atlantic coast, including the city Washington, there is no rock intervening between the superficial detritus and the gneiss, which is the lowest rock but one of the whole series. Localities, with imperfect arrangements of this nature, are like a harp, where, though some of the party-coloured chords may be wanting, yet the rest are there, and preserve their unchangeable superposition to each other. This correspondence of structure will result in making the principles of the science of geology, like those of geometry, applicable every where.

It is a remarkable circumstance, as I had occasion to announce in 1828, that, with the exception of the tertiary and subcretaceous beds of the coast, nothing more recent than the coal-bearing series had been found in the United States. A fact so unusual in a continent of such great

extent as North America, can hardly be attributed to denuding causes, and would rather lead us to the inference that this part of the globe has in fact emerged from the ocean before the continent of Europe did, and that, geologically speaking, in reference to the history of the earth, this has very strong claims to be called the old world. If no denuding causes adequate to the phenomenon have been in action, we must either adopt that opinion, or suppose that, whilst other parts of the subaqueous world were receiving sedimentary deposites, the waters of the ocean, which covered the vast area devoid of the entire oolitic system, were situated so as not to receive any sedimentary materials. The opinious I communicated in 1828 have been confirmed by my late tour, and strengthen the conclusion to which my judgment has been for some time coming, that this continent is much older than the European continent."-pp. 94, 95.

Whatever may be the merits of this conjecture, there can be no doubt that geology is destined, in its progress towards a perfect system of truths, to receive from America most extensive and valuable contributions. Instead of continuing to think, as they have generally heretofore done in that country, that metallic veins were mere superficial deposites, and that, therefore, diggings and minings on a large scale would be rash speculations, this report and similar works will go far to induce another belief, and ere long we doubt not lead to enterprises of suitable magnitude, and producé results favourable to national industry, and to their own just expectations.

ART. VII. Considerations respecting the Trade with China. By JoSEPH THOMPSON, late of the East India House. London: Allen and Co. 1835.

THIS is a seasonable publication. It comes forward at a time when there has been a mighty alteration in the manner by which our enormous trade with India and China is to be conducted, as well as a great change as to the parties who are to conduct that trade. The whole mercantile community of the United Kingdom are now to occupy the place of a single company; and yet the individuals composing that community, are, in general, but little acquainted with the parts, the people, and the trade, that are thus to become so closely connected with them. It may well be believed, therefore, that the present little work will contribute in no small degree to the information that is so essential, and yet so defective hitherto, on the commerce with India, and still more with China, when we learn that the author has, for above forty-six years, served the East India Company, and had a particular acquaintance with its relations with China.

Mr. Thompson takes notice of the incontrovertible truth, that the affairs of the East India Company, and the important questions therewith connected, notwithstanding the discussions that the late changes in its privileges have occasioned, have engaged but a VOL. II. (1835.) No.1.

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slender share of public attention. He regrets, therefore, that a longer period had not been allowed between the determination to throw open the trade with India and China, and the actual commencement of that trade on the new footing, in order that the merchants of the United Kingdom might generally have had time to allow them to acquire some insight into the character and conduct of that which would bring a very peculiar people to be dealt with. His desire and labour to convey, in so far as his knowledge would enable him, the necessary information in question, cannot but be worthy of consideration, and will doubtless tend to promote the interests of British commerce.

In the first part of the work, Mr. Thompson makes some observations on the silver monies of England and India, which prove him to be intimately acquainted with the bearings of that intricate, and, to general readers, dry subject, but at the same time necessary one, to a clear understanding of our merchandize in the East. He goes on to consider the subject of exchanges between India and China, and between the latter and England, more particularly as that subject relates tothe remittance to England of funds from India, to repay to England advances made there on account of the Indian territorial charges. These are subjects, however, which must be studied by a reference to more extended statements and reasonings than we can possibly make room for, and will, of course, by all who take a particular share of interest on the question, be perused as they appear at length in the pages before us. He maintains that the trade between England, India, and China, is capable of considerable enlargement.

First, as the medium for an increased remittance of funds provided in India for the payment of charges defrayed in England on account of the Indian territory; and, secondly, as presenting to the British merchant a more extended field for his speculations, in consequence of his now being able to sail from England direct, or circuitously to India and China, and to leave the latter, direct or circuitously, for England, America, or Foreign Europe, or any other place to which the British flag has or may have access.

To encourage this very important branch of British commercefirst, every possible reduction should be made in the charges of the Indian mints for coining dollars and bullion into rupees, so as to increase the net out-turn of the same to the greatest practicable extent; secondly, the exchanges between England, India, and China, should be regulated on principles best fitted to give the British trader the fullest advantage to which he may be entitled; and thirdly, that every impediment to the freest commercial intercourse between the several countries be either removed, or rendered as little inconvenient as the circumstances of the several cases may permit."-pp. 52, 53.

The next matter discussed respects the fitness and efficiency of the large ships employed by the East India Company for carrying on their trade with China. And here the author argues that the use of that class of shipping has been greatly overrated, and endea