pressively hot, and about noon turned out into a shade. Here, unfortunately, while Mr Lee was busied about his beaver traps, his horse got into a miry gully, and could not be extricated. In this dilemma, no resource for proceeding remained for my companion, but to construct a canoe, and so descend by water.

'On the 8th, my companion launched his canoe, which so exactly answered his purpose, that it would have sunk with any additional loading. Although I had now so far recovered as to possess a little appetite, we were, for several days, destitute of any kind of food, except the tails of the beaver, the flesh of this animal being now too lean and musky to be eaten. The game appeared to be driven out of the country by the approach of the Indians. I still continued my route along the beaches of the river, which proved almost insupportably hot, and I severely felt the want of fresh water, though it now, from necessity, became possible for me to swallow this tepid brine.

'9th.-About noon we arrived at the entrance of the Arkansa, and were once more gratified with the taste of fresh water. Here the stream, now at its lowest depression, was almost colorless, and scarcely any where exceeding the depth of three feet. We travelled down it nine or ten miles, and saw the ascending smoke of the general encampments of the Osages, whom, if possible, we wished to avoid. By the multitude of traces upon the sand, it was easy to perceive that the whole village and its accompaniments were in motion.

'10th. We still saw the smoke of the Osage fires in all directions, and hourly expected a discovery. As I passed along contiguous to the river, now alone, one of the Indians saw me in the wood, but did not venture to come up, dodged out of sight, and then ran along with haste towards his encampment. This wolfish behavior, it may be certain, was not calculated to give me any very favorable anticipation of our reception. I could not help indeed reflecting on the inhospitality of this pathless desert, which will one day perhaps give way to the blessings of civilization. The scenery was not without beauty; wooded hills of gentle slope every where bordered the river; and its islands and alluvions, still of considerable extent, are no way inferior to the lands of the Ohio.

11th.-To-day with all our caution, it became impossible to avoid the discovery of the Indians, as two or three families were encamped on the borders of the river. They ran up to us with a confidence which was by no means reciprocal. One of the men was a blind chief, not unknown to Mr Lee, who gave him some tobacco, with which he appeared to be satisfied. About the encampment there were a host of squaws, who were extremely impertinent. An old woman, resembling one of the imaginary New Series, No. 13.

10

witches of Macbeth, told me, with an air of insolence, that I must give her my horse for her daughter to ride on; I could walk ;that the Osages were numerous and could soon take it from me. At length, they got to pilfering our baggage; even the blind chief, who had showed us a commendatory certificate which he had obtained at St Louis, also turned thief on the occasion. We had not got out of the sight of these depredators, before another fellow came after us on the run, in order to claim my horse, insisting that it was his, and I could no way satisfy his unfounded demand, but by giving him one of my blankets.

'Mr Lee, as he descended, now observed two men on the shore, who hid themselves at his approach, and began to follow him as secretly as possible. They continued after us all the remainder of the day, till dark. We knew not whether they intended to kill or to rob us; and endeavoring to elude their pursuit, we kept on in the night, amidst the horrors of a thunder storm, the most gloomy and disagreeable situation I ever experienced in my life. In consequence also of the quicksands and the darkness, it was with the utmost difficulty that I could urge my horse to take the river, which it was necessary repeatedly to cross. In one of these attempts, both myself and it were on the point of being buried before we could extricate ourselves. Dressed in leather, I came out of the water drenched and shivering, almost ready to perish with cold. After some persuasion, I prevailed upon Lee to kindle me a handful of fire, by which I lay alone for two or three hours, amidst the dreary howling of wolves, Mr Lee not wishing to trust himself near such a beacon. Nothing, however, further molested us, and, after cooking and eating a portion of a fat buck elk, which my companion had contrived to kill in the midst of our flight, we continued our journey by the light of the moon. After proceeding about twenty miles farther down the Arkansa, unable to keep up with Lee and his boat, at noon we agreed to part. I took with me some small pieces of the boiled elk, with a portion also uncooked, and furnished myself, as I thought, with the means of obtaining fire, but when evening arrived I was greatly mortified to find all my attempts to obtain this necessary element abortive. My gun was also become useless, all the powder having got wet by last night's adventure.

' 14th.-Fatigued with the sand-beaches, as hot and cheerless as the African deserts, I left the banks of the river; and after travelling with extreme labor through horrible thickets for three miles, in which the Ambrosias were far higher than my head on horseback, I at length arrived amongst woody hills, and a few miles further came out, to my great satisfaction, into the open prairies, from whence, in an elevated situation, I immediately recognized the Verdigris river. At night, though late, I arrived on its wide

alluvial lands, lined with such an impenetrable thicket, that I did not attain the bank, and had to lie down alone in the rank weeds, amidst musquetoes, without fire, food, or water, as the meat with which I had been provided was raw, and spoiled by the worms.

' 15th.—With all the advantage of daylight, it was still difficult to penetrate through the thicket, and ford the river. Towards evening, I again arrived at the trading establishment of Mr Bougie, an asylum, which probably at this time rescued me from death. My feet and legs were so swelled, in consequence of weakness and exposure to extreme heat and cold, that it was necessary to cut off my pantaloons, and at night both my hands and feet were affected by the most violent cramp.'

We have confined ourselves chiefly to the narrative part of this volume, and have omitted to notice a great deal of curious information highly interesting to the botanist and geologist, but not admitting of condensation. Besides a multitude of new and previously undiscovered plants, our author met with the ixia celestina, a beautiful plant discovered long ago by Bartram, in Florida, but not seen since by any one until now. The bow wood, or osage apple, (called by Mr Nuttall maclura,) a tree which has excited much curiosity, was met with in thickets upon the Red river. Among other curiosities was a species of rhus, perfectly resembling the rhus cotinus, or smoke tree of our gardens, and perhaps identical with it.

Concerning the Indian tribes who still maintain their foothold in our forests, Mr Nuttall has furnished minute and characteristic information. To the various traits drawn of them in the body of the work, he has subjoined an appendix of several sections, containing,

1. An account of the ancient aboriginal population on the banks of the Mississippi and contiguous country;

2. The history of the Natchez;

3. Observations on the Chickasaws and Choctaws.

We understand that with a view to future publication, he has collected vocabularies and formed comparisons of the languages of the numerous tribes he has visited; and made extensive observations on the aboriginal antiquities of the western country.

To the public in Europe as well as America Mr Nuttall is advantageously known by his scientific publications. His work in two volumes on the Genera of North American plants, the fruit of much industry and research, is replete with com

prehensive and philosophic views of natural affinities; although we could wish, for the benefit of the already cumbersome science to which it belongs, that its innovations on previous nomenclature had been made with a more sparing hand. His Geological sketch of the valley of the Mississippi embodies information, which probably no other individual was qualified to give. Besides various scientific papers of a very creditable kind in the different journals and transactions already published, we are yet to expect from him a Flora of the Arkansa territory, and the work already alluded to on aboriginal antiquities and language.

In the recent appointment of Mr Nuttall as curator and lecturer at the botanic garden in Cambridge, we hope he may find a resting place from his wanderings, as pleasant and advantageous to himself, as it will be welcome to those who may receive the benefit of his instructions.

ART. V. The testimony of Christ's second appearing, containing a general statement of all things pertaining to the faith and practice of the Church of God, in this latter day. Published by order of the Ministry in union with the Church. Second edition, corrected and improved. 12mo. pp. 620. Albany, 1810.

SCARCE any one has travelled toward the west of New York, from this part of the country, who has not stopped a day or two, to admire the lovely scene of the Taghkannuc valley. Had it been in Wales or Switzerland, it would have been renowned throughout the world. Nothing can surpass the gracefulness of the sweep of the hills which inclose it, or the charm of the various prospect which it presents of native forest and cultivated field, in one part stretching up the hill side, and in others spreading out on wide and rich plains. The road after you have entered the valley passes alternately under thick groves of beach and maple, along the margin of deep meadows, and sometimes across a dashing brook, which sinks on one side of the road, beneath the broad stones that cover it, to rise up on the other and wind its way through fields and pastures below. Among these natural objects to arrest the traveller's attention, it will also be turned to what man has here done. He will perceive on the one hand a thriving American village, with

its usual appendages of church, tavern, and store, and some additional apparatus, called accommodations by antiphrasis, designed for the reception of those who resort to an innocent mineral spring, on the mountain's side. On the opposite quarter he will perceive a village, smaller and more pleasantly situated, consisting of a few large buildings wearing somewhat of a factory appearance and painted dull yellow, with the barns and offices indicative of a large family. In the centre of the settlement, he will perceive a small neat white church, in a decent inclosure-an advantage which it possesses in common with very few of our village churches ;-a trim grass plot around it; and a pavement of marble slabs leading to its two doors. The lands about this settlement he will find to be more neatly cultivated, than the majority of American farms; and the whole appearance of things that of unusual comfort, and permanence. If he happen to pass this village on Sunday, at the hour of public worship, he will be struck with a still more singular spectacle and discover at last the secret. Instead of the irregular resort to church, which prevails in other places,-groupes of men, women, and children in their gayest dresses, thronging the road, without any unusual solemnity of manner; instead of the collection of gossippers about the door and in the porch, who stop till the first hymn has made a good beginning, before they enter the sanctuary; he will see sundry processions of men and women, leaving the several dwelling houses in the settlement, and with every external mark of gravity and seriousness, dressed in a plain uniform, moving in order to the place of worship ; and when arrived there, entering it with decorum, and repairing to their plain wooden benches,-the men on one side and the women on the other, and maintaining till the commencement of their service a more grave and reverential deportment, than is commonly found among the mass of any congregation. The extraordinary mode, in which their worship is conducted, will not surely diminish his curiosity, and he will, as well by that, as what he has already observed, have a desire awakened to know something more of this singular fraternity.

The work before us is sometimes called the 'Shakers' Bible;’but it does not appear that there is any propriety in giving it this name, or that they attribute any thing bevond historical authority to it. Its division into chapter and