rated, so that there can scarce happen an inftance of individual diftrefs for which a mode of advice, affiflance or relief, is not provided without refort to public begging.

Seminaries of learning are established upon the most enlarged and liberal principles, of which the principal are, the university of Pennsylvania and college of Philadelphia.

Almost every religious fociety have one or more schools under their im mediate direction, for the education of their own youth of both fexes, as well of the rich, who are able to pay, as of the poor, who are taught and provided with books and ftationary gratis: befides which, there are a number of private fchools under the direction of mafters and miftreffes, independent of any public body; and there are feveral private academies for the inftruction of young ladies in all the branches of polite literature, fuitable to the fex; and there is no individual, whofe parents or guardians, maflers or miftreffes, will take the trouble to apply, but will be admitted into one of these schools, and if they are unable to pay, will be taught gratis; it ought not to be omitted, that there is a fchool for the Africans of every fhade or colour, kept under the care and at the expenfe of the Quakers, into which are admitted gratis, flaves as well as free perfons of whatever age, of both fexes, and taught reading, writing, arithmetic, knitting, fewing, and other ufeful female accomplishments; this fchool was originally inftituted by private fubfcriptions of the fociety, with a view to prepare that degraded race for a better fituation in civil life; but the will of the late Anthony Benezet, of benevolent memory, a confiderable donation from the fociety in England, and fome other charitable devices, have provided funds adequate to its future fupport, and it will no longer be burthenfome to individuals.

Sunday fchools, for the inftru&tion of children who would otherwise fpend that day in idlenefs or mifchief, have lately been inflituted, and it is to be hoped will tend to amend the morals and conduct of the rifing generation.

The public library of Philadelphia, is a most useful institution; it contains near ten thousand volumes, well felected, for the information and improvement of all ranks of the citizens; they are depofited in an elegant building lately erected, in a modern flyle, and are acceffible every day in the week except funday.

In fhort, whether we confider the local fituation, the fize, the beauty, the variety and utility of the improvements in mechanics, agriculture, and manufactures, or the induftry, the enterprize, the humanity, and the abilities of the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, it merits to be viewed as the capital of the flourishing empire of United America.

Philadelphia, is ninety-five miles fouth weft of New-York, one hundred and two miles north east of Baltimore, and two hundred and feventy-eight miles north east of Richmond.

The borough of Lancaster is the largest inland town in the United States. It is the feat of juice in Lancafler county, and ftands on Coneftega creek, fixty-fix miles. a little to the north of the weft from Philadelphia. lis trade is already large, and muft increase in proportion as the furrounding country populates. It contains about feven or eight hundred houses, befides a molt elegant court houfe, a number of hand fome churches, and other public buildings, and about five thousand inhabitants, a great pro portion of whom are manufacturers.

Carlifle is the chief town of Cumberland county, and is one hundred and twenty miles weftward of Philadelphia, on the road to Futtburgh. It contains upwards of fixteen hundred inhabitants, who live in more than four hundred flone houfes, and worship in three churches. They have alfo a courthouse and a college. Forty years ago, this spot was a wilderness, and inhabited by Indians and wild beafts. A like inftance of the rapid progrefs of the arts of civilized life is fcarcely to be found in hitlory.

Pittsburgh, on the western side of the Alleghany mountain, three hun dred and twenty miles weftward of Philadelphia, is beautifully fituated on a large plain, which is the point of land between the Alleghany and Mononga hela river, and about a quarter of a mile above their confluence, in la.tude 40° 26' north. It contains upwards of two hundred houfes, flores and thops, and about one thousand two hundred inhabitants, who are chiefly Prefbyterians, and Epifcopalians.

This town is laid out on Penn's plan, and is a thorough fare for travellers from the Eaftern and Middle flates, to the fettlement on the Ohio.

Sunbury, the fhire town of Northumberland county, is fituated on the caft fide of Sufquehannah river, just below the junction of the eat and weft branches, in about latitude 40° 53', and about one hundred and twenty miles north-weft from Philadelphia, and contains about one hundred and twenty houses.

It

Bethlehem, a celebrated fettlement of the Moravians, is fituated on the river Lehigh, a western branch of the Delaware, fifty-three miles north of Philadelphia, in latitude 40° 37'. The town being built partly on high rifing ground, and partly on the lower banks of the Manakes, a fine creek, which affords trout and other fifh, has a very pleafant and healthy fituation, and is frequently vifited in the fummer feafon by gentry from different parts. The profpect is not extenfive, being bounded very near by a chain of the Lehigh bills. To the northward is a tract of land called the dry lands. contains about feventy houfes and between fix and feven hundred inhabitants. Nazareth, another town of Moravians, is ten miles north from Bethlehem, and fixty-three north from Philadelphia; it is a tract of good land, containing about five thoufand acres. The town was laid out almoll in the center of this tract in 1772. Two ftreets cross each other at right angles, and fo.m a fquare in the middle, of three hundred and forty, ky two hundred feet. The Jargeft building is a ftone houfe, erected in 1755, named Nazareth hall.

At the fouth weft corner of the aforfaid fquare, in the middle of the town, is the fingle brethren's house, and on the eat-fouth-caft corner a flore. On the fouthermoft end of the ftreet is a good tavern. The houfes are, a few excepted, built of lime-flone, one or two flories high, inhabited by trade men and mechanics, moftly of German extraction. The inhabitants are furled with water conveyed to them by pipes from a fine fpring near the town. The place is noted for having an exceedingly pleafant fituation, and enjoying a pure and falubrious air. The number of inhabitants are about five hundred. Litiz or Leditz is in Lancafter county and Warwick townfhip; eight miles from Lancaster, and feventy miles weft from Philadelphia. It contains about fifty houfes and an elegant church. It is inhabited by the United Brethren.

Harrisburgh, as it is commonly called, but legally filed Louifburgh, is the principal town in Dauphin county, is a very ficutifhing place, about one hundred miles weft by north from Philadelphia, and fifty three fouth weft of Reading. It coutained in 1789, ene hundred and thirty dwelling

houses, a flone gaol, and German church. At that period it had been settled but about three years.

Washington, three hundred miles weft of Philadelphia, and beyond the Ohio, has been fettled fince the war, and is remarkable for the variety of its manufactures for fo young and interior a town; it has thirty-two manufactures of twenty-two different kinds.

Befides the towns already defcribed, there are feveral others of confiderable growth; a large city is alfo laid out at Prefque Ifle, on Lake Erie.

Face of the Country, Rivers, &c.

In this flate, are fix confiderable rivers, which, with their numerous.

branches, peninfulate the whole, viz. the Delaware, Schuylkill, Sufquehannah, Youghiogeny, Monongahela, and Allegany. The bay and river Delaware are navigable from the fea up to the great or lower falls at Trenton, one hundred and fifty-five miles; and are accomodated with a light houfe, on cape Henlopen, and with buoys and piers for the direction and fafety of hips. It is navigable for a feventy-four gun fhip to Philadelphia. Sloops go thirty-five miles farther, to Trenton falls. The river is navigable for boats that carry eight or nine tons, an hundred miles farther, and for Indian canoes, except feveral finall falls or portages, one hundred and fifty miles. At Eafton it receives the Lehigh from the west which is navigable thirty miles.

The tide fets up as high as Trenton falls, and at Philadelphia rifes generally about five or fix feet. A north caft and eaft wind raifes it higher.

Between cape Henlopen and cape May, is the entrance into the Delaware bay. The entrance into the river is twenty miles farther up, at Bombay Hook, where the river is four or fime miles wide, from Bombay' Hook to Reedy-Ifland is twenty miles. This ifland is the rendezvous of outward bound fhips in autumn and fpring, waiting for a favourable wind. The courfe from this to the fea, is S. S. E. fo that a N. W. wind, which is the prevailing wind in thefe feafons, is fair for veffels to put out to fea. This river is generally frozen one or two months in the year at Philadelphia, fo as to prevent navigation, but veffels may at all times. make a fecure harbour at port Penn, at Reedy-Ifland, where piers. have been erected by the flate. Veffels are generally from twelve to twenty four hours in afcending this beautiful river to Philadelphia; and the navigation is fafe, and in the milder feafons, especially in the fummer, is indefcribably pleasant.

The Schuylkill rifes north-weft of the Kittatinny mountains, through which it paffes, into a fine champaign country, and runs from its fource, upwards of one hundred and twenty miles in a fouth-eaft direction, and pafling through the limits of the city of Philadelphia, falls into the Delaware oppofite Mud-Ifland, fix or feven miles below the city. It is navigable from above Reading, eighty-five or ninety miles to its mouth. There are four floating bridges thrown acroís it, made of logs faftened together, and lying upon the water, in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

The north-call branch of the Sufquehannah river rifes in lakes Otfego and Otego in the State of New-York, and runs in fuch a winding courfe as to cross the boundary line between New-York and Pennfylvania three times. It receives Tyoga titer one of its principal branches, in latitude

deg. 57 min. three miles fouth of the boundary line. the Sufquehannah branch is navigable for batteaux to its fource, whence to Mohawk river is but twenty miles. The Tyoga branch is navigable fifty miles for batteaux; and its fource is but a few miles from the Chenefee, which empties into lake Ontario. From Tyoga point, the river proceeds fouthcaft to Wyoming without any obstruction by fails, and then fouth eaft, over Wyoming falls, till at Sunbury, in about latitude 41 deg. it meets the west branch of Sufquehannah, which is navigable ninety miles from its mouth, and fome of the branches of it are navigable fifty miles, and approach very near fome of the boatable branches of the Allegany river. This noble tiver is paflable to Middletown, below Harris' ferry, with boats, carrying feveral hundred bushells, and with rafts of boards, &c. from the fate of NewYork, as well as down the Tyoga, and Juniata branches, feveral hundred miles, in their different windings, but it is attended with difficulty and danger on account of the numerous falls below Middletown. About fifteen miles above Harrisburgh, it receives the Juniata from the north-well, proceeding from the Allegany mountains, and flowing through a mountareous, broken, yet cultivable country. This river is navigable one hundred and twenty miles from its mouth.

From Swetara to the Tulpehyken branch of the Schuylkill, a canal! and lock navigation is undertaken. This leads through the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. When this fhall be effected, a paffage will be open to Philadel phia to Juniata, the Tyoga, and the eaft and weft branches of the Sufquehannah, which waters at least fifteen millions of acres.

The feveral branches of the Youghiogeny river rife on the weft fide of the Alleghany mountains. After running a fhort diflance they unite and form a large beautiful river, which, in palling fome of the most wellern ridges of the mountain, precipitates itself over a level ledige of rocks, lying nearly at right angles to the courfe of the river. Thefe fails, called the Chioyle falls, are about twenty feet in perpendicular height, and the river is perhaps eighty yards wide. For a confiderable diftance below the falls, the water is very rapid, and boils and foams vehemently, occafroning a continual mist to rife from it, even at noon day, and in fair weather. The river at this place runs to the fouth-west, but prefently winds round to the north-well, and continuing this courfe for thirty or forty miles, it lofes its name by uning with thes Monogahela, which comes from the fouthward, and contains. perhaps, twice as much water. The Alleghany river rifes on the weltern fide of the Alleghany mountain, and after running about two hundred miles in a fouth-welt direction, meets the before mentioned river Monongahela at Pittsburgh, and, both united form the Ohio.

One remark mufl not be emitted here, and that is, that in all the back country waters of this flate, even in those high up in the mountains, marine petrifactions are found in great abundance.

The only fwamps worth noticing are, the Great Swamp, between Northhampton and Luzerne counties, and Buffaloe Swamp, in the flate of New York, fome diftance north of the Pennsylvania line. Thefe fwamps, on etamination and furvey, are found to be bodies of farm land, thickly covered with beach and fugar maple.

A confiderable proportion of this state may be called mountainous; particularly the counties of Bedford, Huntingden, Cumberland. part of Franklin, Dauphin, and part of Bucks and Northampton, through which pafs, under various names, the numerous ridges and fpurs, which collectively form what

we chufe to call, for the fake of clearness, The Great Range of Allegany Mountains. The principal ridges in this range, in Pennfylvania, are the Kittatinny, or Blue mountains, which pafs north of Nazareth in Northampten county, and purfue a fouth-weft courfe across the Lehigh, through Dauphin county, juf above Harrisburgh, thence on the weft fide of the Sufquehannah through Cumberland and Franklin counties. Back of thefe, and nearly parallel with them, are Peter's, Tufcarra, and Nefcopek mountains, on the caft of the Sufquehannah ; and on the weft, Shareman's hills, Sideling hill, Raggard, Great Warriors, Evit's and Will's mountains; then the Great Allegany ridge, which being the largeft, gives its name to the whole range; weft of this are the Chefnut ridges. Between the Juniata and the well branch of the Sufquehannah are Jack's Tuffy's, Nittiny, and Bald Eagle mountains. The vales between thefe mountains are generally of a rich, black foil, fuited to the various kinds of grain and grafs. Some of the mountains will adnit of cultivation almost to their tops. The other parts of the State are generally level, or agreeably variegated with hills and vallies.

In the neighbourhood of Reading is a fpring about fourteen feet deep, and about an hundred feet fquare; a full mill fream iffues from it; the waters are clear and full of fish of different kinds. From appearances, it is probable that this fpring is the outlet of a very confiderable river, which a mile and an half or two miles above this place, finks into the earth, and is apparently conveyed to this outlet, in a fubterraneous channel.

In the northern parts of Pennfylvania there is a creek called Oil Creek, which empties into the Allegany river; it iffaes from a fpring, on the top of which floats an oil, fimilar to that called Barbadoes tar, and from which one nan may gather feveral gallons in a day. The troops sent to guard the weftern poffs halted at this fpring, collected fome of the oil, and bathed their joints with it. This gave them great relief from the rheumatic complaints with which they were affected; the waters, of which the troops drank freely, operated as a gentle cathartic.

On a high hill, near the Tyoga river, a little to the fouthward of the line which divides New-York from Pennfylvania, are the remains of an ancient fortification. The form of it is circular, and it is encompaffed with an entrenchment; the entrenchment only remains. The Indians are entirely ignorant of the origin of thefe works. The hill is an excellent fituation for a fort, and commands a delightful view of the country around it, which is low and fertile. There is a fortification of a fimilar kind at Unadilla, in the flat lands, and they are numerous in the western counties.

Soil, Productions, Trade, Manufactures, &c.

THE, foil of Pennfylvania is of various kinds; in fome parts it is

barren a great proportion of the State is, however, good land, and no inconfiderable part is very good; perhaps the proportion of the firft rate land is not greater in any of the United States. The richest part of the State that is feuled is Lancafler county, and the valley through Cumberland, York, and Franklin. The richeft that is unfettled, is between Allegany river and lake Erie, in the north-west corner of the State, and in the country on the heads of the eastern branches of the Allegany. Of this fine tract, near one hundred thoufand acres, lying on, and near French creek, are for fale by the State.

The fouth fide of Pennfylvania is the beft fettled land throughout, owing entirely to the circumfiance of the western road having been run by the armies, No. 26.