Peterburgh, twenty-five miles fouthward of Richmond, ftands on the fouth fide of Appamattox river, and contains upwards of three hundred houses in two divifions; one is upon a clay cold foil, and is very dirty, the other upon a plain of fand or loam. There is no regularity and very little elegance in Peterburgh, it is merely a place of buficis. The Free Mafons have a hall tolerably elegant. It is very unhealthy, being fhut out from the accefs of the winds by high hills on every fide. This confined fituation has fuch an effect upon the conflitutions of the inhabitants, that they very nearly resemble thofe of hard drinkers; hence, in the opinion of phyficians, they require a confiderable quantity of ftimulating aliments and vinous drinks, to keep up a balance between the feveral functions of the body.

About two thousand two hundred hogfreads of tobacco are inspected here annually. Like Richmond, Williamsburgh, Alexandria, and Norfork, it is a corporation; and Peterburgh city comprehends a part of three counties. The celebrated Indian queen, Pocahonta, from whom defcended the Randolph and Bowling families, formerly refided at this place. Peterfburgh and its fuburbs contain about three thousand inhabitants.

Williamsburgh, formerly the feat of government in Virginia, ftands upon an elevated but level fpot, between York and James rivers. It contains about 200 houses, and about 1500 inhabitants. The college of William and Mary, fixed here, was founded in the time of King William and Mary. Befides the building of this college, there is an Epifcopal church, a prifon, a court-house, and a hofpital for lunatics. It is 12 miles E. of York-town, and 48. N. W. of Norfolk, N. lat. 37, 16, W. long. 76. 48.

York Town, 12 miles eallward from Williamsburgh, and fourteen from Monday's point at the mouth of the river, is a place of about an hundred houfes, fituated on the fouth fide of York river, and contains about seven hundred inhabitants. It has been rendered famous, by the capture of Lord Cornwallis, and his army, on the 19th of October, 1781, by the united forces of France and America. N. lat. 37, 22, W. long. 76, 52.

Climate.

IN an extenfive country, it will be expected that the climate is not the fame in all its parts. It is remarkable that, proceeding on the fame parallel of latitude wefterly, the climate becomes colder in like manner as when you proceed northwardly. This continues to be the cafe till you attain the fummit of the Allegany, which is the highest land between the ocean and the Miffiffippi. From thence, defcending in the fame latitude to the Miffiffippi, the change reverses; ard, if we may believe travellers, it becomes warmer there than it is in the fame latitude on the fea fide. Their teftimony is ftrengthened by the vegetables and animals which fubfift and multiply there naturally, and do not on the fea coaft. Thus catalpas grow fpontaneously on the Miffiffippi, as far as the latitude of 37°, and reeds as far as 38°. Parroquets even winter on the Scioto, in the 39th degree of latitude.

The fouth-welt winds, eat of the mountains, are most predominant. Next to thefe, on the fea coaft, the north-eaft, and at the mountains, the northwest winds prevail. The difference between the fe winds is very great. The north-eaft is loaded with vapour, infomuch that the falt manufacturers have found that their chryftals would not fhoot while that blows; it occations a diftrefling chill, and a heavinefs and depreffion of the fpirits. The northweft is dry, cooling, clallic, and animating. The eaft and fouth-caft breezes

come on generally in the afternoon. They have advanced into the country very fenfibly within the memory of people now living. Mr. Feferfon rec kons the extremes of heat and cold to be 98° above and 6° below o, in Fanrenheit's thermometer.

That fluctuation between heat and cold, fo deftructive to fruit, in the fpring feafon, prevails lefs in Virginia than in Pennfylvania; nor is the overflowing of the rivers in Virginia fo extenfive or to frequent at that seafon, as thofe of the New England States; because the fnows in the former do not lie accumulating all winter, to be diffolved all at once in the fpring, as they do fometimes in the latter. In Virginia, below the mountains, fnow feldom lies more than a day or two, and seldom a week; and the large rivers feldom freeze over. The fluctuation of weather, however, is fufficient to render the winters and fprings very unwholefome, as the inhabitants during those fezlon have to walk in almost perpetual mire.

The months of June and July, though of en the hotteft, are the most hea!thy in the year. The weather is then dry and lefs liable to change than in Auguft and September, when the rain commences, and fudden variations take place.

On the fea coaft, the land is low, generally within twelve feet of the level of the fea, interfected in all directions with falt creeks and rivers, the heads of which form fwamps and marthes, and fenny ground, covered with water in wet feafons. The uncultivated lands are covered with large trees and thick underwood. The vicinity of the fea, and falt creeks and rivers, occafion a conftant moißlure and warmth of the atmosphere, fo that although under the fame latitude, one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles in the country, deep fnows, and frozen rivers frequently happen, for a fhort feafon, vet here fuch occurrences are confidered as phenomena; for thefe reafons, the trees are often in bloom as early as the laft of February; from this period, however, till the end of April, the inhabitants are incommoded by cold rains, piercing winds, and fharp frofts, which fubject them to the inflammatory difcafes, known here under the names of pleurify and peripneumony.

Face of the Country, Mountains, Rivers, &c.

THE whole country below the mountains, which are about one

hundred and fifty, fome fay two hundred miles from the fea, is level, and The feems from various appearances to have heen once washed by the fra. land between York and James rivers is very level, and its furface about forty feet above high water mark. It appears, from obfervation, to have arifen to its prefent height, at different periods far diftant from each other, and that at thefe periods it was wathed by the fea; for near York town, where the banks are perpendicular, you firft fee a ftratum, in ermixed with fmall fhells, referbling a mixture of clay and fand, and about five feet thick; on this lies horizontally, fmall white thells, cockle, clam, &c. an inch or two thick; then a body of earth fimilar to that firft mentioned, eighteen inches thick; then a layer of fheils and another body of earth; on this a layer of three feet of white fhells mixed with fand, on which lay a body of oyfter fhells fix feet thick, which are covered with earth to the furface. The oyfter fhells are fo united by a very ftrong cement that they fall, only when undermined, and then in large bodies, from one to twenty tons weight. They have the appearance on the shore of large rocks.

Thefe appearances continue in a greater or lefs degree in the banks of James river, one hundred miles from the fea; the appearances then Väly, and the banks are filled with fharks, teeth bones of large and fmall fifh petrified, and many other petrifactions, fome refembling the bones of land and other animals, and alio vegetable fibilances. Thete appearances are not confined to the river banks, but are ieen in various places in gullies at confiderable diftances from the rivers. In one part of the State for feventy miles in length, by finking a well, you apparently come to the bottom of wha was formerly a water courfe. And even as high up as Botetourt county, among the Allegany mountains, there is a tract of land, judged to be forty thousand acres, furrounded on every fide by mountains, which is entirely covered with oyfter and cockle thells, and, by fome gullies, they appear to be of confiderable depth. A plantation at Day's Point, on James river, of as many as onethoufand acres, appears at a diffance as if covered with fnow, but on examina. tion the white appearance is found to arife from a bed of clam theils, which by repeated plowing have become fine and mixed with the earth.

It is worthy of notice, that the mountains in this State are not folitary and feartered confuledly over the face of the country; but commence at about one hundred and filty miles from the fea-coat, are difpoled in ridges one behind arothes, running near y paralel with the fea-coaft, though rather approaching it as they advance north-eafl wardly. To the fouth-weft, as the tract of country between the tea-coati and the Missippi becomes narrower, the mountains Converge into a fingle ridge; which as it approaches the gulp of Mexico, fubfidis into plain country, and gives rife to fome of the waters of that gulph, and particularly to a river called Apalachicola, probably from the Apalachies, an Indian nation formerly reliding on it. Herce the mountains giving rife to that river, and feen from its various parts, were called the Apalachian mountains, being in fact the end or termination only of the great ridges palling torough the continent. European geographers, however, have extended the fame northwardly as far as the mou stains excer ded. fome giving it after their feparation into different ridges, to the Blue Rides, others to the North mountains, others to the Alleghany, others to the Laurel Ridge as may be feen in their different maps. But none of thefe ridges were ever known by that name to the inhabitants, either native or emigrant, but as they faw them fo called in European maps. In the fame direction generally are the veins of lime-ftone, coa., and other minerals hitherto difcovered; and fo range the falls of the great rivers. But the courfes of the great rivers are at right angles with thele. James and the Potomack penetrate through all the ridges of mountains eastward of the Alleghany which is broken by no water course. It is in fact the ipine of the country between the Atlantic on one fide, and the Miffipi and St. Lawrence on the other. The paffage of the Potomack through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the mol ftupendous fcenes in nature. You fland on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to feek a vent; on your left approaches the Potomack, in queft of a passage alfo; in the moment of their junction, they rufh together against the mountain, rend it arunder, and pafs off to the fea. The first glance of this fcene hurries our feufes into the opinion, that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed firal, that the rivers began to flow afterwards; that in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue Ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that conti

uing to rife, they have at length broken out at this fpot, and have torn the mountain down from its fummit to its bafe. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their difruption and avulfion from their beds by the moll powerful agents of nature, corroborate the impretion; but the diftant finifling which nature has given to the picture, is of a very different character. It is a true contralt to the fore ground; it is as placid and delightful, as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountain, being cloven afunder, prefeats to the eye, through the cleft, a fmall catch of fmooth blue horizon, at an infinite diftance, in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and participate of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately compofes itfelf; and that way too, the road actually leads. You cross the Potomack above the junction, pafs along its fide through the bafe of the mountain for three miles, its terrible precipices hanging in fraginents over you, and within about twenty miles reach Erederick-Town and the fine country round that. This fcene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic. Yet here, as in the neighbourhood of the Natural Bridge, are people who have piffed their lives within half a dozen miles, and have never been to farvey thofe monuments of war between rivers and mountains, which muft have fhaken the earth itfelf to its center. The height of the mountains has not yet been eftinated with any degree of exactnefs. The Alleghany being the great ridge which divides the waters of the Atlantic from thofe of the Miffiffippi, its fommit is doubtlefs more elevated above the ocean than that of any other mountain. But its relative height compared with the bate on which it flands. is not fo great as that of fome others, the country rifing behind the fucceffive ridges like the fleps of flairs. The mountains of the Blue Ridge, and these the peaks of Otter are thought to be of a greater height measured from their bafe than any others in Virginia and perhaps in North America. From data, which may be found a tolerable conjecture, we fuppofe the highest peak to be about four thousand feet perpendicular, which is not a fifth part of the height of the mountains of South-America, nor one third of the height which would be neceffary in our latitude to preferve ice in the open air unmelted through the year. The ridge of mountains next beyond the Blue Ridge, called the North mountain, is of the greateft extent: for which reafon they are named by the Indians the Eudlels mountains.

The Ouapota mountains are fifty or fixty miles wide at the Gap. Thefe mountains abound in coal, ime, and free-flone; the fummits of them are gcnerally covered with a good foil, and a variety of timber; and the low, intervale lands are rich and remarkably well watered.

An infpection of the map of Virginia, will give a better idea of the geography of its rivers, than any defcription in writing. Their navigation, however, may be imperfectly noted.

Roanoke, fo far as it lies within this State, is no where navigable but for canoes, or light batteaux; and even for thefe, in fuch detached parcels as to have prevented the inhabitants from availing themselves of it at all.

James river, and its waters, afford navigation as follows: the whole of Elizabeth river, the lowell of thofe which run into James viver, is a harbour, and would contain upwards of three hundred fhips. The channel is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred fathoms wide, and at common flood ride, affords eighteen feet water to Norfolk. The Strafford, a fixty gun fhup, went there, lightening herfelf acrois the bar at Sowell's Poin. The For Rodrique, pierced for fixty-four guns, and carrying fifty, went there without

lightening. Craney-Ifland, at the mouth of this river, commands its channel tolerably well.

Nanfemond river is navigable to Sleepy Hole, for veffels of two hundred and filty tons to Suffolk, for those of one hundred tons; and to Milner's for thofe of twenty-five. Pagan creek affords eight or ten feet water to Smithfield, which admits veffets of twenty tons. Chickahominy has at its mouth a bar on which is only twelve feet water at common flood tide. fels palling that, may go eight miles up the river; thofe of ten feet draught may go four miles farther, and thofe of fix tons burthen, twenty miles far

ther.

Ves

The Appamattox may be navigated as far as Broadways, by any veffel which has croffed Harrifon's bar in James river; it keeps eight or nine feet water a mile or two higher up to Fisher's bar, and four feet on that and upwards to Peterburgh, where all navigation ceafes.

James river telt affords harbour for veffels of any fize at Hampton road, but not in fafety through the whole winter; and there is navigable water for them as far as Mulberry Ifland. A forty gun fhip goes to James-town, and lightening herself, may pals to Harrifon's bar, on which there is only fifteen feet water. Veffels of two hundred and fifty tons may go to Warwick; thofe of one hundred and twenty-five go to Rocket's, a mile below Richmona; from thence is about feven feet water to Richmond; and about the center of the town, four feet and a half, where the navigation is interrupted by falls, which in a courfe of fix miles defcend about eighty feet perpendicular: above these it is refumed in canoes and battcaux, and is profecuted fafely and advantageouly to within ten miles of the Blue Ridge; and even through the Blue Ridge, a ton weight has been brought and the expenfe would not be great, when compared with its object, to open a tolerable navigation up Jackfon's river and Carpenter's creek, to within twenty-five miles of Howard's creek of Green Briar, both of which have then water enough to float veffels into the Great Kanhawa. In fome future flate of population, it is pollible that its navigation may also be made to interl ck with that of Potomack, and through that to communicate by a fhort portage with the Ohio. It is to be noted, that this river is called in the maps James river, only to its confluence with the Rivanna; thence to the Blue Ridge it is called the Fluvanna ; and thence to its fource, Jackfon's river. But in common fpeech it is called James river to its fource.

:

The Rivanna, a branch of James river, is navigable for canoes and batteaux to its interfection with the fouth-west mountains which is about twentytwo miles; and may eafily be opened to navigation through those mountains, to its fork above Charlottefville.

York river, at York-town, affords the best harbour in the State for veffels of the largest fize. The river there narrows to the width of a mile, and is contained within very high banks, clofe under which the veffets may ride. It holds four fathom water at high tide for twenty-five miles above York, to the mouth of Poropotank, where the river is a mile and a half wide, and the channel only feventy-five fathom, and pafling under a high bank. Arthe confluence of Pamunkey and Mattapony it is reduced to three fathom depth, which continues up Pamunkey to Cumberland, where the width is one hundred yards, and up Mattapony to whithin two miles of Frazier's ferry, where it becomes two and a half fathom deep, and holds that about five miles. Pamunkey is then capable of navigation for loaded flats, to Brockman's bridge,

No. 27.