296

DUTCH AND INDIAN WORDS.

even in polite society in Albany, the meaning of which, an Englishman, who has never been in Holland, or been accustomed to dip into a Dutch dictionary, is unable to understand. Cookie, in the ears of a Scotchman, is as familiar as in those of an Albanian, as the name of a little light tea-cake. Cruller, (Dutch, kruller,) a twisted stripe of sweet paste of various forms, fried in lard, is unknown among us, so far as I am aware. Dough nuts are round pieces of similar paste, about the size of walnuts, similarly fried. Oly-koek (oil-cake) is a dough-nut with raisins in it, made at Yule, or New-Year’s Day. All these forms of sweet paste, baked in the oven, are common among us; the peculiarity of the cruller and dough-nut being that, like fried fish, they are cooked by immersion in boiling lard. Chowder, a favourite dish in New England-a stew of fish, pork, onions, and biscuit, often prepared by pic-nic parties, who visit the sea-shore, from fish caught at the time is not unknown at our tables, though not usually prepared after the approved New England fashion.

Such words as these are real additions to the riches of the English language, as they are names of things not previously known to the English tongue. So are the words Succatash, for unripe Indian corn and beans, boiled together whole; Hominy, for coarsely ground or broken Indian corn, boiled with water. Suppaun (New York) and Samp, (New England) both of Indian origin, and Mush, (Pennsylvania) of English derivation, are synonymous for hasty-pudding or porridge, made of fine Indian-corn meal, and two of them could be dispensed with. Since the introduction of Indian meal amongst us, the word hominy has been introduced as the proper name of porridge made from Indian meal; but when the Indians bruised their corn, they sifted out the fine flour, which they called samp, the coarse remainder they called hominy.

BUNKUM AND LOG-ROLLING.

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File with us has a slang meaning, very different from its household sense in Albany, there it is the usual name for a mop. A lady will also lament that she has got a winkelhawk in her gown; this means an angular tear, like the letter L, and is pure Dutch.

Among parliamentary words, Sam Slick has made Bunkum, or "talking to Bunkum"-making speeches at Washington, or in the State Legislature, which are intended not for the House, but for the speaker's constituents—sufficiently familiar to English readers. Logrolling, is another equally significant and useful word in parliamentary diction, derived, as I have already explained, from a practice of the lumberers. When the trees are felled and trimmed, "rolling the logs" to the rivers or brooks down which they are to be floated, as soon as the spring freshets set in, remains to be done. This being the hardest work of all, the men of several camps will unite, giving their conjoined strength to the first party on Monday, to the second on Tuesday, and so on. A like system in parliamentary matters is called log-rolling. You and your friends help me in my railroad bill, and I and my friends help you with your bank charter; or sometimes the Whigs and the Democrats, when nearly balanced, will get up a party log-rolling, agreeing that the one shall be allowed to carry through a certain measure without much opposition, provided a similar concession is granted to the other. The former variety of log-rolling is said to be very frequent in the State Legislatures. It is probably not rare either in Washington or Westminster,

I notice two peculiarities in the use of English words I have heard on the Hudson, which probably owe their origin to the connecting of German or Dutch ideas with the English sound. In New York they talk of riding in a steamboat; we say sail, which is as improper, says the New Yorker, because our river steamers have no sails.

298

RIDING IN A STEAMBOAT.

In some parts of our own island the people talk of sailing in a cart, and the German sees nothing wrong in speaking of his having experienced a severe sea-sickness, (See-krankheit,) as he came in the Diligence from Dresden to Berlin. The German reiten is usually applied to progression on the back of animal. But the Dutch use their rijden not merely as we do to riding in a carriage, but to riding on skates, and in other ways; so that to the Dutch on the Hudson is probably due the riding in steamboats.

With us the judge tries, and the lawyer conducts, pleads, or defends a cause. I met here, however, with lawyers who talked of having been so far off trying a cause, or of having tried so many causes, when they had only appeared in each as counsel in behalf of one of the parties to the suit.

CHAPTER XXIV.

New York to Philadelphia.—Red lands of New Jersey.-Peach orchards. -Short life of the peach-tree in this State.-Modes of culture of the peach orchards on different soils.-Enemies of the peach-tree.-Peachborer. The yellows, its cause and cure unknown.-Former healthiness of this tree.-Appearance of disease in 1800.-The result of exhausting cultivation.-Philadelphia, its attractions and hospitality.Girard College. The penitentiary and Philadelphia system.-Fairmount Water-works.-Relative proportions of the different religious sects.-Professor Hare.-Salt-water terrapin, a luxury at Philadelphia. -Fertilising property of the green sand.-Supposed cause of its fertilising action.-Probable presence of phosphate of lime.-Discovery of this phosphate in large quantity.-Formation of the green grains of the green sand.-Production of blue crystals of phosphate of iron.-Geological survey of Pennsylvania.-Delay of the State Legislature in publishing the results.-German population of Pennsylvania.— Their supposed un-progressing character.-Tested by the state of the common school teaching, compared with that of New York State.-Comparative prospects of the next generation in these States.—Wages and price of land.-State of agriculture in Pennsylvania.-Coloured people, their condition in Philadelphia.-Preference of white labourers from fear or choice. Their expulsion from the Atlantic borderTheir increase in the North-Western States.-Natural migration beyond human control.-Mr Lea's collection of shells.-Journey to Baltimore. Soil on the Susquehannah.-City of Baltimore, its position.-Condition and houses of the mechanics.-Diminution of the slave population in Maryland.-Free-schools in Baltimore.-State agricultural chemist.-Analysing soils on the spot.-Sources of the prosperity of Baltimore.-Large transit-trade.-Canvass-backed duck.Maryland hams and apple-toddy.-Mulatto lands.-Remarkable effects of gypsum on them.-Tertiary green sands.-Journey to Washington.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 26.-Yesterday morning I left Albany for New York by railway, stayed there overnight,

300

SOILS IN NEW JERSEY.

and came on to Philadelphia this forenoon. The distance by railroad from New York to Philadelphia is about ninety miles, and four hours is the usual time occupied in the journey.

After crossing the North River from New York to Jersey city, a flat of two miles in width extends from the river to a ridge of igneous rocks, through which the railroad is carried by a deep cutting. At Newark, (thirteen miles,) the prevailing geological and agricultural character of the State of New Jersey becomes apparent. New red sandstones, soft and crumbling, form light red sandy and marly soils, easy to till, and bearing much Indian corn, and a gently undulating but generally flat country, from which the water in many localities escapes too slowly. The snow, which two months before I had encountered in New Brunswick, and which covered the ground deeply when I left Albany yesterday morning, had gradually lessened as I approached the Atlantic, and on the shores of Long Island Sound had entirely disappeared. I was enabled, therefore, to see the naked surface of the country as if winter had not yet come on.

As we approached the Schuylkill at Trenton, the soils became less red, and thence along this river by Bristol to Philadelphia, grey gravels prevailed, and light grey sandy soils, very poor in many places, and covered with frequent unpromising orchards. The red land north of the Schuylkill is naturally a broad-leaved or hardwood region; but on these grey sands the gloomy pines usurp almost the entire surface.

New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland are famed for their orchards, and New Jersey especially for its immense produce of peaches. Orchards of ten to twenty thousand peach-trees are not uncommon in this State. Each tree yields, when in bearing, an average produce of a bushel of perfect fruit. This is sent in vast quantities