stance, erroneous conclusions have been drawn as to the identity of species on the European and American continents.

"The combination of trees in forests is an important point in the physiognomy of a country. The forests of Europe are much more uniform in this respect than those of this country, from the greater variety of allied species here. Thus, in Central Europe, there are but two species of oak, and no walnut whatever; the so-called English walnut being a Persian tree. In the United States there are over forty species of oak; in Massachusetts there are eleven kinds of oak, and six of walnuts and hickories.

"Another important point is the distribution of water. We have crossed to-day three distinct basins, having no connection with each other, viz., that of the Atlantic coast, the Connecticut valley, and the valley of the Hudson. It would be interesting to examine how far each of these basins has a peculiar fauna."

June 16th.-At half-past seven this morning, after not a little worry, owing to the very defective arrangements at the railroad station, we set off in the cars for Buffalo. Weather hot, but as our course lay up the flat valley of the Mohawk, there were no more cuts, and the dust was not so troublesome as yesterday. We passed through level, well-cultivated fields, spotted in many places with the bright yellow flower of the mustard, just in blossom.

This rich alluvial plain very early attracted settlers. Part of it bears the name of the German Flats, from its first inhabitants, and the names of the towns along the route, such as Manheim, Palatine Bridge, &c., indicate an immigration from the Palatinate. The Dutch and German blood is still predominant here, as is shown by the names on the signs, the neat little red-painted houses, with open loggias and drive-ways, and the huge barns of this race of thrifty cultivators.

After an uncomfortable night in the cars, we found ourselves at daylight surrounded by the forest. Huge unbranching trunks, clear of undergrowth; occasional clearings, with log houses, and the corn or potatoes scattered among charred stumps. From Utica, westward, along this road, one is constantly reminded of the West. The land here, too, is much of it uncleared, cheap, and fertile; on the other hand, aguish. In short, the advantages and disadvantages are those of the West. From the abundance of pigs and children,

and the untidy look of the cabins, one conjectures the settlers are mostly the former laborers on the railroad, or at least countrymen of theirs.

June 17th.-At 8 A. M. we arrived in Buffalo, after about thirtysix hours' actual travelling from Boston, a distance of 527 miles. We had previously ascertained that it would be advisable to wait until the 19th before embarking for Mackinaw, in order to give time for procuring stores, tents, &c., and had determined to spend the intervening time at Niagara. On our arrival we found that the morning train for Niagara was to start at 9; so leaving some of the party to make arrangements, the rest of us took the cars and arrived at the Falls about 11 o'clock.

The road thither presents a continuation of the same noble forest of "first growth," but often broken by clearings. Our European friends were much struck by the contrast with the region we had left only yesterday. A large proportion of the trees were elms, not the plume-like spreading elms of our avenues, but a straight, unbroken, scarcely tapering trunk of sixty feet height, then abruptly expanding with sturdy limbs at right angles into a round head.

In the afternoon we crossed to the Canada side. The museum here contains an interesting collection of the birds and fishes of the neighborhood. A camera-obscura, the field of which is some twenty feet in diameter, placed on the edge of the cliff, gives extensive views of the Falls. I was struck with the disproportionally high tone of the sky in the landscapes it presented. The effect was something like the glow that comes on after sunset.

In the evening we assembled in a hall leading to our lodgings at the Cataract Hotel, (in that part of the building which overlooks the Rapids,) and Prof. Agassiz, having displayed his portable blackboard, (consisting of a piece of painted linen on a roller,) gave us the following sketch of the region passed over since his last lec

ture:

"East of Lake Ontario we have granitic formations, which were doubtless islands in the ancient time, on whose shores the later formations accumulated, by deposition from the water, in successive beds, the later covering the more ancient, except where these had in the meanwhile been elevated from the primeval ocean along the shores of the high land already dry. Thus the

older deposits form strips around the granitic regions; the beds of sedimentary rock becoming continually narrower with the rise of the continent and the consequent contraction of the ocean. From this time there were three basins, viz., the coal basin of Pennsylvania, that of the West, and that of Michigan. It is evident that the north-east region was the earliest dry; to the westward all the formations are more recent.

"Wherever the water escaped towards the north-east, we have waterfalls over precipices; for instance, here at Niagara. Where depressions have been formed in soft rocks between harder ones, we have valleys, as that of the Mohawk.

acter.

"It is a remarkable fact, that the leading changes in the geological features of North America take place in a north and south direction. Thus the fissures forming the beds of the rivers, as those of the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the rivers of Maine. In the Old World, on the contrary, most formations are parallel to the Equator, as the Alps, the Atlas, and the Himalayas. Only two mountain chains run north and south, the Ural, and the Scandinavian mountains, which are northern in their charThe longitudinal direction of fissures in this country is well shown by the New York State Survey. The lakes of Western New York lie north and south. So also Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. These longitudinal fissures are sometimes traversed by others at right angles, as in the instances of Lake Superior and Lake Erie. These fissures must have been formed by the upheaval of the continent, the layers of already solidified rock being lifted up or depressed. Rivers must have existed already in those early ages, as is shown for instance in the ancient channel of the Niagara, (above the Whirlpool,) which is filled with drift not found in the present channel.

"All the formations before spoken of are more ancient than the coal, yet many of them consist of soft clay. The hardness of rock is thus no proof or criterion of its age. These soft slates are nowhere more developed than in New York, and nowhere have they been more carefully examined and described. These details of facts are to be looked upon in the same light as a mere list of dates or occurrences in history. But geology aims at a full illustration of all these details.

"Passing to the vegetable kingdom :-As soon as we left the metamorphic rocks of Massachusetts, vegetation became much richer, because of the limestone and marl deposits. It is remarkable how limestone favors not only vegetable, but also animal life. In Switzerland, where the country is divided between the limestone and marl region of the Jura, the sandstone of the plain, and the granitic formations of the Alps, the cattle of the latter region are not more than one-third of the size of those of the former.

"Among the plants peculiar to this country, are many in whose analogues in Europe many interesting chemical products have been traced. Very little has been done here in organic chemistry, and it is a matter which might well occupy one's lifetime, to ascertain the chemical relations of analogous plants of the two countries, (for instance, Angelica, wal nut, &c.) Tracing the forest vegetation, we have seen lately very few pines, but principally maples, elms, and ashes; and here at Niagara, almost exclusively elm, beech, hickory, ash, and arborvitae, which is very rare in Massachusetts."

June 18th.-We met again this morning in the hall, where Prof. Agassiz and prepared Harams Mustrating the geology of Niagara, which he explaine i uslovs

The surface off he si, both in the Canadian and on the American side, is overed with paved. "onraining issis in great numbers, and stones of all sizes, ferm that e allenarge bowlers. This stratum is new disunited by he ena i te ve vas rrmally entrus, as is shown by the fosta, mi 7te et tar m the intermediate islands, where it has escaped *te eta te maier I & sill present. The fossils form a bed extending ozantir o te mer bufs, but not beyond; they ecur in great numers, orriz te sure of the soil everywhere, and retributing to the at xmance of the egration. These bussil shells, deditless, inhalired te werin tomer ines, when its bei was the mass of gravel, &c., on which ter 7 THE. he Luf wing at hat me its banks. They are of species De te wer of the genera Tuo, Cyrus, Mumia, Frind me, and Fence ve vacine that is bed was formed when the river Dan te mode wilev, a valen met mad a breadth varying Som one to eren mis mi wereng tree or inur. Frobably at that time it resemlest he sent 3.mos trove at Siami Aterwaris, fom the accelera in the treeL. WIES TOOL he mening of issures which lowered *te ori of Lake Ste. te to present manneis were cut lewa w the ziek, md te wyer Tanzed D is Tesent level.”

terris ve vent war w Goat Island, and blessed orce more Le poi sense Lat has kent his iace misturbed. The decaying Vol Lima of he amp voods here aferied an abundance of Teens O vir entoma S. The variery of trees and shrubs on tesis is remarkable. On the inde siet (only a few feet connected by a boordge with the well-beuse. Frċ

Agassiz pointed out seven different kinds of trees, viz., arbor vitæ, red cedar, hemlock, bass-wood, chestnut-oak, white pine, and maple. The Professor also pointed out the shell-bed of which he had spoken. The shells are very numerous, as may be readily seen in the crumbling bank on the outer side of the island. At the upper end of the island, vast numbers of delicate ephemera-like insects, with long filaments, were fluttering about, particularly under the trees.

Some of us had never seen the Falls, and none of us at this season of the year, when the mass of water is greatest. Coming at length in sight of them, we were struck with the thickness of the sheet at the pitch of the English Fall, particularly in that part of it between the apex of the Horseshoe and the middle of the cataract on the Canadian side. It bends over in a polished, unbroken mass, as of green glass over white. Some one said the average depth of water at that point was about fourteen feet. Other remarkable features are, the distance to which the water is projected, the rocket-like bursts of spray from the falling sheet, and the sudden spouting up of the mist at intervals from below, as if shot from a cannon. These sheets of mist rise high above the Fall, and move slowly down the river in perpendicular columns, like a procession of ghosts. On the whole, the difference of season is in favor of that when the river is lowest, the features of the scene, particularly the Rapids outside of Goat Island, being rather obscured than improved by a greater depth of

water.

After tea, the following remarks on what we had seen were made by Prof. Agassiz :

"If we follow the chasm cut by the Niagara River, down to Lake Ontario, we have a succession of strata coming to the surface, of various character and formation. These strata dip S. W. or towards the Falls, so that in their progress to their present position, the Falls have had a bed of very various consistency. Some of these strata, as the shales and the Medina sandstone, are very soft, and when they formed the edge of the Fall, it probably had the character of rapids. But wherever it comes to an edge of hard rock, with softer beds below, the softer beds, crumbling away, leave a

The "Horseshoe" at present is a triangle, but it has been a nearly regular semicircle within the recollection of persons now living.