"From the Windows of the Mail Coach" A few miles beyond Trenton is Princeton, where there is an university of some extent which educates several hundred young men. The college is a tolerable good building, but the country in the vicinity of it is very beautiful. The soil betwixt these two rivers is sandy. The crops consist of rye, wheat & great corn, the former of which seemed to thrive best, and the forests were entirely of hard wood which after dark appeared all in blaze from the quantity of fire bugs whieh infested them. The roads were extremely bad & we did not arrive at Brunswick until midnight. Early next morning we embarked in another steam boat and proceeded along the marshy banks of the Raritan to its influx into the ocean. Then coasting between Staten Island & the main land we soon passed the famous watering places of Brighton & Perth Amboy, the resort of the beau monde from New York in summer. Thence hugging the coast of Staten Island we had a fine view of the villas &c on the right, the objects at a distance in the Passaic Bay on the left, and before us the harbour of New York, at the outer part of which the American Frigates President & United States were moored, with several other smaller armed vessels—and at 5 in the afternoon of the 26 we were landed on the wharves of New York. The situation of this city in point of commercial importance is surpassed by none in the United States. It is built on an island formed by the Hudson & East Rivers, the latter of which may be more properly called an arm of the sea. The island is separated from the main land by a narrow creek which runs between these two rivers about 8 miles from the city, over which there are several bridges leading into the interior. Wharves are constructed on both rivers capable of the most extensive commerce. The produce of the interior of this State as well as all the neighbouring ones finds its way to New York by means of the Hudson River, which connects itself by the Mohawk with the Lakes and these with the Mississippi, Ohio & the other great rivers beyond the mountains. The fertile wheat crops of the Genesee country descend a river of the same name into Lake Ontario, from whence, deviating again into the Oneida Lake thro the Oswego River, they are carried by land over a portage of 15 miles into the Mohawk at Rome from whence there is a regular chain by water to this city. The neighbourhood of the Connecticut River also throws into this market the abundant productions of the New England States, and the immense forests on the banks of Lake Champlain are sawed at the mills on the North River and supplies boards &c for the West India demands. The harbour admits ships of the largest size and the city is extensively provided with warehouses. The streets are very irregular, and are planted, like most of the American cities, with the Lombardy Poplar tree, which thrive well and soon tower above the roofs. The buildings are of stone and brick and although 268