and musquito 2.

The former, nearly the size of a common louse, conceals itself under the skin, and clings closely to the flesh, from which it is not easily extricated. Its colour is reddish, which becomes paler when the insect is satiated with blood. The bite excites considerable inflammation, and, in the eye or ear, might be attended with dangerous consequences. The bite of the musquito also creates inflammation, and it annoys the ear of the pensive or studious by its unpleasant buzz.

OF THE COMMERCE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The district of Columbia, situated in the midst of a fertile country, at nearly an equal distance from the northern and southern frontiers, and intersected by navigable rivers, will necessarily become a place of great commerce. We have already given some account

Culex pipiens, L.

of that of Georgetown and Alexandria (the two successful rivals of Washington city), with the exception of the indigenal trade, which we shall briefly notice before we enter upon an examination of the commercial communication with the western countries. This trade, under the direction of the government, is superintended by an agent', who has an office at Georgetown, where instructions are given concerning the sales of furs, peltries, and other Indian articles received from the trading houses on the Missouri, Mississippi, and the Lakes. These consist of the skins of beaver, deer, elk, buffaloe, tallow, candles, and Indian mats. In exchange, the Indians receive shirts, coarse cloths, silver ornaments, ammunition and guns, kettles of tin and sheet iron, traps for catching beaver and other animals, jews-harps, rings, and trinkets. A hundred thousand dollars a year are employed in this trade.

For Fort Osage, on the Missouri, distant two thousand miles, the goods are transported in the following manner :

1st.-Up the Potomac two hundred and

1 General Mason.

twenty miles; then overland to Brownsville, on the Monongahela, a branch of the Ohio, twenty-five miles; thence down the Ohio to its junction with the Mississippi; up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and afterwards by the Missouri to Fort Osage.

2d.-For Lake Erie, the goods are sent from Georgetown to Cincinnati on the Ohio, as above mentioned; thence up the great Miami of the Ohio to its farthest point of navigation at Lorimer's Store, thence overland thirty-five miles to Fort Wayne, on the Miami of the Lakes; and down this river to Lake Erie.

3d. For the Mobile, the goods are sent from Georgetown to Brownsville as above; thence down the Monongahela and the Ohio, to the mouth of the Tenessee river; up this river to the Mussel Shoals, or to Colbert's Ferry; thence overland to the Tom Bigbee, at the junction of a branch of that river named the Yibby, about a hundred and twenty miles; thence down the Tom Bigbee to the Mobile 1.

'These particulars were obligingly communicated to us by the Superintendant of the Indian trade.

TRADE OF THE WESTERN COUNTRIES.

The Potomac river, on account of its proximity to the western waters, the facility of its navigation for ships of burthen to the distance of two hundred miles from the ocean, and the mildness of the climate of those regions which it traverses, will probably become the great channel of trade of the country west of Lake Erie, of the Ohio, and upper parts of the Mississippi. A communication with Lake Erie may be formed by means of the Cayahaga, or Cayuga river, the Big Beaver, Ohio, Yohogany, or by the Monongahela and Cheat river, and the Potomac. By this channel there are but two portages-the first between Cayahaga and Beaver; the second, from the waters of the Ohio to the Potomac, a distance which, when the navigation is improved, will not probably be more than fifteen or twenty miles.

The rivers Cayahaga and Beaver issue from lakes situated near each other in a flat country, and their waters may be easily united1.

Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.

The government is now executing a road from Cumberland on the Potomac, to Brownsville, or Red Stone Old Fort on the Monongahela, seventy-two miles in length, which will be of great utility'. In the direction of the new road from Cumberland to Wheeling, the distance between the navigable waters of the Monongahela and Potomac is not more than seventy miles. It was determined by the American Congress, that the ascent of this road should no where make an angle with the horizon of more than five degrees; and this has been found practicable, though the ridge of mountains at Cumberland is two thousand two hundred and sixty feet above the bed of the Potomac; and at Brownsville, two thousand one hundred and fifty feet above that of the Monongahela.

The public road, which connects the Potomac with the western country, will become the channel of a portion of that trade monopolised by the British North-West Company, or carried on by the St. Lawrence, and across the Lakes to the Illinois river. It is a curious

1

See Mease's Geological Account of the United States.