A SECOND VISIT

TO


THE UNITED STATES

OF

NORTH AMERICA.

============

BY CHARLES LYELL,  F.R.S.

PRESIDENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY" AND "TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA."

============


IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOLUME I.

NEW YORK:

Wiley and Putnam.

1849.


This electronic edition prepared by Dr. David C. Bossard
from original documents in the library holdings of Dartmouth College.

July, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 by David C. Bossard.



CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

CHAPTER I.
 013  014  015  016  017  018  019  020  021  022  023  024  025  026

Voyage from Liverpool to Halifax. -- Gale. -- Iceberg. -- Drift Ice and Gulf Stream. -- Coast of Newfoundland. -- Engine room of Steamer. -- Conversations on Coolies in the West Indies. -- Halifax. -- News of Judge Story's Death. -- Boston. -- Success of the Mail Steam Packeta. -- Custom House Officers.

CHAPTER IL
 027  028  029  030  031  032  033  034  035  036  037  038  039  040

Boston. -- Horticultural Show in Faiieuil Hal. -- Review of Militia. -- Peace Association. -- Excursion to the White Mountains. -- Railway Traveling. -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire. -- Geology, Fossils in Drift. -- Submarine forest. -- Wild Plants: Asters, Solidagos, Poison Ivy. -- Swallows. -- Glacial Grooves.Rooks transported by Antarctic Ice. -- Body of a Whale discovered by an American Trader in an Iceberg.

CHAPTER III.
 041  042  043  044  045  046  047  048  049  050  051  052

Portland in Maine. -- Kennebec River. -- Timber Trade. -- Fossil Shells at Gardiner. -- Augusta the Capital of Maine. -- Legal Profession: Advocates and Attorneys. -- Equality of Sects. -- Religious Toleration. -- Calvinistic Theology. -- Day of Doom.


CHAPTER IV.
 053  054  055  056  057  058  059  060  061  062  063  064  065

Journey from Portland to the White Mountains. -- Plants. -- Churches, School-hobes. -- Temperance Hotel. -- Intelligence of New-Englanders. -- Climate, Consumption. -- Couway. -- Division of Iroperty. -- Every Man his own Tenant. -- Autumnal Tints. -- Bears hybernating. -- Willey Slide. -- Theory of Scratches and Grooves on Rocks. -- Scenery.Waterfalls and Ravines. -- The Notch. -- Forest Trees and Mountain Plants. -- Fabyan's Hotel. -- Echo.

CHAPTER V.
 066  067  068  069  070  071  072  073  074  075  076  077  078  079

Ascent of Mount Washington. -- Mr. Oakes. -- Zones of distinct Vegetation. -- Belt of Dwarf Firs. -- Bald Region and Arctic Flora on Summit. -- View from Summit. -- Migration of Plants from Arctic Regions. -- Change of Climate since Glacial Period. -- Granitic Rocks of White Mountains. -- Franconia Notch. -- Revival at Bethlehem. -- Millerite Movement. -- The Tabernacle at Boston. -- Mormons. -- Remarks on New England Fanaticism.

CHAPTER VI.
 080  081  082  083  084  085  086  087  088  089  090  091  092

Social Equality. -- Position of Servants. -- War with England. -- Coalition of Northern Democrats, and Southern Slave-owners. -- Ostracism of Wealth. -- Legislators paid. -- Envy in a Democracy. -- Politics of the Country and the City. -- Pledges at Elections. -- Universal Suffrage. -- Adventure in a Stage Coach. -- Return from the White Mountains. -- Plymouth in New Hampshire. -- Congregational and Methodist Churches. -- Theological Discussion of Fellow Travelers. -- Ternperance Movement. -- Post-Office Abuses. -- Lowell Factories.

CHAPTER VII.
 093  094  095  096  097  098  099  100  101  102  103  104  105  106

Plymouth, Massachusetts. -- Plymouth Beach. -- Marine Shells. -- Quicksand. -- Names of Pilgrim Fathers. -- Forefathers' Day. -- Pilgrim Relics. -- Their Authenticity considered. -- Decoy Pond. -- A Barn Traveling. -- Excursion to Salem. -- Museum. -- Warrants for Execution of Witches. -- Causes of the Persecution. -- Conversation with Colored Abolitionists. -- Comparative Capacity of White and Negro Races. -- Half-Breeds and Hybrid Intellects.

CHAPTER VIII.
 107  108  109  110  111  112  113  114  115  116  117  118  119  120  121

Pretended Fossil Sea Serpent, or Zeuglodon, from Alabama. -- Recent Appearance of a Sea Serpent in Gulf of St. Lawrence. -- In Norway in 1845. -- Near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, 1817. -- American Descriptions. -- Conjectures as to Nature of the Animal. -- Sea Snake stranded in the Orkneys proved to be a Shark. -- Dr. Barclay's Memoir. -- Sir Everard Home's Opinion. -- Sea Serpent of Hebrides, 1808. -- Reasons for concluding that Pontoppidan's Sea Snake was a Basking Shark. -- Captain M'Quhae's Sea Serpent.

CHAPTER IX.
 122  123  124  125  126  127  128  129  130  131  132

Boston. -- No Private Lodgings. -- Boarding-houses. -- Hotels. -- Effects of the Climate on Health. -- Large Fortunes. -- Style of Living. -- Servants. -- Carriages. -- Education of Ladies. -- Marriages. -- Professional Incomes. -- Protectionist Doctrines. -- Peculiarities of Language. -- Literary Tastes. -- Cost of Living. -- Alarms of Fire.

CHAPTER X.
 133  134  135  136  137  138  139  140

Boston. -- Blind Asylum and Laura Bridgeman. -- Respect for Freedom of Conscience. -- Cemetery of Mount Auburn. -- Channing's Cenotaph. -- Episcopal Churches. -- Unitarian Congregations. -- Erninent Preachers. -- Progress of Unitarians why slow. -- Their works reprinted in England. -- Nothingarians. -- Episcopalian Asceticism. -- Separation of Religion and Politics.

CHAPTER XI.
 141  142  143  144  145  146  147  148  149  150  151  152  153  154

Boston. -- Whig Caucus. -- Speech of Mr. Wester. -- Polltica in Maeachusetts. -- flection of Governor and Representatives. -- Thanksgiving Day and Governor's Proclamation. -- Absence of Pauperism. -- Irish Repeal Meeting. -- New England Sympathizer. -- Visit to a free School. -- State Education. -- Pay and Social Rank of Teachers. -- Importance of the Profession. -- Rapid Progress and Effects of ducational Movement. -- Popular Lectures. -- Lending Libraries.

CHAPTER XII.
 155  156  157  158  159  160  161  162  163  164  165  166  167  168  169  170  171  172  173  174  175  176  177

Boston, Popular Education, continued. -- Patronage of Universities and Science. -- Channing on Milton. -- Milton's Scheme of teaching the Naira1 Sciences. -- New England Free Schools. -- Their Origin. -- First Puritan Settlers not illiterate. -- Sincerity of their Religious Faith. -- Schools founded in Seventeenth Century in Massachusetts. -- Discouraged in Virginia. -- Sir W. Berkeley's Letter.Pastor Robinson's Views of Progress in Religion. -- Organization of Congregational Churches. -- No Penalties for Dissent. -- Provision made for future Variations in Creeds. -- Mode of working exemplified. -- Impossibility of concealing Truths relating to Religion from an educated Population. -- Gain to the Higher Classes, especially the Clergy. -- New Theological College. -- The Lower Orders not rendered indolent, discontented, or irreligious by Education. -- Peculiar Stimulus to Popular Instruction in the United States.

CHAPTER XIII.
 178  179  180  181  182  183  184  185  186  187  188  189  190

Leaving Boston for the South. -- Railway Stove. -- Fall of Snow. -- New Haven, and Visit to Professor Silliman. -- New York. -- Improvements in the City. -- Croton Waterworks. -- Fountains. -- Recent Conflagration. -- New Churches. -- Trinity Church. -- News from Europe of Converts to Rome. -- Reaction against Tractarians. -- Electric Telegraph, its Progres in America. -- Morse and Wheatstone. -- 11,000 Schools in New York for Secular instruction. -- Absence of Smoke. -- Irish Voters. -- Nativism.

CHAPTER XIV.
 191  192  193  194  195  196  197  198  199  200  201  202  203  204

New York to Philadelphia. -- Scenery in New Jersey. -- War about Oregon. -- Protectionist Theories. -- Income Tax and Repudiation. -- Recriminations against British Aggrandizement. -- Irish Quarter and fraudulent Votes. -- Washington. -- -Congress and Annexation of Texas. -- General Cass for War. -- Winthrop for Arbitration. -- Inflated Eloquence. -- Supreme Court. -- Slavery in District of Columbia. -- Museum, Collection of Corals. -- Sculpture from Palenque. -- Conversations with Mr. Fox. -- A Residence at Washington not favorable to a just Estimate of the United States. -- False Position of Foreign Diplomatists.


CHAPTER XV.
 205  206  207  208  209  210  211  212  213  214  215  216  217

Washington to Richmond. -- Legislature of Virginia in Session. -- Substitution of White for Slave Labor. -- Progress of Negro Instruction.Slave-dealers. -- Kindness to Negroes-Coa1 of Oolitic Period near Richmond. -- Visit to the Mines. -- Upright Fossil Trees. -- Deep Shafts, and Thickness of Coal Seams. -- Explosion of Gas. -- Natural Coke. -- Resemblance of the more modern Coal-measures to old Carboniferous Rocks. -- Whites working with free Negroes in the Mines.

CHAPTER XVI.
 218  219  220  221  222  223  224  225  226  227  228  229

Journey through North Carolina. -- Wilmington. -- Recent Fire and Passports for Slaves. -- Cape Fear River and Smithfield. -- Spanish Moss, and Uses of. -- Charleston. -- --Anti-Negro Feeling. -- Passage from Mulattoes to Whites. -- Law against importing free Blacks. -- Dispute with Massachusetts. -- Society in Charleston. -- Governesses. -- War-Panic. -- Anti-English Feeling caused by Newspaper Press. -- National Arbitration of the Americans. -- Dr. Bachman's Zoology. -- Geographical Representation of Species. -- Rattle-Snakes. -- Turkey Buzzards.

CHAPTER XVII.
 230  231  232  233  234  235  236  237  238  239

Charleston to Savannah. -- Beaufort River, or Inland Navigation in South Carolina. -- Slave Stealer. -- Cockspur Island. -- Raid growth of Oysters. -- Eagle caught by Oyster. -- Excursion from Savannah to Skiddaway Island. -- Megatherium and Mylodon. -- Cabbage Palms, or tree Palmettos. -- Deceptive Appearance of Submarine Forest. -- Alligators swallowing Flints. -- Their Tenacity of Life when decapitated. -- Grove of Live Oaks. -- Slaves taken to Free States.

CHAPTER XVIII.
 240  241  242  243  244  245  246  247  248  249  250  251  252  253  254  255
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Savannah to Darien. -- Anti-Slavery Meetings discussed. -- War with England. -- Landing at Darien. -- Crackers. -- Scenery on Altamaha River. -- Negro Boatmen singing. -- Marsh Blackbird in Rice Grounds. -- Hospitality of Southern Planters. -- New Clearing and Natural Rotation of Trees. -- Birds.Shrike and Kingfisher. -- Excursion to St. Simon's island. -- Butler's Island and Negroes. -- Stumps of Trees in Salt Marshes proving Subsidence of Land. -- Alligator seen. -- Their Nests. and Habits. -- Their Fear of Porpoises.. -- Indian Shell Mound on St. Simon's Island. -- Date-palm, Orange, Lemon, and Olive Trees. -- Hurricanes. -- Visit to outermost Barrier Island. -- Sea Shells on Beach.NegroMaid-Servants.
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CHAPTER XIX.
 256  257  258  259  260  261  262  263  264  265  266  267  268  269  270  271  272  273

Rivers made turbid by the Clearing of Forests. -- Land rising in successive Terraces. -- Origin of these. -- Bones of extinct Quadrupeds in Lower Terrace. -- Associated Marine Shells-Diging of Brunswick Canal. -- Extinction of Megatherium and its Contempories. -- Dying out of rare Species. -- Gordotha Pubescens. -- Life of Southern Planters. -- --Negroes on a Rice Plantation. -- Black Children. -- Separate Negro Houses. -- Work exacted. -- Hospital for Negroes. -- Food and Dress. -- Black Driver. -- Prevention of Crimes. -- African Tom. -- Progress of Negroes in Civilization. -- Conversions to Christianity. -- Episcopalian, Baptist, and Methodist Missionaries. -- Amalgamation and Mixture of Races.