_November 21._ I made an excursion into the woods. A few deer and wild turkeys remain. Squirrels are very numerous. They are of the grey and black varieties: also of the striped or ground species. The two former are much larger than the English squirrel, and are ate in America. Some people esteem them as equal to chickens. Quails are abundant: they are smaller than partridges, and are so tame that the report of a gun, and the destruction of a part of the covey, do not always make them take flight. It is a common practice to drive whole families of them into nets. Rabbits are not plentiful; they lodge in the hollows of fallen trees; and are not understood to burrow in the ground. The only fox that I have seen, was of a small size, and of a light grey colour. It does not require a thick population to exterminate bears, deer, and turkeys. The beaver is destroyed by the first hunters who invade the forests; and the buffalo retreats into more remote solitudes, almost on the first approach of white men. The woods are principally composed of _Quercus_, (Alba,) _White Oak_; (Tinctoria,) _Black Oak_; (Coccinea,) _Red Oak_; (Primus accuminata,) _Chesnut Oak_; _Platanus_, (Occidentalis,) _Sycamore_; _Fagus_, (Ferruginea,) _Beech_; _Acer_, (Saccharinum,) {97} _Maple_, (sugar tree;) _Fraxinus_, (Americana,) _Ash_; _Juglans_, (Nigra,) _Walnut_, (black;) (Alba ovata,) _Hickory_; _Laurus_, (Sassafras,) _Sassafras_; _Cornus_ (Florida,) _Dogwood_; _Fagus_, (Castanea,) _Chesnut_; _Liriodendron_, (Tulipefera,) _Poplar_; _Ulmus_, (Americana,) _Slippery Elm_; (Mollifolia,) _White Elm_; _Vitus_, (Labrusea,) _Fall Grape_; (Serotina,) _Winter Grape_. Amongst the shrubs, or underwood, the following may be noticed as prevalent: _Rhus_, (Glabrum,) _Sumach_; _Laurus_, (Benzoin,) _Spicewood_; _Rubus_, (Fructicosus,) _Blackberry_; (Hispidus,) _Running do._; _Annona_, (Glabra,) _Papaw_. The prevalent strata are of slate clay, bituminous shale, and sandstone. Coal is not known, and probably has not been sought after. Rolled pieces of the latter mineral, and of granite, gneiss, quartz, and flint slate, are mixed with the sandy gravel of the streams. Dr. Drake[61] has pointed out a situation in this State, where large detached masses of granite lie over strata of secondary limestone; and has conjectured that they have been brought from the primitive country north of the lakes, by the agency of water passing from north to south. This hypothesis is countenanced by the vast quantities of alluvial soil which lie far above the level of the present river, and by the almost total absence of primitive rocks, between the eastern side of the Allegany ridge, and the sources of the Missouri. The only exception known is the tract between Lakes Ontario and Champlain,--a field so narrow that we cannot view it as the probable source of fragments profusely scattered over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.