By birth, the subject of this notice was an Irishman; but his affections, his sympathies, his prejudices, were all on the side of his adopted country, which in his eyes had no equal in the world. It was amusing to hear him speak of his visits to Europe: to England only did he cede the right even of comparison; and on the subject of our wines he was quite a sceptic, although he had dined at the best tables, and spoke most warmly of his entertainers. He protested against the wines of England being at all comparable to those of America; nay, I remember he was heretic enough to deny us the supremacy of a rump-steak, and raised his voice against the majesty of Dolly's. I would not have so much heeded his advancing this heterodox doctrine before Americans, had he not at the same time come well prepared to prove himself qualified to give judgment by producing, hot-and-hot, a steak that even I was compelled to admit might have been entered as A.1. at Lloyd's. They possess in the States generally as good beef as need be desired; but, strange to say, with this exception, I have rarely met a tolerable steak, according to our idea of the matter; the secret of which is, the meat is not kept, is full of blood and fibre, and, although excellent of flavour, is not easily disposed of by those who reject the bolting principle, and desire to adhere to the more toilsome plan of mastication. _29th._--Quitted the pleasant banks of the Gunpowder, and, with my old sporting companion, returned to Baltimore. Same day, embarked on board steam-boat for an excursion as far as Petersburg, Virginia, _via_ Norfolk; we had a fine day and night whilst steering through this great bay of the Chesapeake: went to bed late in consequence. _30th._--Coming out of the cabin this morning at an early hour, found we were off the old fort, Point Comfort. Fort Calhoun, a work on which enormous outlay has been made, is not yet completed: the great difficulty appears to be the unstable nature of the bank on which the works are placed: upon the elevation of the _terre-plain_ alone, nearly four thousand cubic yards of sand have been employed; all of which is shipped from the main, and deposited within the fort. It is computed that, by the time this place is fitted to receive a garrison, one hundred thousand tons of stone will have been expended on the works and breakwater which are required as an exterior support to the pressure from within.