I have in my possession a manuscript of about six hundred pages, entitled "Lavall's Tour across the American Continent, from the North Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, in a more southern Latitude than any yet attempted: performed in the Years 1809 and 1810." A map of the route accompanies it. The accounts of the country, and of the Indian tribes, correspond with what we learn from other sources; and gentlemen of information in Indian affairs believe the work to be the genuine production of a person who has been over the ground described. According to this work, Lavall was a native of Philadelphia, and born in 1774. His father, who was a royalist, settled in Upper Canada, and engaged in the fur trade. In 1809 Baptist Vincent Lavall visited England to receive a legacy left him by a relation. Here he was persuaded to join a vessel fitting out for the purpose of trading in the North Pacific. It was a schooner of about two hundred tons, called the Sea Otter, commanded by Captain Niles. This vessel was lost upon the coast of Oregon, on the 15th of August, 1809, whilst Lavall and three of the crew were on shore hunting. They made their way across the continent to New Orleans. Can any information be furnished from any custom-house in England as to the Sea Otter, Captain Niles? WILLIAM DUANE. Philadelphia. * * * * * GRAVES OF MICKLETON, CO. GLOUCESTER. There are three portraits engraved by Vertue, which give the pedigree of this family thus far: John Graves of York, = born 1515, ob. 1616. | | +------------------+ | ---- Graves = | +-------+ | = Richard Graves of Mickleton, Esq., = ob. 1669. | | +--------------------------+ | ---- Graves = | +--------------+ | Richard Graves of Mickleton, Esq. = ob. 1731. The title engraved on the plate states that the first Richard Graves given above, was twice {131} married, and had _six_ sons and _thirteen_ daughters. It does not give the Christian names of any of the children, and leaves it uncertain whether the Richard Graves who died in 1731 was a child of the first or second marriage. This last-mentioned Richard was an antiquary of some note, and a correspondent of Hearne, who calls him "Gravesius noster."