_9th_--I awoke about sunrise and ascended our deck; there had been another heavy frost. We were just passing Bull fort, and had entered the _Black Snake_, so called from the serpentine course of the canal. We have passed, during the night, Whitesborough, Oriskany, and Rome, three mushroom villages, which, with many others, have sprung up as with the magic of Aladdin's lamp. We had now before us, with a few exceptions, one uninterrupted white pine and hemlock swamp for something like 20 miles, and really it looks to me as if you might cut and haul wood and logs to eternity without exhausting the supply. The country looks perfectly level, and in many places judging from the white clover and blue-grass which cover the shores of the canal, must be fertile, though its appearance would not indicate a healthy location for man. As we approached Canistoto, which by the way is but three years old, and a considerable place, we observed the country to be settled partially on both sides, the soil being dark and deep, was thickly covered with stumps and rich grass. In the course of the last 10 miles, we have passed several squads of Onondaga and Oneida Indians carrying baskets, brooms, hunting apparatus, &c. I could not but think of their once numerous hordes, now no more, save a few scattered remnants of their wandering tribes, having scarcely a spot which they can call their own. Placing myself for a moment in their situation, it made me feel sad, and I could but exclaim with Burns, "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!" Among these numbers were frequently seen little children, and we diverted ourselves for miles together in making them run after the packet, by occasionally throwing out a cent, which made great scratching and scrabbling to see who would get it. We could not prevail on them to converse by the offer of any bribe whatever. _Extract No. 5_ As we passed Manlius, the canal runs on the North side of the high bank for near two miles, which opened to view many apparently inexhaustible quarries of plaster, which is said to be of superior quality. We also passed, soon after, Green Lake, a pretty sheet of water, which has been sounded for 400 feet without discovering bottom.