The soil is a cold argillaceous loam, unsuited to the production of the nobler grains, but susceptible of becoming, under proper culture, good grazing land, and no doubt proper for rye, oats and potatoes,--the invariable products of the whole mountain region. The botany of the wilderness proper, is confined chiefly to the two species of pine before mentioned, the hemlock pine (_Pinus Canadensis_,) and the black spruce (_Pinus Nigra_ of Lambert.) Some stately specimens of the wild cherry and scattering patches of red beach complete the list. On emerging from the wilderness, the customary variety of oak, ash maple and hickory presents itself, mingled with the cucumber tree (_Magnolia Acuminata_,) and that invaluable treasure to western housewives, the sugar tree,--announcing the neighborhood of cultivation. This dreary expanse of forest terminates on the summit of the Eastern Front Ridge, at the head of the North Fork of Patterson's creek, itself an inconsiderable tributary of Potomac, but deserving celebrity for the grandeur of its scenery. It appears to have cut its way through three lofty mountains in succession, affording a more sublime exhibition of river gap landscapes than I have witnessed in any other part of the state,--the boasted grandeur of Harper's Ferry fading into insignificance when compared with it. At the first farm east of the wilderness,--in the homely but comfortable dwelling of one of the worthy Dutch farmers, our little party enjoyed the unwonted luxury of beds, and were able to breakfast without performing for ourselves the office, which has occasioned our species to be so properly designated as "cooking animals." C. B. S. For the Southern Literary Messenger. THE CYCLOPEAN TOWERS, IN AUGUSTA COUNTY, VA. On a fine morning in September 1834, a party of which the writer was one, consisting for the most part of gentlemen who had met together in the town of Staunton from various sections of the Union, resolved on a visit to certain remarkable NATURAL STRUCTURES which lay in the neighborhood of the Augusta Springs, and about twenty miles distant from the place of their departure.