The following are the observations of young Isaac Weld, of Dublin. He was on his way from Philadelphia, and stopped at the Falls of the Potomac: “From hence I followed the course of the river downwards as far as George Town, where I again crossed it, and after passing through the Federal city, proceeded along the Maryland shore of the river to Piscatoway, and afterwards to Port Tobacco. In the neighborhood of Piscatoway there are several very fine views of the Virginian shore; Mount Vernon in particular appears to great advantage. From Port Tobacco to Hoe’s Ferry on the Potowmac River, the country is flat and sandy and wears a most dreary aspect. Nothing is to be seen here for miles together but extensive plains that have been worn out by the culture of tobacco, overgrown with yellow sedge and interspersed with groves of pine and cedar trees, the dark green colour of which forms a curious contrast with the yellow of the sedge. In the midst of these plains are the remains of several good houses. “Such a number of roads in different directions cross over these flats, upon none of which is there anything like a direction post, and the face of a human being is so rarely met with that it is scarcely possible for a traveler to find out the direct way at once. Instead of twelve miles, the distance by the straight road from Port Tobacco to the ferry, my horse had certainly traveled twice the number before we got there. After having waited for two hours and a half for my breakfast, the most I could procure was two eggs, a pint of milk and a bit of cake bread, scarcely as big as my hand. “After having got into the ferry-boat the man of the house, as if conscious that he had given me very bad fare, told me that there was a bank of oysters in the river, close to which it was necessary to pass, and that if I chose to stop the men would procure abundance of them for me. The curiosity of getting oysters in fresh water tempted me to stop, and the men got near a bushel of them in a very few minutes. These oysters are extremely good when cooked, but very disagreeable eaten raw; indeed all the oysters found in America are, in the opinion of most Europeans, very indifferent and tasteless when raw. The Americans, on their part, find still greater fault with our oysters, which, they say, are not fit to be eaten in any shape, because they taste of copper.