When they come to one of those flat rocks on the side of the hill where the descent is steep, they take off six or eight pair of horses, and attach them behind the wagon, and lash them up hill, while one or two pair of horses in front have to drag the wagon and its load and six or eight pair of horses behind it, backwards.
"I give you this history by way of comment on Dr.Franklin's famous argument against a mixed government.

That great man ought not to have quoted this as a New England custom, because it was an English practice before New England existed, and is a happy illustration of the necessity of a balanced government.
"And since I have mentioned Dr.Franklin, I will relate another fact which I had from his mouth.

When he lived at Passy, a new quarry of stone was opened in the garden of Mr.Ray de Chaumont, and, at the depth of twenty feet, was found among the rocks a shark's tooth, in perfect preservation, which I suppose my Portland friend would account for as he did for his conger eel, though the tooth was not petrified." Thus, my memoir was the cause of the expression of opinions and facts from distinguished individuals, which possess an interest distinct from the bearing of such opinions on geology.
Mr.Carter, who has just transferred the publication of the _Statesman_ from Albany to New York, writes (Jan.

10th) from the latter city, urging me to hasten my return to that city.
_Poem on the theme of the Aborigines_.--"I have," he remarks, "read Ontwa, the Indian poem you spoke to me about last summer.

The notes by Governor Cass are extremely interesting, and written in a superior style.