I have

My own observations made many times in each day, amount to 749, without reducing them in the proportionate manner of Mr. Jefferson. submitted them under the points and heads which he has adopted:

In an average of two years, I have found our winds thus yearly prevailing; the dominant wind of each day being only reckoned, and not the usual vicissitudes of local breezes, or squalls.

A curious phenomenon is sometimes witnessed during a severe wind from the S. W.; a thin vapor or scud is seen moving with great velocity below the clouds, from the N. E., there being two currents of air of directly contrary courses in active motion at the same time.

In the early part of the spring and autumn, in dry seasons, about sunset it is common to meet with currents of warm air, small in their extent yet extremely rapid in their movements; they are considerably above the heat of the human body, and are wayward and eccentric, both in their duration and extent. Their existence has given rise to much speculation, and even the experienced philosophy of Mr. Jefferson has succumbed to the mystery of their origin.

Our frosts are sometimes equally severe and unexpected. No body placed near the earth has a temperature of its own, but is entirely regulated by that of the earth. A violent storm of rain, by absorbing much of the heat When the power of of the earth, is often followed by a destructive frost. frost reaches a certain pitch, the vapors dispersed throughout the air, yield their latent heat—the atmosphere becomes clouded, the frost is either destroyed or mitigated, and the vapors descend in rain or snow.

Our hardest frosts never penetrate the earth more than three inches, and though the leaves of the trees and shrubs are scathed or destroyed, and timber sometimes splits in the direction of the fibres of the tree, its roots uniformly remain uninjured. Those portions of vegetation which grow nearest to the earth, and those in low and marshy situations, receive the severest injuries. On the night of the 17th May, 1834, the leaves of the oak, hicko

May they not proceed from that latent electricity, which pervades the air most in dry seasons, and which is attracted to the human body by its heat,-thus producing from the action of affinity, the feeling of sudden warmth?

ry, and all the forest trees, were blighted in most of their foliage; the sycamore only remained unhurt. Frost during the winter, is a fatal enemy to those plants which are nurtured in southern exposures; they are sometimes covered with snow, which melting rapidly, is converted in the course of the night into destructive ice. Our white frost is generally harmless, it being simple dew slightly congealed.

Dew is found in Virginia in heavy masses, generally in the months of August, September, and October; it lies in greater quantities on our flat than high lands, being collected there during the absence of the sun from the horizon, like the relics of a drizzling rain. It appears first on the lower parts of bodies, because in the evening the lower atmosphere is first cooled and most disposed to part with its vapor.

Virginia is subject to rains of vehement and long continuance; they fall in the largest quantity about the breaking of the winter, and in March and September. I have no data on which to reckon their depth* or their prevalence over the fair and cloudy days of our climate. Our valley and western regions, by the condensing power of their mountains, and our tide water sections, by the attractive force of broad rivers, have more local rains than the intermediate country, and do not suffer in the same proportion from continued droughts. If a year be remarkable for rain, it is fair to conclude that the ensuing winter will be severe, from the great evaporation of the heat of the earth, and if the rains have been violent, sterility and barrenness will follow in the next year in proportion, as the surface mould, so vital to vegetation, has been scattered and wasted away.

Our Indian summer presents an ample field for the creations of fancy and the conceits of theory. It generally follows excessive and protracted droughts, and is dispersed by heavy rains. It has been traced to electric influence— to the burning of mountains-to the existence of numerous impalpable atoms of decayed vegetation, and has been assimilated to those light gray clouds which overhang Peru. Adhuc lis est subjudice.

POLITICAL AND MORAL CONDITION.

Having given a summary account of the natural condition of Virginia, reserving a more detailed account for the particular counties; we now proceed to give a similar succinct description of the situation of her people, begining with their number and classes.

POPULATION.

The number of people in Virginia has been as follows, at the several periods mentioned, viz: in 1790,-747,610—in 1800,-880,200—in 1810,— 974,622-in 1820,-1,065,366-and in 1830,-1,211,375.-At the last period the population was divided as follows, among the several counties, viz:

Counties.

Accomac,
Albemarle,

EASTERN DISTRICT.

Population. Counties.
16,656 Amelia,
22,618 Amherst,

Population. 11,036

12,071

According to the observations of Dr. Sanders, made near Boston during ten years from January 1, 1821 to January 1, 1831, there were on an average in each year, 219 days of fair and 146 of cloudy weather. Rain fell more or less on 57 days. Boston is on the sea coast, in lat. 42° 20-58', and the standing temperature of the level of the sea at that place is between 59° and 60 Farenheit.

Total population of Eastern Virginia, 832,980; Western Va. 378,425.

5,749 Wythe,

Of the preceding were white persons,

Males.

Females.

In the same period, the free whites increased 180,020, or 35 per cent.; the free colored persons 27,224, or 135 per cent.; and the slaves, 123,961, or 36 per cent. For the ten years preceding the census of 1830, the rate of increase of the whole population diminished considerably, and the relative increase of the several classes varied from the foregoing results. On the whole population, the rate was reduced from 37 to 13 per cent.; on

the free white, from 35 to 15 per cent.; on the free colored, from 135 to 284 per cent.; and on the slaves from 36 to 10 per cent. It is to be observed, however, that, while the black population of the whole state has been diminishing, when compared with the white, the reverse is true in respect to Eastern Virginia, which is peculiarly the slave region; for, while, in 1790, there was in that district a majority of 25,000 whites, the slave and free colored population outnumbered them at every successive census, until, in 1830, the excess was upwards of 81,000. The facts thus exhibited show that Western Virginia, which contains comparatively few slaves, has rapidly increased its white population in the last ten years, the rate of increase amounting to 25 per cent,; while, on the eastern side of the mountains, the increase of the whites, in the same period, did not exceed 7 per cent. The greater multiplication of blacks in Eastern Virginia, notwithstanding constant deportation to the southern and southwestern states, may be partly ascribed to the mild treatment which they generally receive from their owners. On the other hand, the evil effects of slavery, and the policy of adopting some scheme for gradual abolition, are topics which have been freely and earnestly discussed, and have already arrayed the Virginians into two powerful parties. The slow progress of the white population, compared with some of the other states, when so many propitious causes exist for its advancement, has been urged as a prominent objection to slavery. Indeed, the march of its aggregate population has fallen far short of the predictions. of former times. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes, which were written in 1782, estimated that the then existing stock, unaided by foreign emigration, would be multiplied to 2,270,000 by the year 1835, exceeding, by upwards of a million, the result of the last census. That the increase of numbers has been restrained by powerful checks seems reasonable; but to point out their true character and operation, belongs rather to the department of moral and political philosophy.

This state is now divided into one hundred and eleven counties; whereof sixty-six are on the eastern side, and forty-five on the western side of the Blue Ridge mountains. Six new counties having been added since the taking of the last census, and revision of the constitution; they were erected by act of Assembly 1831-2, viz:-Page county, formed out of parts of Shenandoah and Rockingham-Rappahannock, formed out of a part of Culpeper county-Smyth, formed out of Washington and Wythe-Floyd, from a part of Montgomery-Jackson, out of part of Mason, Kanawha and Wood-and Fayette, formed out of parts of Greenbrier, Nicholas, and Kanawha counties.

GOVERNMENT AND LAWS.

CONSTITUTION. The first constitution of this state was formed and adopted in 1776, and continued in operation until October, 1829, when a convention met at Richmond to alter and amend it, or frame a new one: on the 14th of January, 1830, the present constitution was adopted by a vote of 55 to 40. The amended constitution on being submitted to the legal voters of the state was ratified by a majority of 10,492 votes, as appears by the following statement: