arriving there in an indigent state, unable to purchase wood for fuel, or the construction of their cabins, through necessity lay the axe to some of the finest timber. In this wild state, trees were considered as common property-res nullius.

It is deeply to be regretted, that the government or corporation did not employ some means for the preservation of the trees which grew on places destined for the public walks. How agreeable would have been their shade along the Pensylvania Avenue, where the dust so often annoys, and the summer sun, reflected from a sandy soil, is so oppressive. The Lombardy poplar, 1 which now supplies their place, serves more for ornament than shelter.

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It may here be observed, that the large tract of commons in the territory of Columbia is mainly injurious to the industry and growth of Washington. It would be preferable to divide these lands into lots, and sell them at a reasonable price, obliging the purchaser to plant fruit-trees to a certain extent. It is said, that farmers in easy circum

stances, who live without the commons, send their cattle, during summer, to fatten upon them, although they have no right of commons. Salt is occasionally given to them at a certain place, to prevent them from straying. Cows have been stolen from the commons, and horses carried off, and worked in the plough till they became lean, when they were advertised as unknown, to prevent prosecution at law. Thus meanness and crimes grow with the growth of cities. Morals change, and if manners are less rude delinquency is more frequent, from the increasing difficulty of detection. Selfish habits are insensibly contracted, which entwine themselves with all the actions of man, and vice assumes even the appearance of virtue. Washington will, for a long time, have a moral advantage over other great cities, as the sublime scenery of a majestic river, beautified by the luxuriant hangings of woods, rocks, and meadows, keep alive in the breasts of the beholders the native feelings of truth and nature, and prevent their minds from being corrupted by the artificial lures of emasculated softness and gregarious vices.

Yet

OF THE NAVY YARD.

The Navy Yard is commodiously situated on the east side of the city, above the mouth of the eastern branch, where there is water for a ship of the line. Its depth in the harbour is twenty-five feet, but there is a sandbar at its entrance, where the water is but eighteen.

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The number of workmen, formerly from seven to eight hundred, now varies from sixty to a hundred and fifty. The wages of a shipwright are from two to two dollars and a half per day. Live oak is purchased by the government at a dollar and a half per foot. Of this species the war vessels are constructed, with the exception of the sides and bands. These are generally of pine, which, owing to its resinous nature, is very durable.

In the Navy Yard there are twenty-two forges and three furnaces. A steam-engine has been lately constructed, which drives a forge-hammer, and is also intended to work

* Quercus virens.

a set of saws for cutting timber. The cylinder of this engine, of twenty-one inches in diameter, cost two thousand dollars, without any other appendage than two fly-wheels. The director of this establishment has lately constructed a reverberating furnace, which is employed in preparing old iron hoops for the hammer. By this process there is daily wrought a ton of iron of excellent quality. The hoops are purchased at twenty dollars per ton, and the iron is afterwards sold at a hundred and thirty dollars. After deducting the amount of the expenses of the operation, there is a profit of seventy dollars per day. In this furnace steel is prepared, which has an increase of weight of from eight to ten per cent. In the Navy Yard are prepared anvils, anchors, bellows, copper nails, castings, lead works for the pumps of vessels, and every other naval article of lead, iron, and copper. The lead is brought coast-wise, in pigs, from the Illinois country, and also from the state of Pensylvania in waggons, at seven dollars and a half the hundred weight. The machine

I

By Mr. Smallman, of Philadelphia, formerly in the employ of Messrs. Watt and Boulton.

consumes daily about three-quarters of a cord of wood, which is preferred to coal, though the expense of each is nearly equal, as the latter is brought from Richmond by water at a cheap rate. The director, Mr. Benjamin King, a native of England, formerly employed at the Clyde and Carron works, has a salary of two thousand dollars a year, besides an annual allowance for houserent. Mr. Ellis, also a native of England, who superintends the steam-engine, has two dollars per day, and a boy who aids him half a dollar.

In this part of the establishment there are ten white workmen, who have each a dollar and eighty-one cents per day. Black men, equally strong and active, have but eighty, cents. The boarding of workmen, including washing, in private houses, is between three and four dollars a week. They are thus enabled to save, in the same space of time, from six to seven dollars, which, with proper economy, will render them in the course of a few years comfortable and independent.

A house, twenty-five by thirty feet, and consisting of two stories, rents for two hundred dollars. This part of the city contains