The President's House is an elegant structure of freestone, 170 feet in front, and two stories in height, ornamented with an Ionic portico. It stands

about a mile west of the capitol. It is surrounded with the offices of the heads of departments. At the patent office, is kept a collection of all the models of patent inventions in the country. The Navy Yard, on the East Branch, exhibits a monument to the American officers who fell in the war with Tripoli.

There are few other buildings worthy of notice for their architecture. The office of the Department of State, is a large edifice of brick, with a por

tico in front, and there are two or three others of the same size and construction. There are two public free schools in the city. Two bridges cross the eastern branch, and one, the main stream of the Potomac, at Washington. At the last census, Washington numbered 18,833 inhabitants. During the session of Congress, it is thronged with visitors from all parts of the country, and the levees and entertainments given by the officers of government and foreign ambassadors, render it a scene of much gaiety and bustle. In summer, the public buildings draw occasionally a few visitors, but the society of the place has small attractions during that season. The country around is

thinly inhabited, and the soil sandy and unproductive. The Potomac is navigable for ships of the line, but Washington has no commerce.

Notwithstanding its preeminence as the national metropolis, Washington will probably never be a great city. The more substantial part of its population is migratory; the machinery of government is too simple, and the points of its operation are too widely dispersed to bring any great and constant expenditure of the public revenues within its limits. The general state of society, too, must prevent the population of our country from concentrating in any spot deficient in permanent natural advantages. A fertile territory, or a convenient seaport, will combine more attractions than the artificial establishments of a metropolis. The true capitals of the United States, are, and always will be, the great commercial cities.

Georgetown may be considered a suburb, or part of the metropolis, being separated only by a narrow creek. It is about three miles west of the capitol, and is pleasantly situated; commanding a prospect of the river, the neighboring city, and a diversified country in the vicinity. The houses are chiefly of brick, and there are many elegant villas in different parts. The Catholic monastery occupies a delightful situation, upon an eminence overlooking the town: this institution contains about sixty nuns, and embraces a high school for females, and a charity school of 100 pupils. Georgetown is a thriving place, and has a considerable commerce; but the navigation of the river is obstructed by a bar just below the town; here is also a cannon foundry. The Chesapeak and Ohio canal leaves the Potomac at this place, and a bridge crosses the river. Pop. 8,441.

Alexandria is 6 miles below Washington, on the opposite side of the Potomac. The river is here a mile wide, and 30 feet deep. The city rises considerably from the river, and is regularly built, with clean and handsome streets, neatly paved. A row of wharves extends along the river, the whole length of the city, where ships of the largest size may lie. Alexandria has a great trade in flour, by means of communication with the back country, and its situation as a seaport. Pop. 8,263.

2. EDUCATION. Columbian College is situated in Washington. It was founded in 1821, and has 5 professors, and 50 students, with a library of 4,000 volumes. Attached to it, is a theological school, under the direction of the Baptists. The college edifice stands on a high spot of ground, a little more than a mile north of the President's house. It has two vacations in winter and summer. Commencement is in December.

The Catholic College in Georgetown was established in 1799, and is under the direction of the incorporated Catholic clergy of Maryland. It has 19 inCommencestructers, and 140 students, with a library of 7,000 volumes.

ment is in July.

3. RELIGION. The Baptists have 18 churches; the Presbyterians 9; the Catholics 6; the Episcopalians 8; the Unitarians one. There are also some Methodists.

CHAPTER XV. VIRGINIA.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Virginia is bounded N. by Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland: E. by Maryland and the sea: S. by South Carolina and Tennessee: W. by Ohio and Kentucky. It lies between 36° 40′ and

40° 43' N. lat. and 75° 25' and 83° 40′ W. lon. It is the largest state in the union as to territory, being 370 miles in length, and 200 in breadth. It comprises 64,000 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The Apalachian chain comes from Pennsylvania, and passes through the state, southwesterly into North Carolina and Tennessee. The most easterly ridge is known by the name of the Blue Ridge. On the west, the Laurel Mountains and Chestnut Ridge extend from Pennsylvania, and terminate in this state. The Cumberland Mountains lie between Virginia and Kentucky. The Alleghany ridge is continued from Pennsylvania; there are other ridges, as Greenbriar, North Mountain, Broad Mountain, Back Bone, Jackson River Mountain, Iron Mountain, and Great Flat Top. The loftiest summits are the Peaks of Otter, in the Alleghany ridge, which are 3,103 feet above the level of the sea.

The passage of the Potomac, through the mountains of the Blue Ridge, at Harper's Ferry, presents the appearance of an immense rent, three quarters of a mile wide, through a stupendous wall of rocks. The broken fragments of the mountain which lie scattered around, and its craggy front, torn down to the base, attest the violence of the disruption, and forcibly remind the spectator of the period, when the mountain ridge opposed a barrier to the stream, and when its collected waters swelled to such a mass as to tear away the mountain from its foundation. Jefferson's description of this scene must be familiar to every reader. A lofty crag, upon the margin of the river, has received the name of Jefferson's Rock, and is represented in the subjoined

3. RIVERS. The Potomac, on the northern boundary, has been already described. James's River rises among the mountains, and flows S. E. into Chesapeak Bay: it is more than 500 miles long, and is navigable by sloops 150 miles, and by boats 230 miles further. At the point where this river breaks through the Blue Ridge, it receives a branch called North River; af terwards it is joined by the Appomattox at City Point; this branch is 120 miles long, and is for the most part navigable. The Rappahannock rises in

the Blue Ridge, and runs into the Chesapeak, 25 miles S. of the Potomac ; it is 130 miles long, and is navigable by vessels of 130 tons for 110 miles. York river is formed from two considerable branches, the Matapony and Pamunky, and enters the Chesapeak, 30 miles below the Rappahannock; it is navigable for large ships 30 miles. The Shenandoah is a tributary of the Potomac, and unites with it just before that river bursts through the Blue Ridge. Staunton river has its origin and a considerable part of its course in this state, but passes into North Carolina. All the preceding rivers belong to the Atlantic region.

West of the mountain, the streams run into the Ohio, and are smaller. The Great Kanahwa rises in North Carolina, and passes through this state; it has a great cataract 100 miles above its mouth, but is navigable for the most of its course in summer.

4. BAYS AND HARBORS. The outer half of Chesapeak Bay lies in this state, and by its depth and extent, and the numerous fine rivers which it receives, is of the highest use for navigation. Most of the large towns are situated at a considerable distance up the rivers. Norfolk has a good harbor, in the southern part of the bay, near the mouth of the James. The embouchure of this river forms a spacious haven, called Hampton Roads. These roads were formerly open, but strong fortifications have rendered their entrance impracticable to an enemy.

5. SHORES AND CAPES. The shores are low and flat. A peninsula about 60 miles long, and from 10 to 15 wide, lies on the eastern side of the Chesapeak, and is bordered toward the sea by a string of low, sandy islets. The waters of the Chesapeak enter the sea, between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, forming a strait 15 miles in width.

6. CLIMATE. From the vast extent of this state, and the varieties of its surface, we should of course be led to expect a great diversity of climate. In the Atlantic country, east of the mountains, the heats of summer are long and oppressive, the spring short and variable, and the winters extremely mild; the snow seldom lying more than a day after it has fallen. Droughts in summer and autumn are frequent. The people have sallow complexions, from the heats of summer, and bilious diseases in autumn. In the mountains, the air is cool and salubrious, and the inhabitants are tall and muscular, with robust forms and healthy countenances. Fires are here used during five months of the year. The heat of summer during the day is considerable, but the nights are always cool. On the western side of the mountains, the climate is colder by some degrees than in the same parallel of latitude on the coast. The valley of the Ohio is exceedingly hot in summer, while in winter, the river is frozen so as sometimes to be passable for two months to gether. The autumn is dry, temperate, and healthy, with the most beautiful weather.

7. SOIL. There are four distinct divisions under which we may regard the surface of this state. From the Atlantic coast to the head of tide water on the rivers, the country is low, flat and marshy, or sandy; this meagre soil is covered with pines and cedars; but the banks of the rivers are loany and rich, and the vegetation in those parts, luxuriant. This territory is alluvial, and exhibits marine shells and bones everywhere beneath the surface. From the head of tide water to the Blue Ridge, the land begins to rise, and becomes stony and broken; the soil lies on a stratum of stiff, reddish clay, and is much superior to the lowland country. In the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany, we come to a limestone country; here the soil lies upon a bed of that rock, and is very fertile, particularly in grain and clover. In some parts, the soil is chalky. The western part of the state, or that part which lies between the mountains and the Ohio, has a broken surface, with occasional fertile tracts; but the soil is generally lean.

8. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. In general appearance, Virginia resembles Pennsylvania in the mountainous parts; but the level plains toward the sea, are much more extensive.

9. NATURAL CURIOSITIES. The Rock Bridge, over Cedar Creek, a little stream running into the Potomac, consists of an enormous chasm, 200 feet in depth, nearly perpendicular, through which the stream passes. A

huge rock is thrown across the chasm at the top, forming a natural bridge, 60 feet in width,'and covered with soil and trees. Jefferson describes it as follows: Though the sides of this bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss. You involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet and peep over it. Looking down from this height about a minute, gave me a violent head-ache. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime, to be felt beyond what they are here; so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing as it were up to heaven! the rapture of the spectator is really indescribable! The fissure continuing narrow, deep, and straight, for a considerable distance above and below the bridge, opens a short but very pleasing view of the North mountain on one side, and Blue ridge on the other, at the distance each of them of about five miles. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to which it has given name, and affords a public and commodious passage over a valley, which cannot be crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance.'