Bennington, in Vermont, June 5, 1791.
Dear Sir,—Mr. Madison and myself are so far on the tour we had projected. We have visited, in the course of it, the principal scenes of General Burgoyne's misfortunes, to wit, the grounds at Stillwater, where the action of that name was fought, and particularly the breastworks, which cost so much blood to both parties, the encampments at Saratoga and ground where the British piled their arms, and the field of the battle of Bennington, about nine miles from this place. We have also visited Forts William, Henry and George, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, &c., which have been scenes of blood from a very early part of our history. We were more pleased, however, with the botanical objects which continually presented themselves. Those either unknown or rare in Virginia, were the sugar maple in vast abundance. The silver fir, white pine, pitch pine, spruce pine, a shrub with decumbent stems, which they call juniper, an aralea, very different from the nudiflora, with very large clusters of flowers, more thickly set on the branches, of a deeper red, and high pink-fragrance. It is the richest shrub I have seen. The honey-suckle of the gardens growing wild on the banks of Lake George, the paper-birch, an aspen with a velvet leaf, a shrub-willow with downy catkins, a wild gooseberry, the wild cherry with single fruit, (not the bunch cherry,) strawberries in abundance. From the highlands to the lakes it is a limestone country. It is in vast quantities on the eastern sides of the lakes, but none on the western sides. The Sandy Hill Falls and Wing's Falls, two very remarkable cataracts of the Hudson, of about thirty-five feet or forty feet each, between Fort Edward and Fort George, are of limestone, in horizontal strata. Those of the Cohoes, on the west side of the Hudson, and of seventy feet height, we thought not of limestone. We have met with a small red squirrel, of the color of our fox-squirrel, with a black stripe on each side, weighing about six ounces generally, and in such abundance on Lake Champlain particularly, as that twenty odd were killed at the house we lodged in, opposite Crown Point, the morning we arrived there, without going ten yards from the door. We killed three crossing the lakes, one of them just as he was getting ashore, where it was three miles wide, and where, with the high wind then blowing, he must have made it five or six miles.
I think I asked the favor of you to send for Anthony in the season for inoculation, as well as to do what is necessary in the orchard, as to pursue the object of inoculating all the spontaneous cherry trees in the fields with good fruit.
We have now got over about four hundred miles of our tour, and have still about four hundred and fifty more to go over. Arriving here on the Saturday evening, and the laws of the State not permitting us to travel on the Sunday, has given me time to write to you from hence. I expect to be at Philadelphia by the 20th or 21st. I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, yours affectionately.
FOOTNOTE
[4] [No address.]
TO COLONEL MONROE.
Philadelphia, July 10, 1791.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of June 17, has been duly received. I am endeavoring to get for you the lodgings Langdon had. But the landlord is doubtful whether he will let them at all. If he will not, I will endeavor to do the best I can. I can accommodate you myself with a stable and coach-house, without any expense, as I happen to have two on hand; and indeed, in my new one, I have had stalls enough prepared for six horses, which are two more than I keep. Of my success in procuring rooms, I shall bring you news myself, though as yet the time of my visit to Albemarle is unfixed. Mr. Madison will both go and come with me. He is at present at New York. His journey with me to the lakes placed him in better health than I have seen him; but the late heats have brought on some bilious dispositions.