arying according to
distances, and ranging from one halfpenny upwards.

It is difficult to say what struck me most forcibly on landing at New
York; barring the universality of the Saxon tongue, I should have been
puzzled to decide in what part of the world I was. The forest of masts,
and bustle on the quays, reminded me of the great sea-port of Liverpool:
but scarce had I left the quays, when the placards of business on the
different stories reminded me of Edinburgh. A few minutes more, and I
passed one of their large streets, justly called "Avenues," the rows of
trees on each side reminding me of the _Alamedas_ in the Spanish towns;
but the confusion of my ideas was completed when the hackney coach was
brought to a standstill, to allow a huge railway carriage to cross our
bows, the said carriage being drawn by four horses, and capable of
containing fifty people.

At last, with my brain in a whirl, I alighted at Putnam's hotel, where
my kind friend, Mr. W. Duncan, had prepared rooms for our party; nor did
his zeal in our behalf stop here, for he claimed the privilege of being
the first to offer hospitality, and had already prepared a most
excellent spread for us at the far-famed _Cafe Delmonico_, where we
found everything of the best: oysters, varying from the "native" size up
to the large American oyster, the size of a small leg of Welsh
mutton--mind, I say a small leg--the latter wonderful to look at, and
pleasant to the taste, though far inferior to the sweet little "native."

Here I saw for the first time a fish called "the sheep's head," which is
unknown, I believe, on our side of the Atlantic. It derives its name
from having teeth exactly like those of a sheep, and is a most excellent
fish wherewith to console themselves for the want of the turbot, which
is never seen in the American waters. Reader, I am not going to inflict
upon you a bill of fare; I merely mention the giant oyster and the
sheep's head, because they are peculiar to the country; and if nearly my
first observations on America are gastronomic, it is not because I
idolize my little interior, though I confess to having a strong
predilection in favour of its being well supplied; but it is because
during the whole time I was in the United States,--from my friend D.,
who thus welcomed me on my arrival, to Mr. R. Phelps, in whose house
I lived like a tame cat previous to re-embarking for old
England,--wherever I went I found hospitality a prominent feat