excellent, and in profusion; peaches are plentiful in most seasons,
but sometimes totally fail; grapes grow wild and _tame_, i.e.
cultivated or imported; cherries are not very good, and dearer than at
Pittsburgh; pears, strawberries, and raspberries are not so choice as
with you; quinces are plentiful and fine; wild plums perfume the whole
house, like jessamine or mignionette, and are excellent for pies and
tarts. The persimon is a fruit to which you are a stranger; it may be
ranked with the plums, but has four stones, and is not fit to eat till
bitten by the frost, when its austere and astringent taste disappears,
and it becomes nearly transparent, and as rich and sweet as Guava
jelly. The May-apple, or Mandrake, a wild fruit, is a favourite with
our young folks; it grows on a single-steemed plant, usually one foot
high, and is about the size of a plum, but with seeds, and in taste
resembling a highly flavoured pear. The custard-apple, or paw-paw, is
my favourite, and my boys go with me into the woods to gather them
when ripe. In the summer, water melons, musk melons, nutmeg melons,
and Cantaloupes may be seen in large heaps in the market, or in carts
or wagons, at 6-1/4 to 25 and 50 cts. each, some weighing 40 lbs.

Egg-plants, which you have seen as curiosities, are here brought to
market; some of them of purple colour, are as large as a child's
carpet-ball: they are sliced and fried in butter, and I am told
have the flavour of fried oysters. Cucumbers are unfortunately
superabundant, and the free use of them induces a variety of diseases
which are attributed to the climate. Squashes, cimolins, and cushas,
are gourds which are mashed up with butter like turnips; pumpkins
of this country are very sweet, and make delicious pies, or rather
cheesecakes; cranberries are brought from a distance, and pine-apples
are not very expensive, being brought up the river from Bermuda.

Among the natural curiosities of the country, are the Stone Mountain
in Carolina, which may rank in antiquity with Stonehenge. It is
remarkable for a circular wall of stone of great thickness, probably
built by a people distinct from the present race of Indians, who are
quite incapable of erecting any building except a wigwam, or a pile of
loose stones over a grave. Next is the Kentucky Cavern, or as it is
called, on account of its magnitude, the Mammoth Cave. I have an
account before me of its being explored by a party in 1826, who
penetrated into