ia, who is preparing
a comprehensive work on aboriginal crania, writes:--"Your obliging
letter, offering me any information you might possess that would promote
my work on the skulls of the American tribes, makes me free to put to
you the following inquiries, inasmuch as I am desirous of seeing as many
tribes, and as many individuals as possible, in a limited space of time.

"When will the next annual payment be made at Mackinaw, and how many
tribes, and what number of people do you think will assemble on
that occasion?

"If I visit Mackinaw, can I readily cross the country to the
Mississippi, and what length of time will be required on the journey?

"It is my intention to visit Mackinaw, or any adjacent place, that, in
your judgment, will give me the greatest opportunity for seeing the
Indians, and I shall await your advice thereon.

"My work progresses rapidly. Twenty of sixty plates are already
finished, and I hope to complete the work before the close of the year.
I shall soon have an opportunity of forwarding, as far as Detroit, a set
of my plates for your inspection and acceptance."

_10th_. Washington Irving writes: "I have to acknowledge the receipt of
a letter informing me of my having been elected an honorary member of
the Michigan Historical Society, of which, I perceive, you are
President. Not being able to make out the name of the Corresponding
Secretary, I have to ask the favor of you to assure the Society of the
deep sense I entertain of the honor they have done me, and my ready
disposition to promote the views of so meritorious an institution." What
is worthy of note herein is this, that the name which the distinguished
writer could not make out, is that of one of our most fluent penmen,
namely, C.C. Trowbridge, Esq., but who, on scrutiny, I perceive, writes
his name worse than anything else, and so inconceivably bad that a
stranger might not be able to guess it.

_16th_. Mr. John T. Blois, who is engaged on a Gazetteer of the State of
Michigan, acknowledges the receipt from me of some details respecting
the statistical and topographical departments of his work. The
difficulty to be met with by all gazetteers of the new States, consists
in this, that most classes of the data alter so much in a few years that
the books do not present the true state of things. Towns and counties
spring up like magic, and if old Aladdin had his lamp he could not more
expeditiously cover the shores of streams, and vall