--Sun's eclipse--Government payments.

1838. _June 18th_. W. Lowrie, Esq., Missionary Rooms, N.Y., announces
the sending of an agent to explore the missionary field, which it is
proposed to occupy by the Presbyterian Board, in the region of Lake
Michigan, bespeaking my friendly offices to the agent.

The plethora of success which has animated every department of life and
business, puffing them up like gas in a balloon, since about '35 has
departed and left the fiscal system perfectly flaccid and lifeless. The
rage for speculation in real estate has absorbed all loose cash, and the
country is now groaning for its fast-locked circulating medium. A friend
at Detroit writes: "With fifty thousand dollars of productive real
estate in the city, and as much more in stocks and mortgages, I am
absolutely in want of small sums to pay my current expenses, and to rid
myself of the mortification produced by this feeling I am prepared to
make almost any sacrifice."

_27th_. Received a communication from the chief engineer of the New York
canal (Alfred Barrett, Esq.) on the subject of the rise of water in the
lakes. "A question of considerable importance," he says, "has arisen in
our State Legislature, in relation to the rise of water in Lake Erie.
The lake has been gradually increasing in its height for the last ten
years, and has gained an elevation of four feet above that of 1826. The
inhabitants along the shores of the lake as far as Detroit, upon both
sides, and many throughout our State, have been led to attribute this
increase to the erection of the State and the United States pier at the
outlet of the lake, opposite Black Rock, which presents an obstruction
to the action of the river. But this evidently is not the only cause of
the rise of the lake, for, by observation, we find the Niagara River
below the dam, and the surface of Lake Ontario, to have increased in the
same ratio in the same time. Lake Ontario is four feet higher than it
was in 1826.

"Our Legislature has called for information on the subject. And for many
important facts we shall be indebted to the goodness of persons residing
or acquainted at the places where they may exist. The canal
commissioners of the State have desired me to communicate with you,
desiring such data as you may have in your possession relevant to the
subject. And we are induced to trouble you for information respecting
the condition of the water in Lake Superior and other western waters,