he "howling
desert." The adjacent country is flat, stony, and barren. Mr. Hall says
that fleets of ships occasionally lie off Kingston, several of which are
as large as any on the ocean. Vessels of large dimensions were at this
time building, on the spot where, a few months before, their
frame-timbers had been growing.

Mr. Hall left Kingston, in a packet, for the American station of
_Sackett's harbour_. This, after Kingston, has a mean appearance: its
situation is low, its harbour is small, and its fortifications are of
very different construction, both as to form and materials, from those
of the former town. The navy-yard consists merely of a narrow tongue of
land, the point of which affords just space sufficient for the
construction of one first-rate vessel; with room for work-shops, and
stores, on the remaining part of it. One of the largest vessels in the
world, was at this time on the stocks. The town consists of a long
street, in the direction of the river, with a few smaller streets
crossing it at right angles: it covers less ground than Kingston, and
has fewer good houses; but it has an advantage which Kingston does not
possess, in a broad flagged footway.

The distance from Sackett's harbour to _Watertown_ is about ten miles.
This is an elegant village on the _Black River_. It contains about
twelve hundred inhabitants, chiefly emigrants from New England. The
houses are, for the most part, of wood, but tastefully finished; and a
few are built of bricks.

At Watertown there was a good tavern, which afforded to Mr. Hall and his
companions a luxury unusual in America, a private sitting-room, and
dinner at an hour appointed by themselves. Within a few miles of
Watertown the country rises boldly, and presents a refreshing contrast,
of hill and valley, to the flat, heavy woods, through which they had
been labouring from Sackett's harbour.

_Utica_, the town at which the travellers next arrived stands on the
right bank of the _River Mohawk_, over which it is approached by a
covered wooden bridge, of considerable length. The appearance of this
town is highly prepossessing: the streets are spacious; the houses are
large and well built; and the stores, the name given to shops throughout
America, are as well supplied, and as handsomely fitted up, as those of
New York or Philadelphia.

There are at Utica two hotels, on a large scale; one of which, the York
House, was equal in arrangement and accommodation, to any hot