dsome; and even the best are nothing
to what I have seen in the other towns. Yet when its natural advantages
are considered, I know no place which can compare with it. Patterson and
Brandywine are very far behind it. It is calculated for as many mills as
there are spots to place them, and the water can be used five or six
times within the distance of a mile. Water seems to be made to do every
thing here. The blacksmiths have become so lazy that they even make it
blow their bellows. There is an oil mill at this place, calculated for
sixteen runs of stones, eight of which are now in operation; with many
others having six, seven and eight, all in complete operation. Several
manufactories and mills for different purposes are now building; and I
have no hesitation in saying, that although Rochester can never be a
handsome town, owing principally to its low situation, yet I believe it
will see the time, perhaps very soon, when no place in the Union can
exceed it in point of variety and manufactures. I shall say no more of
the town, but will endeavor faintly to describe the water power.

The Genessee river falls, making a deep cut from what may be called the
upper to the lower country, as there is no hill on either side of the
river, as at Niagara, two hundred feet in less than a mile. The first
fall is a perpendicular pitch of fifteen feet, above which is an
artificial dam, whence all the water now used is taken. This is
succeeded by a rapid for a short distance, when the whole bed of the
river makes a tremendous leap of ninety feet perpendicular, forming a
splendid rainbow, after which there is a gradual current for half a
mile. Then, as if determined to make another desperate effort, it
suddenly becomes much agitated, gives another bound of sixty feet
perpendicular, becomes quiet and good-natured, and smoothly flows to
Lake Ontario. Had I not just seen Niagara, I should have considered this
a wonderful spectacle. The river is about as large as the Schuylkill at
Fair Mount. But the most wonderful work of man I have yet seen in one
spot since I left home, is the acqueduct crossing the river at this
place, supported by eight stone arches. This must have been a work of
time, and patience, and immense cost. There are also three bridges
crossing the river, but they are nothing uncommon. The land around
Rochester appears to be of the very first quality, and every thing is in
uproar and confusion.

I left Rochester about dark for