hich every shrub was rifled
for us,--we made our adieus, and set forth to return to the city by a
different road, paying a call at another cottage residence by the way.

Of these unpretending, but attractive-looking places, there are numbers
in this neighbourhood; and if ever Washington rises to the importance
fondly anticipated by its founders, no city ought to boast more charming
environs.

Here is no end of sites for country dwellings,--valley and hill, river
and rivulet, towering rocks and dark ravines abound in as wild a variety
as heart could wish; with land and living both exceedingly cheap.

I saw one of the prettiest houses possible, with nearly a hundred acres
of land, that had been purchased, a few months before, for five thousand
dollars; and, during my stay here, a first-rate house, with stabling,
&c. complete, as well situated as any in Washington, and as well built,
sold for the same sum. At present, indeed, I should say land about here
is of very little value: though admirably calculated for the residence
of an independent class of gentry, here is no temptation for the planter
or merchant; and but few in this country seek to live a life of leisure
or retirement.

THE FALLS OF THE POTOMAC.

On St. George's day, in company with Captain T----ll, an engineer
officer of high standing, and Mr. K----r, I set out on horseback, at an
early hour, to view the much talked of, but too rarely visited, Falls of
the Potomac.

Our way lay along the tow-path of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, planned
to unite the Potomac river with the Ohio below Pittsburg,--one of the
greatest works yet contemplated. Its length will be three hundred and
forty miles: the locks are of stone, one hundred feet by fifteen; and
the amount of lockage designed for the whole line is three thousand two
hundred and fifteen feet. Piercing the Alleghany mountains, where the
canal attains its highest level, a tunnel is planned, four miles and
some yards in length.

For upwards of a hundred miles the line is already available; and in
this distance are reckoned forty-four locks, and several noble
aqueducts, in an ascent of a quarter of a mile.

For sixteen miles we followed this magnificent work, which as far as
one of the uninitiated may judge, presents a promise of endurance worthy
the best days of Rome: the width of the canal here varied, as my
companion informed me, from eighty to seventy feet, and the depth from
six to seven feet.