six years in Italy, is
engaged on a large picture, the subject of which is taken from the same
portion of Scripture history, and which is intended for the gallery of an
American gentleman. It represents Naomi with her two daughters-in-law,
when "Orpah kissed her, but Ruth clave unto her." The principal figures
are those of the Hebrew matron and Ruth, who have made their simple
preparations for their journey to the land of Israel, while Orpah is
turning sorrowfully away to join a caravan of her country people. This
group is well composed, and there is a fine effect of the rays of the
rising sun on the mountains and rocks of Moab.

At the studio of Lang, a Philadelphia artist, I saw two agreeable
pictures, one of which represents a young woman whom her attendants and
companions are arraying for her bridal. As a companion piece to this, but
not yet finished, he had upon the easel a picture of a beautiful girl,
decked for espousals of a different kind, about to take the veil, and
kneeling in the midst of a crowd of friends and priests, while one of them
is cutting off her glossy and flowing hair. Both pictures are designed for
a Boston gentleman, but a duplicate of the first has already been painted
for the King of Wirtemberg.

Letter XXX.

Buffalo.--Cleveland.--Detroit.

Steamer Oregon, Lake Huron, Off Thunder Bay, _July_ 24, 1846.

As I approached the city of Buffalo the other morning, from the east, I
found myself obliged to confess that much of the beauty of a country is
owing to the season. For twenty or thirty miles before we reached Lake
Erie, the fields of this fertile region looked more and more arid and
sun-scorched, and I could not but contrast their appearance with that of
the neighborhood of New York, where in a district comparatively sterile,
an uncommonly showery season has kept the herbage fresh and deep, and made
the trees heavy with leaves. Here, on the contrary, I saw meadows tinged
by the drought with a reddish hue, pastures grazed to the roots of the
grass, and trees spreading what seemed to me a meagre shade. Yet the
harvests of wheat, and even of hay, in western New York, are said to be by
no means scanty.

Buffalo continues to extend on every side, but the late additions to the
city do not much improve its beauty. Its nucleus of well-built streets
does not seem to have grown much broader within the last five years, but
the suburbs are rapidly spreading--small wooden houses, scatter