domestic discovery, and one of very clever tales, besides meeting a vast number of meritorious reprints from the London market, not perhaps of sufficient worth to claim a decided notice, but still able enough to create interest and afford amusement.

NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI To ITASCA LAKE, THE ACTUAL SOURCE OF THIS RIVER. Harper & Brothers, New York. Among the innumerable narratives of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic circles, of voyages of discovery directed to the sources of the Nile and of the Niger, to the terra incognita of Australasia, or the torrid deserts of central Africa, we are not a little pleased to discover an evidence that the geographical problems of our own land have not been deemed altogether unworthy of solution. The Mississippi is decidedly as large, as beautiful, as important a river, as the Nile or the Niger. Whether "there be salmon in both" we know not, but of this we are well assured, that it is at least a thousand times more necessary for our citizens to be acquainted with the localities of the one, than of the other. Till this moment, it has been a matter of doubt at what point the mighty river, which wafts the productions of the mighty west to their marts, at thousands of leagues distance, has been involved in mists no less dense than those which hovered for so many ages around the head of the Egyptian stream. By the steadiness, the skill, and the enterprise of Mr. Schoolcraft, this discovery has been at length effected in the course of an exploratory trip through much of the western country, and more particularly among the hunting grounds of the Chippewas, the Sacs, and the Sioux. The book is written agreeably, and proves the author a man of talent, common sense, and keen observation, although we do not altogether approve of the canting spirit, or at least the boastful mention of the religious feelings of the author, which we so constantly meet. It is doubtless creditable to Mr. Schoolcraft, that during his expedition the sabbath was held inviolate, but we do not perceive the absolute necessity for so frequent a repetition of the statement-peculiar things have their peculiar places, and a voyage or travel of discovery is certainly not the place for theological disquisitions. We have selected a passage as specimen, which we consider singularly able and comprehensive.

"The Mississippi river traverses more degrees of latitude than any other river in America, and the remark might, per

haps, be extended to the habitable globe. The extremes of its changes in climate and vegetable productions are, consequently, very great. It occupies more than three thousand miles of the distance between the arctic circle and the equator. Long as it is, however, it has a tributary longer than itself (the Missouri). Like the Niger, its mouth was discovered by expeditions down its current; but unlike that stream, which has so long held the .geographical world in suspense, its sources have been also sought from its central parts. Its entire course is, at length, known. And we may now appeal with full certainty to the Balize and to Itasca Lake, as its most extreme points. At the latter, it is a placid basin of transparent spring water. At the former, it is as turbid as earth in suspension can make it, and carries a forest of floating trees on its bosom. Below the junction of its primary forks, it expands at very unequal distances, into eight sheets of clear water, each of which has features worthy of admiration. Four of these, Lac Travers, Cass Lake, Winnepec, and Lake Pepin, are lakes of handsome magnitude, and striking scenery. The number of its tributaries of the first, and the second, and the third class, is so large, that it would furnish a labor of some research to determine it. The Missouri, the Ohio, and the Arkansas, are of the noblest class. Whoever has stood at the junction of these streams, as the writer has done, must have been impressed with an idea of magnitude and power, which words are incapable of conveying. The broadest parts of its channel lie in the central portions of its valley. Its depth is great in all its lower parts, and increases as it flows on to the Gulf, and its general descent and velocity are such as to appear very striking characteristics. Noble views arrest the eye of the observer, in every part of its diversified course. Originating in a heavy and extensive bed of diluvial soil, superimposed upon primitive strata, it soon wears its channel down to the latter, and after running over them for several hundred miles, plunges at length, at the Falls of St. Anthony, over the carboniferous limestone formation, which is so prevalent and so valuable for its mineral deposites, below that point. This is finally succeeded by diluvial and alluvial banks, the latter of which are semi-annually enriched by fresh deposits, and exhibit a delta as broad and as exuberant as the Nile. Like the latter, it has its cataracts in the Falls of St. Anthony and Pukaigama, and in numerous lesser leaps and cascades, where its current is tossed into foam, and threatens destruction to the

certainly magnificent, and the other scenery generally in good taste and well executed. We were, however, a little astonished at discovering that the Campanile and St. Mark's Place were situate in Stockholm; we had fancied Venice to be their whereabouts. The performance was respectable except in the singing, which was unquestionably below par, and we could not but regret that the two cleverest actors of the stock company were excluded by want of suitable characters of course we shall be understood to mean Mr. Placide and Mrs. Wheatley, who are in fact the pillars of the theatre, and who would meet applause from any audience in the world.

Under the head of theatricals, we should do wrong were we to omit the

mention of a splendid dinner, given at the city hotel, on the 25th ult., to Mr. Forrest, by a party of the most distinguished civil and literary gentlemen of our metropolis. The object of the meeting was the presentation, to this admired actor, of a gold medal, a token of the respect and admiration which he has created, by his public and private demeanor, in the breasts of many of our citizens. The gift was presented by Chancellor McCoun, who presided: the meeting was most respectably attended

indeed respectably is hardly a strong enough word, when in fact the elite of the city were present, and the whole business of the evening went off in such a manner as to leave but a single feeling of universal satisfaction.

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