Sir,

Having read with interest the article in the Portfolio, on the Old Houses in Cambridge, I have taken the liberty of addressing a few words to you on the subject. We find in many counties a particular species of house predominating, or rather certain modes of building more adopted in that county than in others. In Cambridgeshire we have many of the kinds mentioned in the article alluded to. Some are formed entirely of “clunch” of which there are extensive quarries at Reach or “Roach” near Burwell: others of “gault,” a local term for the blue clay which lies below the gravel of Cambridge and forms the immediate substratum in the low ground about it. This is beaten up with chopped straw, then formed into large blocks of equal size and dried in the sun. Many have a pediment of stone, or clunch, on which a frame work of wood is raised consisting of studs and wall-plates, with strong posts at intervals and some cross pieces as ties. The joists of the upper floor are laid on the wall-plates of the lower and commonly project about a foot or 18 inches over. The smaller timbers have tenons which are fitted into mortices in the larger, and secured by wooden pins. The interstices are filled either with double boarding, double lath and plaster, clunch, or bricks laid level or obliquely.

Niagara is the outlet of several bodies of water, covering, it is estimated, 150,000 square miles! Dr. Dwight considers the Falls as part of the St. Lawrence, following that river back to the sources near the Mississippi; and, doing away with the intermediate names of St. Marie, Detroit, St. Clair, Iroquois, and Cataraqui, he traces its course through the lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, as the Rhone is followed through the Lake of Geneva, and the Rhine through Lake Constance. In this view the St. Lawrence is doubtless the first river in the world. It meets the tide of the sea four hundred miles from its mouth, which is ninety-five miles broad; and to this height fleets of men of war may ascend and find ample room for an engagement. Merchantmen of all sizes go up to Montreal, which is six hundred miles from the sea; and its navigation for three thousand miles is only interrupted in three places,—Niagara Falls, the rapids of the Iroquois, and the part called the river St. Marie. The St. Marie is navigable for boats, though not for larger vessels; a portage of ten miles (soon to be superseded by a ship canal) conveys merchandise around the Falls of Niagara, and the rapids of the Iroquois present so slight a hinderance, that goods are brought from Montreal to Queenston for nearly the same price as they would pay by unobstructed navigation.

A pretty marble shaft stands on the edge of the broad highland esplanade of West Point, overlooking the most beautiful scene on the most beautiful river of our country. It commemorates the virtues of Kosciusko, who, during his second sojourn in America, lived at West Point, and cultivated his little garden, near the site of this tribute to his memory. Kosciusko's first laurels were gained in this country under Washington. He was educated in the military school at Warsaw, whence he was sent, as one of four, to complete his education at Paris. On his return to Poland, he had a commission given him, but, being refused promotion, he determined to come to America, and join the colonies in their struggle for independence. With letters from Dr. Franklin to General Washington, he presented himself to the great patriot, and was immediately appointed his aid-de-camp, and later he received the appointment to the engineers, with the rank of colonel. At the close of the war, having distinguished himself by his courage and skill, he returned to Poland, was appointed major-general in the army of the diet, and served as general of division under the younger Poniatowski. Finding, however, his efforts for freedom paralysed by the weakness or treachery of others, he gave in his resignation, and went into retirement at Leipsic. He was still there in 1793, when the Polish army and people gave signs of being in readiness for insurrection.

St. Peter's College, late commonly called Peterhouse, was founded A.D. 1257, by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, styled ‘Mæcenatum signifer,’ who took his name from a village so called in the county, nine miles S. E. of Cambridge. The Royal assent to the plan of founding this, the first College, is among the Records in the Tower:–it is in Latin and may be rendered thus:

This picturesque object is seen to great effect by the passenger in the evening boat from New York to Newburgh. Leaving the city at five in the summer afternoon, she makes the intervening forty miles between that hour and twilight; and while the last tints of the sunset are still in the sky, the stars just beginning to twinkle through the glow of the west, the bright light of this lofty beacon rises up over the prow of the boat, shining apparently on the very face of the new-starred heaven. As he approaches, across the smooth and still purpled mirror of the silent river is drawn a long and slender line of light, broken at the foot of the beacon by the mild shrubbery of the rock on which it stands; and as he rounds the point, and passes it, the light brightens and looks clearer against the darker sky of the east, while the same cheering line of reflection follows him on his way, and is lost to sight as he disappears among the mountains.

The waters of the river at this point were the scene of the brief and tragic drama enacted so fatally by poor André. Four or five miles below stands Smith's house, where he had his principal interview with Arnold, and where the latter communicated to him his plans for the delivery of West Point into the hands of the English, and gave him the fatal papers which proved his ruin.

This long tradition has left us little room for Utica, which truly is among those spots (said to be the happiest in the world) with no striking events in its history. It is a pretty and thriving town, half way between Lake Ontario and the Susquehannah, and on the great routes by canal, road, and rail-road, to the west; and in the centre of these radii of communication is fast becoming a focus of wealth and refinement. A high reputation for the latter, however, its society has long and deservedly enjoyed.

SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY.

Before the structure of the earth's surface was at all understood, and while even the name of Geology was unknown, attention had been directed to the curious fact, that various objects resembling shells teeth and bones of animals were frequently met with in sea cliffs, and even in excavations made at a considerable elevation above the sea level. These were from time to time collected together and, first in Italy, then in England, Museums were formed of them, and they were arranged according to the fancies of their respective owners or according to the small degree of light which illuminated what might, at that day, be almost termed an occult science.

Among the earlier and perhaps, considering all circumstances, the most creditable and valuable of these collections, was one of English and extraneous fossils formed after great labour and at considerable expence by Dr. John Woodward, a learned Physician, who lived at the beginning of the last century. “And”, says the editor of his catalogue, “he carried on his researches for a course of near forty years, with a passion for the improvement of natural knowledge in general and with a particular view to evince the universality of the Deluge.” Let us give him due credit for the “passion” he certainly displayed for Natural History and excuse, as belonging to the age in which he lived rather than to himself, that love of theorising upon imperfect and inconclusive data which he certainly possessed to a very remarkable degree.

Among the discoveries of modern times there are few that have excited a more lively interest than those of Young and Champollion and their fellow-labourers in Egypt, which are rapidly unfolding the history and mythology of a nation, whose antiquities are valuable, not merely as affording unexpected illustrations of classic literature, but as independent and confirming records, coeval with the Scriptures, and intimately connected with the Jewish history.

The interest excited by the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, has been so great, that there is perhaps not a University, and scarcely a city in Europe, in which are not to be found some of the tablets and inscriptions of Egypt: and we should deem the present work incomplete unless we gave a sketch of the few but most interesting relics which are collected here. To take them in their chronological order, we shall attempt a slight outline of the succession of the Pharaohs, and in passing, touch upon some points of Egyptian history and arts that may throw light upon our studies as a University.

At the conclusion of the paper we have given a plate of the inscriptions; and have annexed to them translations, as complete, we believe, as the progress of interpretation warrants; but we should be sorry to mislead our readers by giving countenance to the pretensions of some of our continental neighbours, who hesitate not to render full and complete translations of every inscription that is found.

Trenton Falls (called Cayoharic by the Indians) are formed by the descent of a considerable stream, known by the name of West Canada Creek, through a mountainous ravine of singular formation and beauty. The Creek, which is swollen to a tremendous torrent by rains in the mountains, or by the spring thaws, has evidently worn through the strata which now enclose it, and runs at present over a succession of flat platforms, descending by leaps of forty or fifty feet from one to the other, and forming the most lovely chain of cascades for a length of three or four hundred miles. The walls that shut it in are either perpendicular, or overhanging it in broad table ledges; the wild vegetation of the forest above, leaning over the chasm with an effect like foliage of a bright translucent green, painted on the sky.

Although but fourteen miles distant from a town containing twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants, Trenton Falls were unknown till within a very few years. They were discovered by an artist in search of the picturesque, and are now visited, like Niagara and Terni.

Albany is the second city in the State of New York, in population, wealth, and commerce. It stands on the west bank of the Hudson, and about one hundred and forty-five miles from New York by the river, and near the head of sloop navigation. It is built just over the pitch of an extensive plain, lying between the Mohawk and the Hudson, and has very much the look of a city sliding down hill.

The history of Albany is not very definite, touching its first settlement. The probability seems, that, in 1614, the Dutch erected a fort and trading-house on an island just below the city; and also, in nine years after, a fort, which they called Fort Orange, on the present site. It would appear to have been canonically christened, and has been called at different periods Auralia, Beverwyck, and Williamstadt. “All this time,” says the historian, “it was known also by the name of. ‘The Fuyck.’” The Indian appellation in which it rejoiced was Schaunaugh- ta-da, or Once the pine plains.

Albany is the residence of several of the oldest and wealthiest families in the State; but except this, it is a mere centre of transit—the channel through which passes the vast tide of commerce and travel to the north and west.

Boston is situated at the head of Massachusetts bay, on a peninsula about four miles in circumference, and is about three miles in length, and one mile and twenty-five rods, where widest, in breadth, and is connected with the main land at the south end by a narrow isthmus, called the Neck, leading to Roxbury. The town is built in an irregular circular form round the harbour, which is studded with about forty small islands, many of which afford excellent pasture; and are frequented in summer by numerous parties of pleasure. The harbour is formed by Nahant Point on the north, and Point Alderton on the south, and is so capacious as to allow five hundred vessels to ride at anchor in a good depth of water, while the entrance is so narrow as scarcely to admit two ships abreast. The entrance is defended by Fort Independence, belonging to the United States, on Castle Island, and by Fort Warren, on Governor's Island. There is another fort, called Fort Strong, on Noddle's Island.

Alterations and additions have of late years greatly improved the appearance of Boston. The streets, which were formerly almost without an exception narrow and crooked, have been in a great degree rendered wide and commodious; the old wooden structures have in the greater part of the city been replaced by handsome buildings of stone or brick. In the western part, particularly, there is much neatness and elegance.