“I am pleased that you have not abated your usual industry in the pursuit of knowledge in the science of geology and mineralogy, first in magnitude and first in the order of nature.”

Morals of Green Bay.—­J.D.  Doty, Esq., Judge of the District, reports (Oct. 15th) that the Grand Jury for Brown County, at the late special session of court, presented forty indictments!  Most of these appear to have been petty affairs; but they denote a lax state of society.

John Johnston, Esq., writes (Oct. 30th):  “Since the arrival of the mail, I have been the constant companion in thought of the great and good Lafayette, throughout his tour, or rather splendid procession as far as the account has reached us, and for which history has no parallel.  Oh! how poor, how base, the adulation given by interested sycophants to kings and despots, compared to the warm affections of the grateful heart, and spontaneous bursts of admiration and affection from a great, free, and happy people.”

Hooking Minerals.—­L.  Bull, now of Philadelphia, writes respecting the position of several boxes of minerals left in the Lyceum of Natural History, of New York, in 1822, which have, been sadly depredated on.

Plan of a Philosophical Work on the Indians.—­General C. announces to me (Dec. 5th) that he has settled on a plan for bringing forward the results of his researches on the subject of the Indian tribes.  The details of this appear to be well selected and arranged, and the experiment on the popular taste of readers, for as such the work is designed, cannot but be hailed by every one who has thought upon the subject.  Few men have seen more of the Indians in peace and war.  Nobody has made the original collections which he has, and I know of no man possessing the capacity of throwing around them so much literary attraction.  It is only to be hoped that his courage will not fail him when he comes to the sticking point.  It requires more courage on some minds to write a book than to face a cannon.

14th.  Major Joseph Delafield, of New York, commends to my acquaintance Samuel S. Conant, Esq., of the city; a gentleman of a high moral character and literary tone, an occasional writer for the “American” newspaper, who proposes to compile a work on Indian eloquence.  Charles King, Esq., the editor of the paper, transmits a note to the major, which is enclosed, speaking of Mr. Conant as “a man of merit and talents, who in his design is seeking to save a noble but persecuted race.”

19th.  General Cass writes further of his literary plans:  “If I am favorably situated, in some respects, to procure information, as a drawback upon this, I feel many disadvantages.  I have no books to refer to but what I can purchase, and independently of the means which any one person can apply to this object, those books which can alone be useful to me are so rare that nothing but accident can enable a person to purchase them.”