April 8th.  Dr. J.B.  Crawe, of Waterton, N.Y., proposes an interchange of specimens in several departments of science.  Hon. Micah Sterling, of the same place, commends to my notice Dr. Richard Clark, who is ordered on this frontier, as a “young man of merit and respectability.”  My correspondence with naturalists, in all parts of the Union, and my list of exchanges, had, indeed, for some years been large and active, and was by no means diminished since my last two expeditions.  But new sympathies have been awakened, particularly during the last two years, with philanthropists and Christians, which added greatly to the number of my correspondents, without taking from its gratifications.

12th.  Rev. Ansel R. Clark of Hudson, Ohio, an agent of the Education Society, writes on the importance of that cause, on the state and prospects of American society, the spread of vital morals in neighborhoods on the great line of the frontiers, Indian civilization, &c.  In connection with the last topic, he acknowledges the receipt of the proceedings published by the Algic Society, and expresses his interest in its objects.

This society, by its standing committee here, received Elder John Sunday in the autumn, furnished him with lodgings while at the place, and an outfit for his missions to the Indians at Keweena Bay in Lake Superior.  It also furnished John Cabeach and John Otanchey—­all converted Chippewas from the vicinity of Toronto, U.C., with the means of practical teaching and traveling among various bands of the Northern Chippewas.  It sent an express in the month of January to La Pointe, L.S., to communicate with the mission family there, with their papers, letters, &c.  Regular monthly meetings of the St. Mary’s committee were held, and the proceedings denote the collection of much information of high interest to the cause of the red man.

15th.  I was anxious now to extend the sphere of my observation to Europe.  I had been engaged twelve consecutive years out of a period of fifteen (omitting 1823, 1828, 1829 and 1830) in journeys chiefly in the great Valley of the Mississippi, the vast flanks of the Rocky Mountains, the Upper Lakes, and the north-western frontiers.  And I began to sigh for a prospect of older countries and institutions.  The time seemed favorable, in my mind, for such a movement, and I wrote to a friend high in influence at Washington, on the subject.  In a reply of this date, he throws, with adroitness, cold water on the subject.  He weighs matters in scales which will only keep their equipoise at the place of the seat of government; and, if I may say so, require their equipoise to be kept up by casting on the golden weights of political expediency.  Like those seemingly mysterious charms which produce the variations in the compass, the effects are always instantly visible, we see the dip and intensity of the needle, while the causes are in great measure out of sight.