Additional Judicial District in Michigan.—­J.D.  Doty, Esq., wrote to me (April 8th) on this subject.  So far as my judgment and observation went, they were favorable to this project.  Besides, if I was to become an inhabitant of the district, as things now boded, it would be desirable to me to dwell in a country where the laws, in their higher aspects, were periodically administered.  I had, therefore, every reason to favor it.

Skeptical Views of the Mosaical Chronology.—­Baptiste Irvine, Esq., in referring to some criticism of his in relation to the discovery of fossils by a distinguished individual, brings this subject forward in a letter of April 19th.  This individual had written to him, impugning his criticisms.

“I regret,” he observes, “the cause, and shall endeavor to give publicity to his (my friend’s) observations; though hardly necessary to him, they may yet awaken some ideas in the minds of the people on the wonders of physics I had almost said the slow miracles of creation.  For if ever there was a time when matter existed not, it is pretty evident that millions of years were necessary to establish order on chaos, instead of six days.  Let Cuvier, &c., temporize as they may.  However, it is the humble allotment of the herd to believe or stare; it is the glory of intelligent men to acquire and admire.”  “For the memoir I am very thankful, and I perceive it alters the case.”

April 22d.  Mount Vernon.—­In a pilgrimage to this spot, if political veneration may assume that name, I was accompanied by Honorable Albert H. Tracy, Mr. Ruggles, and Mr. Alfred Conkling of the House of Representatives, all of New York.  We took a carriage, and reached the hallowed place in good season, and were politely admitted to all the apartments and grounds, which give interest to every tread.  I brought some pebbles of common quartz and bits of brown oxide of iron, from the top of the rude tomb, and we all broke branches of the cedars growing there.  We gazed into the tomb, through an aperture over the door, where bricks had been removed, and thought, at last, that we could distinguish the coffin.

Human Feet figured on Rock at St. Louis.—­The Honorable Thomas H. Benton, in a letter of 29th April, expresses the opinion that these are antiquities, and not “prints,” and that they are of the age of the mounds on the American bottom.

Mineralogy.—­J.D.  Doty, Esq., transmits (May 6th) from the vicinity of Martinsburg, New York, specimens of the geological structure of that neighborhood.

Austin’s Colony.—­“What you have said to me heretofore, concerning Mr. Austin’s settlement in Texas, has rather turned my attention in that direction.  Have you any means of communicating with your friend?  What are your views of that country?”

CHAPTER IX.

Appointed an agent of Indian affairs for the United States at Saint Mary’s—­Reasons for the acceptance of the office—­Journey to Detroit—­Illness at that point—­Arrival of a steamer with a battalion of infantry to establish a new military post at the foot of Lake Superior—­Incidents of the voyage to that point—­Reach our destination, and reception by the residents and Indians—­A European and man of honor fled to the wilderness.