The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-12-29 00:00:00

EMIGRATION.

This subject is so interest to the mivblling and
lower classes tbroogliout the Urited Kittgdoiti. that
we feel it our duty to extract the fcllvivvvotz letter
from the Dahlia Correspondra. l'be !o'er is
stated to have beeii written li n yout.g re-
spectable faeni'y in Soinersetshire, who had pe-
rused Mr. Birkbeck's works upon America :
" Philndelphia,netoher 17. ISIS.

" 1 informed you in my last, (ten Pitislitirzli, Anglia 1,
that we were that far on our way to Birkheek's Settlement,
which we have sines' visited, and which 1 presently de-
scribe. Mr. J. P, writ; and three other young men, left That
place in a small boat, 14 feet long, early in that month,
and proceeded down the Ohio for Cincinnati Cincinnati is
a fine thriving place, the nem e,4 1 have seen oust of Phila.
delphia. Were 1 a mechanic I would settle there. It seems
fall of hustle, and is, !believe, as healthy as any part of 0.,
Western States, hot at present it does nut meet my views.
We left it on the 21st of August, on horseback, having pur-
chased two horses and equipments for about utility dollars,
eaeh of us.

" The day after our leaving Cincinnati, we II in with
two gentlemen who were going to Bilicheck's, one of them
from England, the other from Ireland; this made our party
strong, four in number. We reached Vincennes on the 2ttili,
a dull place ; the inhabitants ■ppeared to be a mistime of
Indians and French. We reached Birkheck'► Settlement the
second day after leaving Vincennes, shoot four o'clock in the
afternoon. PreVlollls lu our 'arrival al alias prairie, we had
seen and true Heil over some very fine land, but unhealthily
situated, and void of spring water These disadvantazea,
we had reason to expect, Birklock had guarded against;
but he permits to Ishour under the prime (110811Valling,Il nv
hill neighbours. Ile appears to by a very rearved kind of
being.
" Ou our arrival at his cabin we made known our busi.
ness, and presented letters of introduction. The reception
we met with was very cool ; he lives to a small log cabin;
there is • long row of cabins fur I.i► labourers. Hie cabin
tieing so very small, tic told us he could not accommodate
strangers, but a cottage about a mile distant would. We
reached this cottage late in the evening; we could procure
no grain for our horses, and were obliged to feed them with
rough gnus—hard fate after such a
,journey'. Our fare was
not much better. This fAmily consisted of a man, his wile.,
five children, two lodgers, anal, with us four, math. 13 per-
sons, who were tat lodge in une small room.

"Tbe next morning we called at the Settlement, and found
two young men going over the land Birkbeck had to dispose
of, and we accompanied them through their day's immersion.
His land in general is not of the first quality, a great deal
is wet prairie. I do not think he has ;mole a jaslicione
choice. He has nut yet any very reset ctable spills rs except
those that came over with hint; neither do I think he will
have. He has greatly misrepresented the Settlement. The
land is nut of the first quality; uo spring water ; well water
tlist good ; no mill within :natty miles, and the country in ge-
neral unhealthy. Nos good site fur a town, nor convenience
for machinery at a future day ; and to add to this, he and
Flower are at variance, and never sprok to each other.
Flower left a wife in England; hut since his 1-s:skint! io (his
country has married the young woman Hirklseek hrought
tent with him ! The settlement will do but for a few cha-
racters: we came away disgusted with it Mir, geths r, and
sorry to think that so many of our countrymen es ill pm-
bably be deluded by his false publications. The Westeru
Stotts are not calculated fur an Englishman who has Liman
any thing of society : they will do only for the labouring'
glass, and poor farmers o ills large families, accti•tomed to
hard labour: but even thuse will lie at a luso. Estropeaes
know nut now to handle the axe as All American duets, nor
can they suffer su many privations with patieuce."

SAGACITY OF 71IE ICELAND MOINE.

There is nothing about Husaren des'er►ing of
notice except its beast, the history of which has
rendered it more famous than other parts of the
!►land where the same zoological phenomenon has
not presented itself. This animal, which is sup-
posed by Olafreu and Povelsen to be a variety of
the wood or economical. mouse, displays a surpris-
ing degree of sagacity, both in conveying home its
provisions, and the manner in which it stores thesis
in the magazine appropriated for that purpose. Jul
a country, says Mr. Pennant, where berries are but
thinly dispersed, these little animals are obliged to
cross rivers to make their distant forages. in re-
turning with their booty to their magazines, they
are obliged to recross the stream; of which Mr.
Olofsen gives the following account :

• The party, which "...gismo( from six to tee, select a
piece of dried cow-dung, no which they place the berries oils
heap i• the 'Piddle; then, by their united force, bring it to
the water's edge, and, after launching it, embark and place
tbrueselves mood the heap, with their heads joined user it,
and their backs to the water.their tails pendant us the stream,
serving the purpose of rudders." Having been apprised of
doubts that were entertained on thin subject, I made a point
of inquiring of different iiidieiduals as to the reality of the
accoulio, and I am happy its being able tip say, that it is now
ettiddithed as au important fact is natural hictury, by the
testimony of two eye-witnesses of miquettiminble veracity,
the Clergyman of Brianialuk and Madame lienedietson of
Skikeshillin, both of whom assured me that they had Seen
the expedition repeatedly. Madame B iu psrtiesular, recol-
lected having spent a whole afternoon; In her youoter as's,
ut the margin of a small lake on which these navigators
had embarked, :snit amused brinelf and her companions by
driving then' sway from the side of the lake as they ap-
proached them. I was alto info,t•ed that they make use of
dried mushrooms as sacks in which they bosky their provi-
sions to the river, stud thence to their Issuers. Nor is the
Millilitre of their nests less ri markahle. Flom the sips face of
the ground a long masage runs into the earth, similar to
that of the In•eeadir ionises, and terminates in a lame and
deep hole, intended to receive any water that may find ha
stay through dm passage, anti setting, at the same time, as
• place for their dung. Alton( two thirds of the passage is,
two diagonal roads bad to their sleeping apartment stud
their inarisitor, which they ales>. coutinde to keep free
from Joltawfl)