tend from one to six miles in depth. By selecting locations where bluffs or high lands extend to the streams, comparatively short embankments would be required.

Taking a tract ten miles long, with an average depth of one mile, and allowing the expense of the dam, ditches, locks, &c., to be $10,000 per mile (as much as railroads cost), and two dollars paid for the land, the total expense would be $20 per acre. The deeper the swamps the less would be the proportionate expense. The lands would, when reclaimed, certainly be worth the value of one year's yield; and whilst reclaiming the land the valuable timbers could be made an additional source of profit, and thus from 100 to 500 per cent. realized in two or three years where properly managed. In India, China, Holland, Egypt, the Mississippi Valley, and elsewhere, similar lands have been reclaimed by works of far greater magnitude than would here be required.

The town of Aiken is pleasantly situated on the right ridge of land that separates the head-waters of the Edisto River from the streams that fall into the Savannah, and is remarkable for its elevation above tide water; being located at that happy mean which combines most beneficially the advantages of a pine-growing region with the bracing and invigorating air of a mountainous country. Free from the mias. matic influences which so frequently attend the moist climate of a lower section, it is equally devoid of the deleterious effects of their cold atmosphere of a higher range; and the pure dry nature of its air, acting like a healthful tonic upon the exhausted lungs, and causing the blood to course with renewed and delightful vigor through the fevered veins, has often been productive to the invalid of the happiest results.

Ascending gradually from the seaboard, along the line of the South Carolina Railroad, the country presents an apparently level surface to the eye of the traveler, and he is surprised to find himself at an elevation of six hundred feet when he reaches the plateau upon which Aiken is situated.

The town itself is laid out in a neat and pleasing manner, with wide streets, shaded by large trees. It is built upon a different plan from that which has in general governed the growth of our inland towns; and the houses instead of being gathered together around one com. mon centre, are in detached groups and villas. The stores, however, are all arranged on the main street, which is at right angles to the Railroad Avenue, and are commodious and well supplied with wares. It may not be out of place to remark that the appearance of the town has attracted the admiration of the numerous officers and strangers who have passed through it, and it has always been contrasted most favorably with other villages of the State.

Westward the country falls away rapidly towards the Savannah in a series of broken hills and undulating slopes, that furnish to the lover of the picturesque many scenes of the wonderful beauty of nature, while evidences lay strewn around him, thick แ as autumnal leaves in Vallambrosa," that he is traversing one of those peculiar

geological formations of the State which bears unmistakable evidence of marine productions and deposits.

The aluminous formations, that occur in immense beds of the finest porcelain clays, are here exposed by the denuding effects of water, and lie in rich strata upon the very surface, ready to the hand of the manufacturer. Between Aiken and Graniteville the beds are in many cases sixty feet thick, while those on the Savannah River, near Hamburg, are from ten to fifteen, and are of unsurpassed purity. (See Tuomy's Geology of South Carolina, p. 141.)

Eastward and Northward from Aiken the land declines gradually toward the sparsely wooded black-jack region of the surrounding Districts, and presents no features of peculiar interest. A few miles to the South of the town, on Cedar Creek, lie, in considerable thickness, the very valuable beds of buhr stone which form so rich a part of the mineral wealth of this section. The rock has a silicified cellular structure that fits it admirably for mill-stones, and it needs only be brought before the world for its great value to be properly appreciated and immediately applied. This is the most extensive de posit of buhr mill-stone in the State; solid stones ten feet in diameter can be procured, the beds, taken together, exceeding thirty feet in thickness. (See Tuomy, p. 143.)

Ure, volume II., page 165, speaking of buhr stone, says "that it constitutes a very rare geological formation being found in abundance only in the mineral basin of Paris and a few adjoining districts, from whence it is exported chiefly to England and America. Stones of six and a half feet in diameter fetch 1,200 francs apiece, or £48."

Among the large class of invalids who suffer in the colder regions of the North, from pulmonary diseases, Aiken has long been widely celebrated for the peculiarly restorative and healthful effects of its atmosphere, and numbers have had cause to feel the profoundest gratitude for the beneficial influences of its climate.

Its accessibility to travelers from all directions, and the well-known salubrity of its situation, has given to the place in all quarters of the United States and Canada that reputation to which it is so well entitled, and which must continue to increase as its merits as a resort for consumptive patients become more widely known. As a natural result from the influx of persons in quest of that greatest boon of nature, good health, the tone of society in the town is much superior to that usually found in country places of the same population, and the social standard is much elevated by continued additions from the better class of persons, who, finding the climate so admirably adapted to the wants of their physical nature, settle here and become permanent residents.

Various denominations of religious belief find their appropriate places of worship here, and are well represented in the several churches scattered throughout the town. Educational interests have always been well attended to, and in the years preceding the violent civil struggle that has so recently shaken this continent to its centre, a Military Academy, a Female Institute and a free school were lo

cated in the limits of the corporation. These institutions, whose exercises have been suspended for the past few years, are to be revived when the growing strength of the South shall permit attention to be turned from the fields of daily labor in which the struggle is now for daily bread, to the peaceful pursuits of literature and mental cultivation. There are at present several excellent schools for the primary education of children, and an institution for boys preparing for college, which is ably conducted by competent teachers, in the com modious building erected by the corporation for the purpose.

Since the reorganization of the State Government, a Bill has been brought before the Legislature for the purpose of creating into a new District the section of country, lying adjacent to the town, of which section Aiken is the proposed county seat and centre.

The interests of the place and its growing value in the eyes of settlers demand this change in the division of the State, and the Bill, having already the sanction of the Committee of the legislative body to whom it was referred, waits only the action of time to become a law of the land. This will add much to the worth of real estate, and supply what has long been needed here-a centre to the peculiar interests of this part of the State. With this impulse and motive the growth of the town cannot be checked, and the rapid development of the natural resources of the land, which lie in such abundance on every side, will be its legitimate result.

With regard to facilities for communicating with the outer world there are advantages here which will give this section additional value. The town of Aiken, lying as it does directly on the line of the South Carolina Railroad, a trip of a few hours conveys the produce of the year to Charleston, from whence it can be exported to foreign countries, or on the other hand, to Augusta, from whence it can be distributed to the interior towns of the South. The Columbia and Hamburgh Railroad, which will constitute one of the links of the "Great Seaboard Mail Line" from New York to New Orleans, runs within a mile or two of the town.

The Aiken and Ninety-six Railroad has been surveyed and located, and eventually will be built to afford an outlet to the produce of the Great West that will pour over the Blue Ridge Railroad; the Port Royal Railroad, which joins the city of Augusta to the deep water of Port Royal, one of the finest harbors of the world, has also been fully surveyed, laid out and partially graded, and runs but a few miles South of the town. So that the place will be surrounded on all sides by the most ample facilities for transportation by rail, to say nothing of the abundant carrying means afforded to the lumber trade by the natural channels of the Edisto and Savannah rivers.

The markets of all sections are thus laid open to our producers, and the demand for the produce will be steady and increasing. Communications with the teeming prairie lands of the Northwest, by means of a short and direct route to the Atlantic coast, will be such an advantage to them as to insure its early completion, and the great towns of Cincinnati, Memphis and St. Louis will transact their

foreign business along a line of road on which our town is advantageously situated.

The soil is admirably adapted to the culture of grapes, peaches, figs, and other fruits, and in this respect affords fine opportunities for the employment of the numerous invalids whose health would permit of out-door exercise. The earth presents just that mixture of chemical proportions in which the mulberry tree delights, so that the growth of silk cocoons could be entered upon to much advantage. In fact, when cultivated with energy, and a proper application is made of the fertilizing agents of the agriculturists, the farmer can direct and increase the productions of nature at his will, and control at pleasure the yield of his land.

Nor is this the only mode in which the country is susceptible of improvement and its resources of development. The situation of the ridge on which we live, at an elevation of four hundred feet above the city of Augusta, from which it is only sixteen miles distant, and of three hundred feet above Graniteville, five miles off, will give some idea not only of the rapid and thorough drainage which it enjoys, but of the immense power which might be used for manufacturing purposes afforded by the numerous streams and creeks flowing from these highlands.

Already some forty or fifty saw-mills have been erected and engaged in sawing pine lumber, some of which is consumed here and the remainder floated down the river to the coast, where it commands the highest prices, as the soft yellow pine lumber of this region is well known to dealers. As yet all other species of timber are utterly ignored, although various kinds abound, that are elsewhere deemed most valuable.

The success that has attended the manufacturing establishments located on Horse Creek, demonstrates the practicability and advantages of such enterprises. That of Vauclause, (seven miles from Aiken,) founded in 1832, was the pioneer. It was built of granite found on the spot, and employs probably some 300 persons in making yarns, osnaburgs and drills.

The cotton factory and village of Graniteville is an object of more than ordinary interest. The general appearance of the town, the neat and symmetrical style in which the houses of the operatives are built, the beautiful garden and fountains attached to the factory for their. enjoyment; the attention paid to hygienic matters, police and education; the condition of the roads, streets, and canal, shaded by large trees; the picturesque cemetery; the forethought and the judgment that has evidently been exercised to produce such a complete effect, all attract attention, and it is generally admitted to be a model manufacturing village, unsurpassed in the United States, and the heavy dividends and the scarcity of the stock on the market, shows how profitable it has been.

At Bath, some nine miles distant, is an extensive paper-mill, which is kept busily employed in making various qualities of paper. As an illustration, the following anecdote may be pertinent: A so

ciety in Augusta needing a quantity of paper recently, sent to New York in order to get a superior article. When it arrived they found it had been manufactured within six miles of home at the Bath Mills, sent to New York and then returned.

At Kaolin, twelve miles off, is a porcelain factory, and at Kalmia Mills a company has been actively engaged in the erection of a very large establishment for making cotton goods, calculated to afford cmployment to one thousand hands, and which is expected to be in operation by next fall. A charter has also recently been granted to tie Rose Mill Manufacturing Company, to be located on the head. waters of Tinkers' Creek, eight miles Southeast of Aiken.

As yet these water powers have not received the attention they merit. The streams are never-failing, and capable of driving the machinery for hundreds of miles, and, unlike many in more Northern latitudes, are not affected by the ill effects of the extreme cold.

In another paper, in our next issue, will be presented the invaluable resources of this region, in clays, fruits, vines, etc., etc.

ART. VI.--HOME EDUCATION AND THE HOME CIRCLE.

ECONOMY is a virtue, hitherto little understood or practiced at the South. She is now called on to retrench all the usual expenses of living, and to practice the most systematic and rigid economy. privations which she patiently endured throughout the late war, and the heroic fortitude which she exhibited under suffering in every form, will render it easy for her now to dispense with many of the comforts and most of the luxuries of life-the more easily, because all being reduced in circumstances, all alike will live plainly and frugally. Thus to live will become the fashion, and be considered, (very properly under our present circumstances,) the chiefest of virtues. We were glad to find during a late trip to the country, that those whom the war had left moderately independent, were busiest and most energetic in setting the examples of industry and frugality. It is easy for the poor to be frugal when the rich thus set the example. Most of our wants were acquired and artificial, the creatures of fashion, rather than of nature or necessity. To live plainly and cheaply is less troublesome, less laborious, and begets less of care and anxiety, even with the wealthy, than to live fashionably and expensively. Until the late war we were all, more or less the slaves of fashion. To become independent of her costly or capricious dominion is a great point gained, which of itself will reduce the ordinary expense of living at least one-half. It has become the fashion not only to live plainly, but to labor with our own hands, at any work that our family wants require. When we had whole troops of negro servants about us, to supervise and keep them at work, left us no time to work ourselves. We find now, it is often less irksome and disagreeable to.