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sustain the homely appellation of "Ponds." This name is strictly applicable to small collections of standing water that have no outlet or emitting stream. In this sense, it is believed the word is used in Europe and in all the States south of Massachusetts. Collections of water like ours are uniformly called Lakes. They are here generally fed by subjacent springs, and scarcely any have not a beautiful outlet at all seasons of the year. Their waters of course are pure and limpid, and their surfaces are rarely defaced by noxious weeds. They are generally surrounded by a tract of country of varied elegance, and the delight with which they strike the eye of a traveller or of a spectator from the neighboring hills, cannot easily be described. The breezes wafted from them are pure and salubrious, and the neighboring inhabitants are not subject to those diseases that are so often the scourge of other regions in the vicinity of standing water. These remarks perhaps will apply to nearly all the lakes in the interior of New England. Their waters are generally stored with fish, and in the summer season, are often the resort of parties of pleasure. Many of the Lakes of this County are ornamented with margins of great fertility, not usual in other parts of the country.

RIVERS. NO streams of great magnitude are found in this County, but the fountains that supply the most majestic rivers of New England, are embosomed among our hills. Of those that run Westerly and fall into the Connecticut, the most noted are Miller's, Ware, and Chickopee Rivers. The first, called by the natives Payquage, has its principal source from a large pond in Winchendon, lying principally in the State of New Hampshire. Another source is from a pond in Ashburnham called Naukheag.These with other smaller streams, unite in the northeasterly part of Winchendon, and there take the name of Miller's river. waters of Gardner, Winchendon, Athol, and Royalston fall into this stream, together with a portion of those from Ashburnham, Templeton, Phillipston, and Westminster. Miller's river is broad and deep, and its rapids furnish many valuable mill seats. It empties into the Connecticut between Northfield and Montague, in the County of Franklin.

The

2d. Ware River has one of its head waters in a pond in Phillipston, and passing through Templeton, Hubbardston, and Barre, where it receives large additional supplies of water, it passes westerly and becomes the boundary line between Hardwick and New Braintree. Then leaving the County and passing through the town

of Ware, it loses its name in the Chickopee in Palmer. Swift river, the east branch of which rises in Petersham, falls into it, before its junction with the Chickopee.

3d. The Chickopee, or according to the classical Dr. Dwight, who retains the orthography of 1654, the Chequapee, rises in Oakham, Spencer, Leicester, and Paxton, from which towns it runs into Brookfield, where it takes the name of Mill River or Quaboag, and thence into Western, where it receives several tributary streams, and takes the name of Chickopee, which it retains until its union with the Connecticut.-This is the river, which in the common language of the people of that country, runs up to Springfield.

The rivers that fall into the Merrimack are the Souhegan, the Assabet, and the Nashaway.

4th. The Souhegan, a noted branch of the Merrimack, has its principal source in a pond in Ashburnham, from whence it passes into Ashby, but soon enters the State of New Hampshire, at New Ipswich.

5th. The Assabet rises in Berlin, Grafton, and Northborough, from thence flows into Marlborough, where it forms the north branch of Concord River.

6th. Sudbury River, which forms the south branch of the Concord, rises partly from a pond in Westborough, and running southeasterly, forms the boundary between Southborough and Hopkinton, where it leaves the County.

7th. The Nashaway or Nashua, the largest and most important of the Rivers of this County, is formed from two branches-the northerly has its source from the Wachusett Pond in Westminster, from whence it passes through Fitchburg and Leominster, to the centre of Lancaster, where it receives the south branch, which also has its principal source near the Wachusett. Its most northerly head water is Rocky pond, in the gore of unincorporated land called Notown, between the towns of Westminster, Fitchburg, Leominster, and Princeton. This branch, called Still river, passes through Princeton, the westerly part of Sterling, receiving large additions in both of those towns, then into West Boylston, where it receives the Quinepoxet from Holden. Now taking its proper name, the south branch of the Nashaway, it continues its course through Boylston into Lancaster, from whence, after its junction with the north branch, it passes through a corner of Bolton, receiving another stream, called also Still river, then washing the wester

ly borders of Harvard, it holds its long way to the Merrimack, in the State of New Hampshire. Now diffusing fertility and wealth over its variegated and extended intervals, and now again ministering to the wants of men by affording an abundant supply of never failing water power, to the various and magnificent manufacturing establishments situated upon its banks, within almost every mile of its course.

The Quineboag and French rivers fall into the Thames, and seek the Ocean at Long Island Sound near New London:

8th. The first rises in the County of Hampden, and runs easterly through Sturbridge, Southbridge, and Charlton, then through Dudley and joins the French river in the State of Connecticut.

9th. French River, rises in Holden, and is there called Turkey brook :-Tatnick or Halfway river also rises in Holden and passes with Turkey brook through Worcester, these with Boggachoag, that rises in Worcester, together with several streams from Leicester, form the principal sources of French river. It runs through Ward, Oxford, and the easterly part of Dudley, where it leaves. the State.

10th. Charles river, has some of its sources from the rivulets in Milford and Mendon, from whence it runs into the County of Middlesex.

11th. The Blackstone is one of the most important rivers of the County. Its most northerly source is North Pond in Worcester; from this flows a small but beautiful stream called Millbrook or Bimilick.* This receiving various other waters in its course, passes through Millbury, Sutton, and Grafton, ten miles below Worcester, where it receives the Quinsigamond river, from the lake of that name, then passing through Northbridge, Uxbridge, and the southerly part of Mendon, it enters the State of Rhode Island a short distance below the noted Blackstone factory, having received in its course Mumford's river, which rises in Upton, with various other streams. In Rhode Island it is increased by various tributaries, and afterwards assumes the names of Pawtucket, Narragansett or Providence River.

This noble stream washes some of the most flourishing and opulent districts of the County. From its sources in Worcester and

*It is believed Bimilick is improperly applied to Millbrook. The name occurs but twice in the Proprietors books of Worcester, where it is given to a hill, north of Wigwam hill, near the north end of Quinsigamond lake. The written authorities found for calling it Bimilick, are Mass. Hist. Collections, Vol. I. 114. Whitney's History of the County of Worcester, 34. EDITORS.

Sutton to the sea at Providence, the traveller upon the fine roads, by its margin, is delighted by the view of a continued series of valuable Manufacturing establishments, furnishing employment for a vast amount of capital, as well as subsistence to an enterprizing, intelligent and thriving population. Where its bed is not precipitous it annually overflows many hundreds of acres of beautiful interval land, inferior to none in the County, if we except the fertile margin of the Nashaway. A canal is now constructing upon the banks of the Blackstone, and with their rapid growth, without this facility for communicating with tide waters, it is no easy task to predict, what improvements will be effected by the Inhabitants of this. region, after this great thoroughfare shall be completed.

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

SELECTED FROM THE EDINBURGH SCOTSMAN.

SHAWL MANUFACTURE.

G.

ACCIDENTAL Circumstances lately called our attention to some facts connected with the history of the Shawl manufacture, a short statement of which our readers may perhaps consider not without interest. We need scarcely state that this species of manufacture has risen almost from nothing within the last 30 years, and that little more than twenty years have passed since it was established in this city, which may now be considered as the chief seat of the finest, though not the most extensive branch of the manufacture.Shawls were originally made in the East Indies, and they exhibit a curious example of the high perfection to which some single species of manufacture may be carried in a country where the arts in general are in a rude state. So highly are these India shawls prized in this country, that they fetch a price of £100 to £200, or even £500, while the best of those of domestic manufacture can be had for £20 or £30. But what makes the preference shown to the foreign article the more surprising is, that no small proportion of the India shawls brought to Britain have been worn by the natives as turbans, girdles, &c. before they were imported. This is no secret among dealers, for the marks of wearing are often manifest to an experienced eye, in the discoloration or roughening of the surface, the attenuation of the fabric at particular places, and now and then in actual rents and holes. Strange as it may seem, therefore, it is literally true, that our wealthy and titled dames are content to array themselves in the cast clothes of our eastern sub

jects, which vestments, notwithstanding, have no small intrinsic value.

There are two substances of which the body or fabric of fine shawls is made-silk and wool. Silk has generally been employed in Britain; but the Hindoos use an extremely fine wool, and from the use of this material the Indian shawls derive much of their superiority. First, it gives them an exquisite softness and warmth, to which it is impossible to approach when the fabric is chiefly of silk. Secondly, the fine wool takes a brighter color than silk, and keeps it incomparably better. Thirdly, the woollen fabric has an advantage which is perfectly understood by the ladies-its folds dispose themselves in more graceful and flowing lines, and of course it affords a fine drapery to the figure. With regard to the patterns, it must be admitted, that till we have discovered the mode of working the figure practiced by the Indians, and till our weavers can subsist on two-pence a day, and spend three or four years labor on a single shawl, we shall scarcely be able to rival them. In the brightness of the dyes we already surpass the Hindoos, and the figures on their inferior shawls which are sewed in or embroidered, are not nearly equal to the best of those which we execute in the loom; but in the finest of the India shawls the figures are wove in a manner which we cannot perfectly imitate, and of which our weavers only comprehend enough to perceive, that it must be extremely laborious and infinitely tedious. Indeed it is certain, that even the smallest compartment of the figure must be worked on the principle on which we work an entire web-that the weft must be turned at each margin of the compartment, though it should be but a tenth of an inch in breadth. The best idea we can form of the process may be derived from the mode of laying in the figures of tapestry; and hence too the Indian mode of working enables them to sink the ground of the web more completely, and to exhibit the colors of the pattern in a more unmixed state than we possibly can. It is remarkable, too, that long practice has taught them to combine their colors with singular harmony, and to diversify their designs without falling into extravagance or incongruity, to such a degree, that the British manufacturer, with all his skill, finds it the best policy to copy their patterns, because he can seldom invent any thing better himself. In the execution of the figures, however, our manufacturers have made great progress within the last ten years; and this is not now the department in which their work has been felt to be most deficient.

Latterly their lead

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