USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historical sketches of the ten miles square forming the District of Columbia : with a picture of Washington, describing objects of general interest or curiosity at the metropolis of the Union. > Part 3
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" 8. And be it enacted, That acknowledgments of deeds made before a person in the manner and certified as the laws of this state direct, or made before, and certified by, either of the commissioners, shall be effectual; and that no deed here- after to be made, of or for lands within that part of the said territory which lies within this state, shall operate as a legal conveyance, nor shall any lease for more than seven years bo effectual, unless the deed shall have been acknowledged as a- foresaid, and delivered to the said clerk to be recorded within six calander months from the date thereof.
" 9. And be it enacted, That the commissioners aforesaid, or some two of them, shall direct an entry to be made in the said record book of every allotment or assignment to the res- pective proprietors in pursuance of this act.
" 10. . And, for the encouragement of master builders to un. dertake the building and finishing houses within the said city, by securing to them a just and effectual remedy for their ad- vances and earnings, be it enacted, That for all sums due and owing on written contracts, for the building any house in tho
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Ratification of Cession by Maryland.
said city, or the brick work, or carpenters or joiners work thercon, the undertaker, or workmen, employed by the person Tor whose use the house shall be built, shall have a lien on the house and the ground on which the same is erected, as well as for the materials found by him; provided the said written contract shall have been acknowledged before one of the com- missioners, a justice of the peace, or an alderman of the corpo- ration of Georgetown, and recorded in the office of the clerk for recording deeds herein created, within six calendar months from the time of acknowledgment as aforesaid; and if within two years after the last of the work is done, he proceeds in equity, he shall have remedy as upon a mortgage, or if he pro- creds at law within the same time he may have execution against the house and land, in whose hands soever the same may be; but this remedy shall be considered as additionul on- Jy; nor shall, as to the land, take place of any legal incumbrance made prior to the commencement of such ela m.
" 11. And be it enacted, That the treasurer of the western thore be empowered and required to pay the seventy-two thousand dollars agreed to be advanced to the president by res- olutions of the last session of assembly, in sums as the same may come to his bands on the appointed funds, without wait- ing for the day appointed for the payment thereof.
" 12. . And be it enacted, That the commissioners aforesaid for the time being, or any two of them, shall, from time to time, until congress shall exercise the jurisdiction and govern- ment within the said territory, have power to license the buil- ding of wharf's in the waters of Potomacand the Eastern Branch adjoining the said city, of the materials, in the manner, and of the extent, they may judge durable, convenient, and agreeing with general order; but no license shall be granted to one to build a wharf before the land of another, nor shall auy wharf be built in the said waters without license as aforesaid; and if any wharf shall be built without such license, or different there- from, the same is hereby declared a common nuisance; they may also, from time to time, make regulations for the discharge and loving of ballast from ships or vessels lying in Potomao river, above the lower line of the sail territory and Georgetown. and from ships and vessels lying in the Eastern Branch; they may also, from time to time, make regulations for landing and Paying materials for building the said city, for disposing and laying earth which may be dug out of the wells, cellars and foundations, and for ascertaining the thickness of the walls of Nousce, and to enforce the observance of all such regulations, by appointing penalties for the breach of any one of them, nos
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Ratification of Cession by Md .- Soil.
exceeding ten pounds current moncy, which may be recovered in the name of the said commissioners, by warrant, before a justice of the peace, as in case of small debts, and disposed of as a donation for the purpose of the said act of congress; and the said commissioners; or any two of them, may grant licen- ses for retailing listilled spirits within the limits of the said city, and suspend or declare the same void; and if any person shall retail or sell any distilled spirits, mixed or junmixed, in less quantity than ten gallons to the same person, or at the same t me actually delivered, he or she shall forfeit for every such sale three pounds, to be recovered and applied as afore- said.
" 13. . And be it enacted, That an act of assembly of this state, to condemn lands, if necessary, for the public buildings of the United States, be and is hereby repealed.
SOIL.
Of soil and surface in the District, there is & vast variety-the heights, " in gay theatric pride," are every where clothed with forest trees; the valley's below gently undulate, and are diversi- fied by cultivation or wild shrobberies, forming a landscape of great natural beauty. Springs of wa- ter are found in every direction, of superior quality and purity. Rock Creek, Tiber Creek, and the Eastern Branch. on the North; Oxen Run on the South, and Four Mile Run, on the West, irrigate a great portion of the district. The Potomac presents a vast sheet, flowing from N. W. to S. E. Viewed from Fort Washington, with the mouth of the Eas- tern Branch on the left, the main stream on the right, and the opening of Four Mile Run nearly in front, an English writer, during the late incur- sion of the British, in a letter, described the
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Soil.
Potomac as " the sea flowing in on THREE SIDES." Compared with many of the rivers in England, it does, indeed, present to the imagination of a foreigner, the idea of an inland sea; and no won- der the simplicity of an islander conjured it up to the magnitude of an ocean.
The composition of the soil on the banks of the Potomac and the Eastern Branch, is a deep allu- vial, rich and various, accumulated from the de- posites of ages, and the receding of the waters; fragments of primitive rocks, pyrites, gravel, sand shells, and decayed vegetable substances, are in- fermixed together. On the whole, the soil near the river is fertile and yielding-elsewhere rather thin, and sometimes sandy; but susceptible of great improvement-and, in truth, the most for- bidding, hungry looking spots, with ordinary at- tention, plaster or manure, may be fertilized in an extraordinary degree. Several instances have occurred to the observation of the writer, where a vine slip, carelessly torn off, or a twig of a shrub. having been put into the earth, and neglected or for- gotten, has produced a fine healthy scion, to the surprise of the beholder. With such a soil, no- thing is needed but a little New England perseve- rance, and the fields that now appear worn out or useless, might soon blossom like the rose. The Rock Creek lands are of a light, loamy nature,
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Soil.
with a substratum of clay. The soil, in the di- rection of Dunlop's farm is deeper, richer, and more durable than elsewhere in the vicinity.
Notwithstanding the soil of the District is rather sterile, yet with the application of any spe- cies of compost, it is capable of high improvement, as stated above; and might, from its convenience to an excellent and active market, by enterpris- ing and persevering gardeners or agriculturists, be made eminently productive and profitable .- 'The well cultivated city garden of Mr. J. Brown affords ample proof of this fact. The natural produce of the country is such as is common to the adjoining states-wheat, Indian corn, tobac- co, fruit and roots There is convenient to the Ten Miles Square, an extensive quarry of free- stone, on Aquia Creek, and another of beautiful marble on the Seneca, from which the columns of the chamber of the House of Representatives were quarried.
The composition of the city low grounds, lying below the heights, from the Capitol Hill to Kalorama, to the margin of the main stream of the Potomac, are alluvial, and appear to have but re- cently been reclaimed. Within the memory of -many, seines have been hauled, and fish taken, where handsome stores now stand, in the most busi- ness part of Pennsylvania avenue, between 9th and
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Soil. 1753046
10th streets. The extent of the slashes below Co. lumbia College, bear evidence that a part of the stream of Rock Creek found its way across, in the direction of the Eastern Branch, at the bottom of the heights, flanking the northern part of Wash- ington. By judicious draining, these swamps Lave been lately limited to a comparatively small space: still their existence has an injurious effect upon the health of the inhabitants residing in their vicinity. This fact is clearly established by the improvement of the health of the whole vicinity of the low grounds, from the Centre Market to Cap- stol Hill.
Buried beneath the soil, from ten to fifty feet, pieces of sound timber are often discovered. In digging wells, several pieces of black looking limbs of trees and entire roots, are found covered from twenty to fifty feet. Carbonated limbs of trees, forming an extensive vein, near Bladens- burgh, and north of the city, have been trac- cd, embedded for a considerable distance .- Many blocks of stone that compose the walls of the Capitol, we are informed, contain specimens of the leaves of trees and ligeneous fragments; and høne of the stone, when exposed to the air, has frequently shrunk or contracted.
On turning up the surface of the soil. some cu- niusities of Indian origin have been discovered.
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Soil-Climate.
Round stone vessels, in the shape of common pots or bowls, and stone axes, are sometimes picked up. An excellent specimen of an Indian axe, in capital preservation, was found on the farm of Mr. Dunlop, in Montgomery county, Maryland. and is yet in his possession. Points of darts, or arrows of stone, probably used in Indian warfare. are met with, in many parts of the District. At. Indian fort, of which there is now no traces left. is referred to in some ancient records, as standing on the banks of the Eastern Branch, not far from where the Powder Magazine is now located.
The temperature of the water of the city springs. when brought to the surface of the earth, at mid- summer, may be set down at fifty-eight Fahrenheit: the Bladensburgh chalybeate at sixty-four, and the stream of the Potomac at eighty-five; and from hydrants on the Pennsylvania Avenue generally, where the pipes are sunk to a proper depth, a: sixty-six; though it may issue from the fountain spring at fifty-eight.
CLIMATE.
The prejudices that some time back existed adverse to the general health of this district, have been dissipated, by the monthly publication of me teorological observations, and the interments in the public grave yards, authenticated by the Board ..
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Climate.
Health : ample extracts from these statements will be found at the end of this work. Our climate, of course, resembles that of the adjoining parts of Maryland and Virginia. The severity of the win- ter, or cold season, is no doubt, of late years much mitigated. In 1780, Mr. Jefferson says, " the Che- sapeake Bay was solid ice from its head to the mouth of the Potomac. At Annapolis, where it is 52 over, between the nearest points of land, the ice was from 5 to 7 inches thick quite across, so that loaded carriages went over it."
In Jan. 1772, the snow in the district of Wash- ington was nearly three feet deep, and in some places it drifted to ten or twelve feet: of late years not more than as many inches have fallen. For- merly the river, near Dumfries, was frequently frozen over in November,-heavy snows fell in same month, and loaded the forest trees, till their branches broke, under the pressure. The climate, &s cultivation progresses, is rapidly improving .-- We are now seldom visited with the long or severe winters, which our early settlers so feel- ingly complained of. France, as well as Ameri- ca, in its uncultivated state, had hard winters. - In the time of Julius Cæsar, the Rhine was frozen over, and neither the olive nor the vine was then cultivated: a Gallic winter, once proverbially se- yere, is now, under a state of high cultivation,
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Climate.
mild and pleasant. In the days of Horace, moun- tains near Rome, were covered with snow --
" Vides ut alta stet nive candidum " Soracte."
The climate of Britain, however, is a remark. able exception; it appears, in our days, to conti- nue what it was, in the times of Tacitus, moist, cloudy, and rainy-
"Colum crebris imbribus ac nebulis fædum."
So we are encouraged, on the authority of the ancients, to look forward to a progressive improve- ment and material mitigation in the rigours of win- ter, when our soil will be more generally opened by cultivation; we may not then be tortured with those extremes of heat and cold under which we now labour. from 6° below to 98° above Fahrenheit, which, as Mr. Jefferson remarks, are, indeed, dis- tressing: for heat is proportionate to the action of the sun's rays on the naked surface of the earth.
" It seems," says Dr. Rush, speaking of Penn- sylvania, " as if our climate were a compound of all other climates of the world: we have the damps and glooms of Britain in the spring-the scorch- ing rays of Africa in the summer-the mild tem- perature of Italy, in the autumn-the cold and snow of Norway and the ice of Holland, in the winter-somewhat of the West Indies, at every season; and the capricious winds and fluctuating
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Climale.
weather of Great Britain throughout the year." What Dr. Rush says of Pennsylvania, will but too aptly apply to the climate of this district, where the vicissitudes of temperature are often painful. On the banks of the Potomac, it has been face- tiously said, that the battle of the north and south winds are often fought; and, if we can trust our feelings, the main theatre of the conflict is near our district. A narrow volume of wind, forcing its way down from the north west, in the direction of the trough of the river, frequently produces rapid changes of temperature, accom- panied by the most violent and piercing gusts of wind.
Our climate is, nevertheless, by a philosophic and intelligent traveller (Volney) comprehended on the southern margin or border, of the middle or leaprrate, which he sets down as extending thro' Pennsylvania and Maryland, to the banks of the Potomac and the Patapsco.
In summer, we are visited with frequent thunder gusts, though, on the whole, they are be- reficial, as they tend to purify the atmosphere, and mitigate the sultriness of the season, which is often as oppressive as within the tropics. The most remarkable of these tempests or tornados occurred in June 1811, and August 1814: during the for- mer large hailstones, weighing three or four oun-
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Climate.
ces, destroyed every pane of glass on the north side of the houses in Alexandria: and, in the lat- ter instance, many houses were blown down and trees laid prostrate, much to the terror of the Bri- tish, who, at the time, held for 24 hours, the occupation of our city. The tables which we sub- join elsewhere, will show, from the minimum to the maximum, the temperature of an entire year. We have no doubt that the degree of caloric has considerably increased, since the forest trees were cut down on our commons, and wide gravelled avenues formed: the difference of temperature in favor of the forest shade is, by some philosophers, reckoned at one-fifth less than on an open space.
Bordering as the district does, on so many wa- ter courses, it may be naturally presumed, that its inhabitants, in the summer months, are not free from the annoyance of insects. The musqueto is the most formidable of this description; but houses on an elevated scite, or with a thorough draught of air, are seldom troubled with them .- On the low grounds, and on the borders of swamps, ephemeral insects, chiefly of aquatic origin, in swarms of various descriptions, make their ap- pearance; mosqueto curtains however, so common in Carolina, are here very seldom required for the comforts of the bed chamber.
It may naturally be expected that the sudden changes of the atmosphere, though in sound con-
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Climate.
stitutions, they may harden the body, yet with the more delicate, produce, in winter and spring, colds, coughs, rheumatic affections, and in the fail, bilious fevers, agues, &c .; but still it will appear by the official obituary lists, given else- where, that that part of the district where Wash- ington is located. is at least as healthy if not more so, than any other portion of the union, containing an equal number of inhabitants: and here we have the authority of Mr. Blodget, which recent calculations more fully confirm, for assert- ing, that only 1 of 48 to 50 die in Washington- that in New York, 1 of 44 to 50; that in Balti- more, 1 of 43 to 49; that in Charleston, South Carolina, 1 of 35 to 40: from which it results, that of all these cities, Washington is the heal- thiest, and in this respect it has evidently an ad- vantage over the principal cities of Europe, where the annual deaths are as 1 to 23, and in towns, as to 1 to S8. Warden remarks-
" The intermitting fever, which is confined to particular spots, seems to originate from the exha- lations of marshes and borders of stagnant waters; though it is a curious fact, and worthy the atten- tion of physicians, that families, who live in the neighbourhood of these places, enjoy good health, while others, who inhabit the summit of an adja- 4
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Climate.
cent hill, are victims to this annual returning ma- lady. When marshy places become dry, fish, insects, and decaying vegetable substances, expo- sed to the action of a burning sun, generate those gazeous miasms, which, absorbed by the body, produce weakness, sickness, and death. Ascend- ing, by their lightness, they are probably carried by the winds to a neighbouring eminence, where settling, they form a sickly and noxious atmos- phere." Again-" At Washington the bilious sometimes degenerates into a putrid fever, but this may be owing more to unskilful management and to want of cleanliness, than to the climate."
As it regards health, an intelligent observer says, the year, it is conceived, should be divi- ded into two seasons instead of four; that is to say into the hot and the cold-for moisture is common to both in the U. States; and individuals should dress accordingly. Ideas founded upon such a division of the year, and steadily acted upon in overy rank of life might tend to diminish the num- ber of deaths by consumption. The cold season, near the sea coast of the Union, may be counted from November to May, inclusive; and the hot season from June to October, inclusive. The number of deaths, it will be perceived, are the most numerous about the month of August, and
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Climate-Geology.
the least so about the month of February. In this estimate, allusion is had chiefly to the populous cities.
On the whole, the climate of the District is liable to frequent and sudden changes-in the Summer excessively hot, and in Winter, very cold: but it does not appear to be more pregnant with dis- cases than other portions of the U. States. The healthy appearance and longevity of the inhabi- tants, indicate its salubrity : and, indeed, when we consider the flowing nature of its surface, the free admission of pure and wholesome air, and the ex- cellence of its water, in which it stands unrival- ed in the United States, we cannot but believe must be healthy.
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
The geological features of the country, about the Potomac, present some bold and striking fea- tures; the wild and savage scenery of the Great and Little Falls; the tremendous rocks, piled at random upon each, carry the imagination back to
" Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, held Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars."
A few years ago, a correspondent of a New York print, (generally understood to be an inte !-
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Geology and Mineralogy.
ligent member of Congress) took a glance at some of the prominent geological features of this District; and, although there be some imagination in the sketch, yet, there is enough of science to justify its insertion in this portion of our work- It is obvious, says he, to the most careless observer, that over the site of the Capitol of the U. States, and the country far around, the waves of the ocean once rolled, and that these fields, now quietly tilled by the planter, were thrown from beneath it by some tremendous convulsion. Where the great concerns of this nation are now canvassed, and our politicians are imagining that they may provide for the perpetuity of our republic, memo- ry, as if mocking their schemes, points to the pe- riod when the monsters of the deep flounced over the spot; and no human being conceived that the waters would not continue to hide it forever.
The proofs of the amazing change are numerous and conclusive. It is announced by the strata of earth; by the rounded stones, like those which grind and polish each other on the sea shore; and by the numerous secondary formations, which, without analysis, instruct us satisfactorily on the slightest inspection. In many of the stones found even on the heights around us, are distinct im- pressions of marine shells. The lime of which
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Geology and Mineralogy.
these shells were constituted, has been decompos- ed and has vanished, or been incorporated with the general mass which, when broken, exhibits the concave and convex surfaces of the marine sub- stance, and the vacant space produced by the slow waste of ages not now to be numbered. These stones are of various composition, some being ex- ceedingly hard, and others soft, and others hav- ing the character of the coarse grey sand-tone, or what has I think erroneously been called granular quartz ..
I have in my possession a specimen which must secure credence to the phenomenon I am attempt- ing to illustrate. It is a piece of charcoal thrown from a well in this city, at the depth of more than twenty feet, apparently fresh and entirely sound, filled in all the interstices and covered in part by iron pyrites, which give it great solidity and weight. The pyrites are in small specks of a bril- liant lustre, appearing in some parts as if insert- ed in laminæ: in others scattered in the minutest particles, which have insinuated themselves into every point of vacant space; and in others combin- ed in masses heaped upon the exterior. Is it the relict of a forest which grew thus deep in the beau- ty and bloom of vegetation, and was entombed alive by the wrath of the elements, or was it toru
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Geology and Mineralogy.
away with other wrecks of a ravaged continent, to be mingled in the foundation of a new world?
One of the handsomest specimens I have found here is a petrifaction of wood, over which there is a perfect incrustation of little quartz crystals, reflecting the light in a thousand directions, and glittering with a sparkling brilliancy. I obtained it at about three miles from the capitol. from the side of a gully, where are the remnants of, appa- rently, a partially decayed tree broken in pieces, scattered about on the ground and there petrified. The grain, the knots, and the texture of the ori- ginal substance, are so naturally displayed, that the test of feeling is necessary to detect the trans- mutation.
Were I to wander beyond this precinct, I could multiply proofs of the wonderful revolution of the physical constitution of this scene, until you would be fatigued. I have in my room a perfect stone oyster, if I may so express myself. thrown from a well at Fort Washington, so cunningly wrought that I was inclined to ascribe its workmanship to the chisel of art, rather than the sport of nature. It was unquestionably moulded by her in the pri- mitive shell, which she reduced to dust, and left the cast in perpetual testimony of her skill.
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Geology und Mineralogy.
Finally, what were once those beautiful and singular pillars, which now sustain the massive dome of our Representatives Hall, but pebbles and stone, driven together by some furious tide, and consolidated into one mass, as the cement of our union has politically combined the individual and integrant members, urged together by the stormy impulses of the revolution?
This formation has not been made by the gra- dual contribution of an alluvial deposit. It is composed, as you know, of vales, ravines, preci- pitous heights, and extensive swells of land. It could have been produced only by the direct agen- cy of Him who " divideth the sea by his power," and who "overturneth the mountains by the roots." To theorize on this mysterious subject, is, in my view, only to prove the presumption and the impotence of speculative man, yet how many there are who assume to declare when the corner stone of the earth was laid, and by what means the Almighty Architect has wrought. It is a theme too vast for the limited comprehension of the human intellect; and all we can rationally do is to admire the sublimity of the force, which shut the shore upon the proud waves, and the benefi- cence which gave their ancient domain to the em- pire of man.
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