in different parts of the state; and the university of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, 28 miles from Raleigh, is a respectable and flourishing institution. Religious Denominations.-The baptists are most numerous, and the methodists the next. After these are the presbyterians, Lutherans, episcopalians, united brethren, and friends. The Manufacture of Tar and Turpentine.-The following description of the process of making tar and turpentine, we copy from a letter from a traveller in the South, which appeared in a late newspaper: "This turpentine business has become, within the last two years, a very lucrative one indeed. The boundless forests of fir which cover North Carolina, offer material to the enterprising for a couple of centuries to come. The forests can be purchased for a dollar an acre. Some farms have been sold for ten cents an acre! and the highest I have heard did not exceed two dollars. Many speculators have latterly entered into this turpentine manufacture. One negro man will collect 200 barrels in a season, which will sell for about $800; about $100 will feed and clothe the negro; thus there is a pretty full margin of profit for the capital embarked in the land and negroes. It is better by far than cotton-raising-many cotton planters are going into it, and the expansion of manufactures and arts, at home and abroad, keeps pace with the increased number of those who are entering into this profitable business. "For the benefit of those who have never been in a turpentine country, I may describe the process of gathering and distilling this subtle spirit. The trees are cupped in the spring; about eighteen inches square of the bark is peeled of; the cupping is made by one or two cuts of an axe, of peculiar shape, near the root. In the summer and fall the turpentine oozes out through this vent. The negro comes round from tree to tree, and gathers this oozed matter into his bucket. The trees are continually exuding during the season. The ensuing year they are cut a little higher than before, when a new crop is ob tained. The process may be repeated for five or six years, cutting higher up the trunk each year; after which the trees are cut down and chopped into short logs, and piled together in peculiar heaps, called "kilns," when a slow fire is put under the heap, and thus pitch and tar are obtained from the heated pile. The fatty matter, or raw turpentine, is packed into barrels - brought to the distilleries, boiled and evaporated in the common way in which spirit is extracted in the alcohol distilleries, the steam passing through a large worm or refrigerator, which is set in an immense vat of cold water. The surface of the water, being the hottest, passes off, while the attendant keeps pumping cold water through a pipe that forces it to the bottom, causing the hot water, created on the surface, to pass off. The steam comes out in spirits of turpentine below, and is barrelled tightly and sent to all the markets of the world, and the residue is rosin. "North Carolina sends out an immense quantity of Indian corn, staves, turpentine, pitch, tar, and rosin, besides which, she is beginning to manufacture cotton and woollens." RALEIGH, the seat of government, is situated nearly in the centre of the state, 6 miles distant from the river Neuse, 164 southwest from Richmond, and 288 southwest from Washington. It was named in honor of that conspicuous statesman of Queen Elizabeth, who makes so interesting a figure in the history of her reign, and displayed so much zeal in prosecuting discoveries, and planting protestant colonies in this part of America. Raleigh is a small town, containing only about 3,000 inhabitants, but it is pleasantly situated, and laid out with taste, having a square of ten acres in the centre, called Union square, from which the four principal streets, of a fine breadth, viz., 99 feet, diverge at right angles. Between these are four smaller squares of four acres each. There are two academies, and several other public buildings. The capitol, which was destroyed by fire several years ago, contained the finest and most coaches go to Norfolk three times a week, distant 86 miles. Tarborough stands on the south side of Tar river, and contains a courthouse, two churches, a bank, and an academy, with about 800 inhabitants. Stagecoaches go every other day to Raleigh and Washington. valuable piece of sculpture ever seen in The old statehouse (which is represented in our engraving) was a wellproportioned edifice, of plain architecture, and consisted of a main building and a projection at the centre, with a basement of hewn stone, and a fiont of four Ionic half-columns, while a large dome, with a cupola, rose from the middle of the roof. ́ A broad yard in front, offered a fine approach; and the building was of sufficient size to afford large halls for the legislature, and various offices, and other appropriate apartments for public purposes. The present statehouse is of granite, on the plan of the celebrated temple of Minerva at Athens, called the Parthenon, 166 feet in length, 90 in breadth, with a range of noble columns of granite, 30 feet high, and five and a half in diameter. The other public buildings are the courthouse, the governor's house, five churches, four academies, two banks, and a theatre. Wake Forest College is at Forestville, 15 miles from Raleigh. It has three professorships, and a library of 4,700 volumes, and was founded in 1838. The number of pupils is yet small. Warrenton, 62 miles northeast from Raleigh, is a small town, containing about 800 inhabitants, now fiequently visited on account of its proximity to a favorite watering-place, which is resorted to, in the warm season, by many travellers. This is the Shocco White Sulphur Springs, 12 miles from Warrenton, with which there is a daily communication by stage-coach The water is charged with sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid gases, and contains the sulphates of lime and magnesia, oxyde of iron, muriate of soda, and carbonate of lime, and is recommended for diseases of the skin and the liver. WILMINGTON. This is the principal town in the state for trade and most other kinds of business. It contains a population of about 12,000, of whom 9,000 are whites. It stands on the eastern bank of Cape Fear river, just below the confluence of the two branches, 13 miles from the ocean, at the head of navigation for vessels of 300 tons, although steamboats go up to Fayetteville a part of the year, 120 miles. The town is chiefly built on four streets, and in some parts shows some of the ruins caused by several destructive fires, from which it has successively suffered. The houses are built of pitch pine, which renders it difficult to arrest the progress of the flames when once enkindled. Much lumber is brought down the river, and sawed up by steam-mills erected on the shore, where vessels receive their freight for the West Indies, and some of the northern ports. The railroad has increased the population in six years, about 6,000. Edenton is a small town, situated on Great quantities of turpentine, tar, &c., the bay at the mouth of Chouan river, are also brought here from the country. and contains a handsome courthouse, t'vo Considerable quantities of spirits of turchurches, an academy, and a bank, with pentine are made, about twenty mana population of about 1,600. Stage-ufactories having been recently erected. |