ma river, two hundred and forty miles from Mobile, and once the capital town, contains about one thousand inhabitants. It has a courthouse, an academy, and two churches, and the river steamboats touch there daily, while stage-coaches go to Mobile, Tuscaloosa, and Huntsville. SELMA, sixteen miles above Cahawba, on the right bank of the river, has two academies, three churches, and about one thousand inhabitants. The connected with this skeleton, were found in a state of dislocation, particularly those which he placed as ribs. vertebræ are so entirely separate, and generally so much worn away, by decay or attrition, that no evidence of their relation to each other, could be obtained from their form or size; and their alleged proximity when discovered, is not of itself sufficient ground on which to proceed in constructing an animal of such an extraordinary kind. Besides, the bones placed as the head, and which are said to have been found lying at that end of the skeleton, but inverted, have little or no resemblance to those of a serpent's head. FOSSIL BONES, &c.-Alabama, more than most other parts of our country, abounds in ancient bones, which are found in various positions, but most abundantly in a peculiar stratum, which in some places lies many feet beneath The parts of which this collection the natural surface, but in others, is laid consists are unquestionably natural rebare, or cut through by the wearing mains of some gigantic animal or aniaway of streams of water, &c. In cer- mals, and were taken from the earth in tain districts, these remains of ancient Alabama; but to what kind of animal, and often unknown animals, have been or to how many individuals they belong familiar to the present inhabitants, longed, we pretend not to decide. They as well as to their predecessors the In- present a striking specimen of innumerdians; but their remote situations have able remains of a similar kind existing prevented many of them from being in abundance in some parts of Alabaeither generally seen or accurately de-ma: and future discoveries and researscribed. ches may probably shed important light upon the interesting subject. The following statements we derive from a letter of Professor Silliman : bama and other southern regions, with particular reference to this animal. He had the rare good fortune, as the result of his perseverance, aided by the kind assistance of the inhabitants, to disinter the stupendous skeleton which is now set up for exhibition here. Dr. Koch of Germany made a tour of exploration in this and several other states, three years ago, and discovered and brought away a collection of bones, "Dr. Koch, the proprietor of the many of which were exhibited by him skeleton now in this city, made a jourin our principal cities. A great num-ney of discovery a year since, into Alaber of them were arranged by him, in the order in which he supposed them to have been naturally placed, judging from their relative positions when discovered in the earth. When thus placed, they seemed to form the skeleton of an immense serpent, which the discoverer named the Hydrargos Sillimanii, and described, with a sketch of its probable habits, food, &c., after the manner of many of his predecessors, some of whom have published pictures of the animals of extinct species, as when restored, by the addition of the decayed | flesh, &c. Naturalists, however, did not generally adopt the opinions of Dr. Koch; and more evidence is thought necessary before the existence of such an animal can be admitted. The lighter bones "It has evidently been done at great expense and personal toil; and the public, while they owe a debt to Dr. Koch, will, when paying it, receive a high gratification in contemplating the remains of a race of animals whose length exceeded that of all other creatures hitherto discovered; the spinal column of this skeleton as now arranged measures one hundred and fourteen feet in length. The skeleton having been found entire enclosed in limestone, evidently belonged to one individual, and forth, that it is supposed the project will yet be accomplished. From some of the recent publications on the subject, we derive the following facts respecting the country along the route. It will be perceived that the mineral treasures now embosomed in the earth, and of little or n` value on account of their inaccessible position, are among the chief advantages promised by the advocates of the plan of improvement. The coal lands abounding in that region, are capable of affording abundant supplies of fuel for the use of steamships in all parts of the gulf of Mexico, and steamboats on the rivers, as well as for the locomotives on railroads, so far as it may be wanted. The distance from Selma to the Tennessee river, by a line running north, is about one hundred and fifty miles; and the point at which it would be reached is at Decatur. Such a line would pass through the midst of the coal region, and those parts of it which border on the Cahawba and Warrior rivers. Between Mulberry creek and Cahawba river, the line passes along the watershed; and there the soil is peculiarly favorable for the construction of a substantial road, consisting of cretaceous lime-rocks, of a very solid description. The Cahawba coal-field commences at Centreville, and is crossed by the line, as is that part of the coal-region called the Warrior coal-field, which lies just beyond the Mulberry fork, in the eastern part of Walker county. From that part of Decatur the country is of a different formation, but of a very solid, firm nature for a railroad, being of granite. Decatur is a town of considerable business, being advantageously situated for trade, at the head of the falls of the Tennessee, at the foot of an extensive line of navigation on that river above the falls, and with the advantages of a railroad to Tuscumbia, on the part of the river below the falls. But another route is also proposed, which offers some important advantages to recommend it, not promised by that just described. There is a railroad already formed and in use, hetween Montgomery and Westpoint, to which we have before alluded. A route laid out from some convenient point on that, to Tennessee river, would be about one hundred and forty miles long, only one hundred of which remains to be provided for, and this would cost but about ten thousand dollars a mile, including machinery, &c. Of course, the whole expense of the one hundred miles, at this estimate, would be but a million of dollars; which the results would well warrant, if the anticipations entertained should prove well founded. If the proposed work should commence at Mount Jefferson (a point on the Montgomery and Westpoint railroad), it would pass through the counties of Chambers, Tallapoosa, Randolph, Talledega, and Benton, to the Double Springs, on Coosa river, and thence forty nules to Gunter's Landing, on the Tennessee, on which part a railroad has already been projected, and funds appropriated. This route has therefore but one hundred miles of railroad to be provided for, is much shorter than the other (from Selma to Decatur), and passes through a more fertile and populous part of the state, and a region rich in minerals of value. A chief object proposed by the friends of these improvements is, to connect the interests of the two parts of the state. Northern and southern Alabaina are now so far divided, by having different channels of trade, that but little of that sympathy exists between them. which is so desirable in the same state, and necessary to its harmony and prosperity. Plans are proposed in Georgia, for the opening of new routes of transport, by which the trade of the northeastern counties is likely to be permanently drawn off into other channels. The railroad just described would effectually counteract such measures, and at the same time prove so convenient to the northwestern parts of the adjoining state, that several large counties of Georgia would become tributary, in a commercial point of view, to the city of Mobile. Alabama has thus much to expect from the extension of internal improvements. Although, by circumstances, she has been long prevented from making rapid progress, and was even so |