FLINT EIVER sons to charge him with counterfeiting coin. He prosecuted them for slander ; an ill feeling increased by political differences sprang up be- tween him and his parishioners, and he re- signed his charge in 1814. He then preached in various parts of New England, and in Sep- tember, 1815, set out for the west as a mission- ary, and passed seven or eight years in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. In 1825 he re- turned to Massachusetts, broken in health, which the change of climate soon restored. His first work was " Recollections of Ten Years passed in the Valley of the Mississippi " (8vo, Boston, 1826), which was reprinted in London, and translated into French. In the same year he brought out a novel, " Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot." His next publication was a " Condensed Geography and History of the Western States in the Mississippi Valley " (2 vols. 8vo, Cincinnati, 1828), forming with the "Recollections" one of the best accounts of that region ever written. In 1828 he re- moved to Cincinnati, where he edited for three years the "Western Review." In 1833 he went to New York and conducted a few num- bers of the "Knickerbocker Magazine." He afterward took up his residence in Alexandria, Va., spending most of his summers in New England. His writings are spirited and power- ful, but somewhat wanting in polish. His prin- cipal works, besides those mentioned above, are: "Arthur Clenning," a novel (2 vols. 12mo, Philadelphia, 1828) ; " George Mason, or the Backwoodsman ;" "Shoshonee Valley" (2 vols. 12mo, Cincinnati, 1830); a transla- tion of Droz, " Essay upon the Art of Being Happy" (Boston, 1832) ; "Indian Wars in the West " (12mo, 1833) ; " Lectures on Natural History, Geology, Chemistry, and the Arts" (12mo, Boston, 1833); and " Memoir of Daniel Boone" (18mo, Cincinnati, 1834). He also contributed to the London " Athenaeum " in 1835 a series of papers on American literature. FLINT RIVER (Indian name, Thronateeska], a river of Georgia, rising in the N. W. part of the state, near Fayetteville, flowing S., and uniting with the Chattahoochee at the S. W. extremity of the state, to form the Appalachi- cola. It is about 300 m. long, and is navigable to Albany, 250 m. from the gulf of Mexico. FLINTSHIRE, a N. E. county of Wales, con- sisting of two separate portions, lying at a dis- tance of 8 m. from each other, with a part of Denbighshire between them, the larger portion bordering on the Irish sea and the estuary of the Dee ; aggregate area, 289 sq. m. ; pop. in 71, 76,245. It is the smallest but, in pro- portion to its extent, most populous county in Wales. The surface near the coast is low, and here is diversified, though there are no prt'Mt elevations. A range of hills runs along- side the S. W. boundary, and a branch of them traverses the county in a N. E. direction. Be- tween these ridges are fertile valleys, including the well known vale of Clwyd, watered by sev- eral rivers, which flow on the one side into the FLOATING ISLANDS 273 Clwyd and Alyn, and on the other into the Dee, which forms the N. E. boundary. The greater part of the county rests upon the coal measures, which exist chiefly on the coast of the estuary of the Dee. In 1867 there were 40 collieries and 45 lead mines in the county. The principal smelting works are at Mold and Holy well. The other minerals are copper, iron, zinc, and calamine. Agriculture employs about 8 per cent, of the population. Wheat and rye are principally cultivated, and consid- erable quantities of butter and cheese are made. The shipping trade is not extensive, as the ports are accessible only to small craft. The Chester and Holyhead railway traverses the county, and the Chester and Mold railway penetrates to its centre. The chief towns are Mold, the capital, Flint, St. Asaph, Holywell, Rhyddlan, Hawarden, and Bagilt. FLOATING ISLANDS. An early notice of this phenomenon is recorded in an interesting let- ter of the younger Pliny to Gallus, in which he describes the appearance of a number of float- ing islands in the Lacus Vadimonis, now La- ghetto di Bassano, near Rome. They were covered with reeds and rushes, and the sheep grazing upon the borders of the lake passed upon them to feed, and were often floated away from the shore. On a lake near Gerdauen, in East Prussia, the extent of such islands is said to be sufficient for the pasturage of 100 head of cattle; and on one in Lake Kolm, near Osnabrtick, are many fine elms. These islands are produced by accumulations of drift wood, among which drifting sands and earth collect and form a soil, in which plants take root and flourish. The great " rafts " of some of the western rivers are of this nature ; for the most part these do not float from place to place, but masses are occasionally detached and drift out from the mouth of the Mississippi, carry- ing the birds, serpents, and alligators that had taken refuge upon them. Such islands have been seen floating 100 miles off from the mouth of the Ganges, from which they had been dis- charged. On the great rivers of South Amer- ica they are very often met with, carrying the prolific productions of the vegetable and ani- mal life of the tropics, and depositing them in new localities. Thus they may have been the means of distributing species of the larger ani- mals among the islands of the south Pacific, upon many of which their introduction by any other mode is difficult to account for. Prescott describes the floating gardens or chinampas of Mexico as an archipelago of wandering islands. The primitive Aztecs adopted the plan sug- gested by these natural objects, and covered rafts of woven reeds and rushes with the fertile sediment drawn up from the lake. Upon these gardens, gradually extending to 200 or 300 feet in length, the Indians cultivated flowers and vegetables for the market of Tenochtitlan. Some of the chinampas were firm enough to sustain small trees and a hut, and could be moved about with a pole or fastened to it at
