ke many others,
pushed to a certain height, must receive the same answer, 'Ignoro.' You
ask if the usage of hunting in circles has ever been known among any of
our tribes of Indians? It has been practised by them all; and is to this
day, by those still remote from the settlements of the whites. But their
numbers not enabling them, like Genghis Khan's seven hundred thousand,
to form themselves into circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make
their circle by firing the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually
forcing the animals to a centre, they there slaughter them with arrows,
darts, and other missiles. This is called fire-hunting, and has been
practised in this State within my time, by the white inhabitants. This
is the most probable cause of the origin and extension of the vast
prairies in the western country, where the grass having been of
extraordinary luxuriance, has made a conflagration sufficient to kill
even the old as well as the young timber.

I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the
early and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with
you on this ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing
that we cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall
into the same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but
even those of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these
can be resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that
we can turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In
the mean time, one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is
necessary; these being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel
with us. But I respect too much the weighty opinions of others to be
unyielding on this point, and acquiesce with the prayer, '_quod
felix faustumque sit_'; adding ever a sincere one for your health and
happiness.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813

TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, June 15, 1813.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of
May. Of Lindsay's Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed
of himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters
of mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his
editor was new t