merce, when the Potowmac canal is made; as produce from the Ohio will then be taken to Washington and the Atlantic cities by water, except from Brownsville across the mountains, which is a distance of only seventy-two miles.*

The country, after leaving Brownsville, is in some places pretty well cleared, and

appears fertile. On the road I met vast droves of hogs, four or five thousand in a drove, going from the State of Ohio across the mountains to the Eastern States. Afterwards, when in Kentucky, I was informed that upwards of 100,000 hogs had been driven from that State alone. Owing to the quantity of nuts, acorns, and mast, throughout the Western States, a great number of these animals are allowed to run at large in the woods, are bred at little or no expense, and when fat are sold in the Eastern States for about five dollars a-piece.

The road became worse and worse all the way from Brownsville to Wheeling. The truth is, that as travellers coming from the Atlantic cities, with the intention of descending the Ohio and going into the Western States, prefer this road to the one which leads from Philadelphia to Pitts

Since my return from America I have been informed, that in consequence of the discovery of a very copious spring of water near the top of this part of the Alleghanies, the canal will be continued over the mountains, so that all land carriage will be obviated.

burgh, and which was made by the State of Pennsylvania, the traffic of the Pennsylvanian "turnpike" is very much diminished; and therefore all the people of that State, as well as of many of the other States, who do not derive any immediate benefit from it, are opposed to any grants being made by Congress for keeping it in order. Thus, for the want of a few thousand dollars expended annually, this great national undertaking was allowed to go very much out of repair. It would indeed in a year or two have become entirely impassable if, as I was informed on my return from the West, the advocates for internal improvements had not made a great effort, and obtained a grant of 25,000 dollars. This however is by no means enough for repairing the road at present, whereas a few years ago the same sum would have been more than sufficient.

Wheeling is situated on the left bank of the Ohio, at the foot of a very high cliff. I found it but a small town, and owing to its manufactures extremely dirty; but it is soon likely to become a place of considerable importance, from the great quantity of merchandise brought to and from the Ohio along the National Road.

Excellent coal is in such abundance on the bank of the river that it only costs four cents a bushel. The great coal formation, beginning at Cumberland, and passing through the mountains to Pitts

burg and Wheeling, at which latter place it crosses the river, extends for a considerable distance into the State of Ohio. Wherever it had been found necessary to cut a few feet below the surface of the ground, in order to make the road more level, I observed veins of this most useful mineral.

The French, at the time they possessed Canada, called the Ohio, on account of its beauty, La Belle Rivière. It is formed by the Alleghany and Monongahela, which meet together at Pittsburg, ninety-eight miles, by water, above Wheeling. The Alleghany is navigable for near 200 miles above Pittsburg, and the Monongahela as far as Brownsville, 147 miles from the same place. From Pittsburg to its junction with the Mississippi, the Ohio is 1121 miles in length, and, during a great part of the year, is navigable for steam-boats of considerable burden. This mighty stream generally retains the breadth of about 500 yards, throughout the whole distance of 705 miles from Pittsburg to the Falls, from which to its junction with the Mississippi it gradually increases to the breadth of 1,000 yards, receiving, on either side, many navigable rivers, which spread throughout all the Western States.

I embarked on board a steam-boat at Wheeling, about fifteen miles below which town, and near Grave Creek, is a large mound of earth called, the Big Grave. It is almost seventy feet high, and from the size of the trees growing on it, must be

of considerable antiquity. It was probably erected over some great warrior, before the whites came into the country. I have been shown several of these graves or barrows, of a smaller size, but could never learn that any thing very remarkable had been found upon opening them; the greatest curiosities discovered being a little sunbaked pottery and a few stone axes, which sadly disappointed the searchers after western antiquities. When in Kentucky, I was informed by an old man, one of the first settlers, and who had been well acquainted with the Indians, both in peace and war, that their custom, when a great chief or warrior died, was to bury him close to the side of a warpath, and throw a heap of earth and stones over him. Whenever the nation is to pass that way, each man shoulders a large stone, and on his arrival, throws it upon the grave as a mark of respect. Of course very large mounds have sometimes been made by the performance of this funeral duty.

Eighty-three miles below Wheeling stands the little town of Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, a considerable river that falls into the Ohio from the N. W. In common with most of the towns situated on the Ohio, Marietta had been terribly afflicted with an epidemical fever, a short time before I was there. The Muskingum is navigable for large boats 110 miles from its junction with the Ohio, and for small boats, forty

five miles further. From thence, by a portage of one mile, a communication is opened to Lake Erie by the Cuyahoga river, which, at its mouth, is large enough to receive vessels of a considerable size. The citizens of Ohio have it in contemplation, to join, by means of a canal, either these two abovementioned rivers, or, as seems more probable, the Big Sciota and the Sandusky; which will effect a complete course of inland navigation from the Gulph of Mexico, up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, through the great lakes, and so into the Gulph of St. Lawrence.

Just as the steam-boat arrived opposite Blennerhasset's island, one of the boilers, which had been several times out of order, began to leak so much, that it became necessary to stop, and allow it to cool, in order that it might be mended. Most of the steam-boats on the river, prefer the high pressure engines, in order to save a little in the first cost; though I am convinced, from their constantly wanting repair, that in the long run they are by no means so economical, as those of the low pressure. Of course, the chance of accidents is alarmingly increased; particularly as the captains, wishing to perform their voyage in as short a space of time as possible, are apt to compress the steam to the very utmost. Not long before I descended the Ohio, one of these boats blew up in the mouth of Cumberland river, and killed twelve passengers.

As repairing the boiler detained us a day, I