moft pleafant, the moft commodious and moft fertile fpot of earth, known to the European people.

"The lands on the various ftreams above mentioned, which fall into the Ohio, are now more accurately known, and may be defcribed with confidence and precifion. They are interfperfed with all the variety of foil which conduces to the pleasantnefs of fituation, and lays the foundation for the wealth of an agricultural and manufac turing people. Large level bottoms, or natural meadows, from twenty to fifty miles in circuit, are every where found bordering the rivers, and variegating the country in the interior parts. These afford as rich a foil as can be imagined, and may be reduced to proper cultivation with very little bour. It is faid, that in many of these bottoms a man may clear an acre a day, fit for planting with Indian corn, there being no underwood; and the trees growing very high and large, but not thick together, need nothing but girdling.

"The prevailing growth of timber, and the more useful trees, are, maple or fugar tree, fycamore, black and white mulberry, black and white walnut, butternut, chefnut; white, black, Spanish and chefnut oaks, hiccory, cherry, buckwood or horfe chefnut, honey locuft, elm, cucumber tree, lyn tree, gum tree, iron wood, afh, afpin, faffafras, crab apple tree, paupaw or custard apple, a variety of plum trees, nine-bark, fpice and leather-wood bufhes. General Parfons measured a black walnut tree near Mufkingum, whofe circumference, at five feet from the ground, was twenty-two feet. A fycamore, near the fame place, measured forty-four feet in circumference, at some distance from the ground. White and black oak, and chefnut, with most of the above-mentioned timbers, grow large and plenty upon the high grounds: both the high and low lands. produce vaft quantities of natural grapes of various kinds, of which · the settlers universally make a fufficiency of rich red wine for their own confumption. It is afferted in the old fettlement of St. Vincent, where they have had opportunity to try it, that age will render this wine preferable to most of the European wines. Cotton is the na tural production of this country, and grows in great perfection.

"The fugar maple is a most valuable tree for an inland country; any number of inhabitants may be for ever supplied with a fufficiency of fugar, by preferving a few trees for the use of each family; a tree will yield about ten pounds of sugar a year, and the labour is very trifling: the fap is extracted in the months of February and March, VOL. II. 3Q

and

and granulated, by the fimple operation of boiling, to a fugar equal in flavour and whitenefs to the best Mufcovado.

"Springs of excellent water abound in every part of this territory; and small and large streams, for mills and other purposes, are actually interfperfed, as if by art, fo that there feems to be no de ficiency in any of the neceffaries of life.

"Very little wafte land is to be found in any part of this tract of country; there are no fwamps but fuch as may be readily drained, and made into arable and meadow land; and though the hills are frequent, they are gentle and fwelling, no where high or incapable of tillage; they are of a deep, rich foil, covered with a heavy growth of timber, and well adapted to the production of wheat, rye, indigo, tobacco, &c.

"The communications between this country and the fea will be principally in the four following directions:

"1. The route through the Scioto and Muskingum to lake Erie, and fo to the river Hudion, which has been already defcribed,"

"2. The paffage up the Ohio and Monongahela to the portage above mentioned, which leads to the navigable waters of the Potomack; this portage is thirty, miles, and will probably be rendered much lefs by the execution of the plans now on foot for opening the navigation of those waters,

"3. The Great Kanhaway, which falls into the Ohio from the Virginia flore, between the Hockhocking and the Scioto, opens an extenfive navigation from the fouth-eaft, and leaves but eighteen miles portage from the navigable waters of James river in Virginia, This communication for the country between Muskingum and Scioto, will probably be more used than any other for the exportation of manufactures and other light and valuable articles, and efpecially for the importation of foreign commodities, which may be brought from the Chefapeak to the Ohio much cheaper than they are now carried from Philadelphia to Carlisle, and the other thick-fettled back counties of Pennsylvania,*

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4. But the current down the Ohio and Miffiffippi, for heavy articles that fuit the Florida and West-India markets, fuch as corn, flour, beef, lumber, &c. will be more frequently loaded than any ftreams on earth. The diftance from the Scioto to the Miffiffippi is

*We think it right to notice that a gentleman of much obfervation, and a great tra veller in this country, is of opinion, that this communication or route is chimerical.

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eight hundred miles, from thence to the fea is nine hundred. This whole courfe is eafily run in fifteen days, and the paffage up those fivers is not fo difficult as has ufually been reprefented. It is found, by late experiments, that fails are used to great advantage against the current of the Ohio; and it is worthy of obfervation, that in all probability fteam boats will be found to do infinite fervice in all our extenfive river navigation.

"The defign of Congrefs and of the Ohio company is, that the fettlements fhall proceed regularly down the Ohio, and northward to lake Erie; and it is probable, that not many years will elapfe, before the whole country above Miami will be brought to that degree of cultivation, which will exhibit all its latent beauties, and juftify thofe defcriptions of travellers which have fo often made it the garden of the world, the feat of wealth, and the center of a great empire.

"No country is better stocked with wild game of every kind; innumerable herds of deer and wild cattle are fheltered in the groves, and fed in the extenfive bottoms that every where abound; an unquestionable proof of the great fertility of the foil: turkies, geese, ducks, fwans, teal, pheasants, partridges, &c. are, from observation, believed to be in greater plenty here, than the tame poultry are in any part of the old fettlements in America.

"The rivers are well ftored with fish of various kinds, and many of them of an excellent quality: they are generally large, though of different fizes; the cat fish, which is the largest, and of a delicious flavour, weighs from fix to eighty pounds."

The Muskingum is a gentle river, confined by banks fo high as to prevent its overflowing. It is two hundred and fifty yards wide at its confluence with the Ohio, and navigable by large batteaux and barges to the Three Legs; and by fmall ones to the lake at its head. From thence, by a portage of about one mile, a communication is opened to lake Erie, through the Cayahoga, which is a stream of great utility, navigable the whole length without any obftruction from falls. From lake Erie the avenue is well known to the Hudson, in the State of New-York.

The Hockhocking resembles the Mufkingum, though somewhat inferior in fize. It is navigable for large boats about seventy miles, and for small ones much farther. On the banks of this very useful ftream are found inexhauftible quarries of free-ftone, large beds of iron ore, and fome rich mines of lead. Coal mines and salt springs 3Q2

are

are frequent in the neighbourhood of this stream, as they are in every part of the western territory. The falt that may be obtained from thofe fprings will afford an inexhaustible store of that necessary article. Beds of white and blue clay, of an excellent quality, are likewife found here, fuitable for the manufacture of glass, crockery, and other earthen wares. Red bole and many other useful foffils have been obferved on the branches of this river.

The Scioto is a larger river than either of the preceding, and opens a more extensive navigation. It is paffable for large barges for two hundred miles, with a portage of only four miles to the Sandusky, a good navigable stream that falls into the lake Erie. Through the Sandusky and Scioto lies the most common pass from Canada to the Ohio and Miffiffippi; one of the most extenfive and useful communications that is to be found in this country. Prodigious extenfions of territory are here connected; and, from the rapidity with which the western parts of Canada, lake Erie, and the Kentucky countries are fettling, we may anticipate an immenfe intercourfe between them. The lands on the borders of the middle ftreams, from this circumflance alone, afide from their natural fertility, must be rendered very valuable. The flour, corn, flax, hemp, &c. raised for expor tation in that great country between the lakes Huron and Ontario, will find an outlet through lake Erie and these rivers, or down the Miffiffippi. The Ohio merchant can give a higher price than those of Quebec for these commodities, as they may be tranfported from the former to Florida and the Weit-India iflands, with less expense, risk, and insurance, than from the latter; while the expense from the place of growth to the Ohio will not be one fourth of what it would be to Quebec, and much less than even to the Oneida lake. The ftream of Scioto is gentle, and no where broken by falls: at fome places, in the fpring of the year, it overflows its banks, thus providing for large natural rice plantations. Salt fprings, coal mines, white and blue clay, and free-ftone, abound in the country adjoining this river.

The Little Miami is too fmall for batteaux navigation. Its banks are good land, and fo high as to prevent, in common, the overflowing of the water.

The Great Miami has a very ftony channel, and a swift ftream, but no falls. It is formed of feveral large branches, which are paffable for boats a great distance. One branch comes from the west,. and rises in the Wabash country: another rifes near the head waters

of

of Miami river, which runs into lake Erie; and a fhort portage divides another branch of Sandusky river. It alfo interlocks with the Scioto.

The Wabash is a beautiful river, with high and fertile banks. It empties into the Ohio by a mouth two hundred and feventy yards wide, one thousand and twenty miles below fort Pitt. In the spring, fummer, and autumn, it is paffable for batteaux drawing three feet water, four hundred and twelve miles, to Ouitanon, a fmall French fettlement, on the weft fide of the river; and for large canoes one hundred and ninety-feven miles farther, to the Miami carrying place, aine miles from Miami village. This village ftands on Miami river, which empties into the fouth-weft part of lake Erie. The communication between Detroit, and the Illinois, and Ohio countries, is up Miami river to Miami village, thence, by land, nine miles, when the rivers are high; and from eighteen to thirty when they are low, through a level country to the Wabash, and through the various branches of the Wabash to the places of destination.

A filver mine has been difcovered about twenty-eight miles above Quitanon, on the northern fide of the Wabash. Salt fprings, lime, free-ftone, blue, yellow, and white clay, are found in plenty upon

this river.

The rivers Avafe and Kafkafkias empty into the Miffiffippi from the north-eaft; the former is navigable for boats, fixty, and the latter, about one hundred and thirty miles. They both run through a rich country, which has extenfive meadows.

Between the Kafkafkias and Illinois rivers, which are eighty-four miles apart, is an extensive tract of level, rich land, which terminates in a high ridge, about fifteen miles before you reach the Illinois river, In this delightful vale are a number of French villages, which, together with thofe of St. Genevieve and St. Louis, on the western fide of the Miffiffippi, contained in 1771, one thousand two hundred and feventy-three fencible men.

One hundred and feventy-fix miles above the Ohio, and eighteen miles above the Miffouri, the Illinois empties into the Miffiffippi from the north-east by a mouth four hundred yards wide. This river is bordered with fine meadows, which in fome places extend as far as the eye can reach: this river furnishes a communication with lake Michigan, by the Chicago river, between which and the Illinois are two portages, the longest of which does not exceed four miles. It receives a number of rivers, which are from twenty to one hundred

yards