three miles one hundred; five or six miles, from sixty to seventy. A few miles more distant, the price falls to from forty to fifty dollars per acre, and decreases progressively to from thirty to twenty, fifteen, ten and five, at which price it breaks off at the mountains, where the land bears no price at all. There are circumstances also, which often contribute to set a local enhanced value on landed property. The most fertile part of Kentucky, the very spot yet allowed to be an Eden, is very scarce of water. Land,

therefore, which possesses a mill seat capable of acting three months in a year, would fetch a very large sum of money. Salt-springs also, considerably raise the price of land surrounding them.

River bottoms and good places for landing, from their scarcity, situation, and superior excellence, have also a higher price attached to them than any other parts not under the same circumstances.

Mr. Gardner, a sensible and civil man, who here keeps a tavern, having explored his neighbourhood in a considerable degree, I tempted him to take an excursion with me. We set off by dawn to observe the rising sun from a very high hill, about a mile to the south of the point. The eminence was gained in time to enjoy the finest spectacle in nature.

On the particular spot where I was, I might have remained a long time before I could perceive the various effects of the sun on mountains, woods, valleys, and waters. The height was so great, that I calculated the rays of the sun could not strike the surface of the floods till they darted from the sun's rise of four hours.

Particular views of the river were various and beautiful from where I stood, though interrupted every mile by the sinuosities occasioned by its many windings. I found the time very favourable to form a judgment on the nature of the surrounding country. The sun shining only on the summits of hills, displayed their situation, course, and variety, while the dark intervals pointed out the few valleys and plains which lay commixed between them. The remarks I took accorded precisely with the observations I have made respecting the mountainous State of the country. Nor could I see any part of sufficient extent for a day's excursion, with any tolerable degree of possibility or ease, unless a strip of wood land which formed the Ohio

bank, and met with but little obstruction for several milest I resolved to bend that way, and was about to depart, when Mr. Gardner informed me that on his first coming to the Kenhaway he discovered an Indian grave on the summit of which we stood. He pointed it out to me immediately on the direct summit, but I had the mortification to perceive that it had undergone so rude a violation, that I could distinguish nothing of its original form or character, or any remains save two or three bones, which, judging by analogy, evinced a man far exceeding ordinary stature. Mr. G. could give me no satisfactory account, either in regard to the contents of the grave, or to the position and appearances of the members of which it was composed he did not even know the bearings of the head and feet, in short, I understood that the violation was com mitted by a Kentuckyan, in quest of plunder, and that Mr. G. did not see the ruin till the deed was done. The instant I understood a Kentuckyan was concerned, I gave up every enquiry, and contented myself with this other recent evidence, that there formerly existed Indian nations who buried their chiefs on the highest mountain tops, and distant from the living and the dead. Perhaps, too, such nations were worshippers of the sun, and by way of continuing to their princes the proud pre-eminence they allowed them in life, exposed their tombs to the first and last rays of their high and mighty luminary. This idea appears better grounded than on mere presumption: at present, however, I cannot back it by any testimony, and the fact is against me, that no Indian tribes east of the Mississippi, have ever in their worship or tradition, held out an evidence that their ancestors at any time worshipped the sun, or that they considered their tribes ever to have been the descendants of that all powerful body. The subject must remain for elucidation, till the discovery of other data and events.

We proceeded down the hill,and along the strip of a level woody bank I traced for our excursion from the summit. We met with excellent sport. Several flocks of wild turkeys crossed us from the mountains to the water side, we killed two fine young birds, and could have killed forty had we been disposed to enter on the commission of unnecessa ry carnage. We also fell in with a great number of quails, remarkable for their size, and so fat and heavy, that they

never attempted flight, but ran and hid themselves among dry leaves and grass, to a very considerable distance from where we at first started them. Independent of what we

killed, my dog ran down and caught several, two of which being perfectly white, were to me a great curiosity. The quails of this country are very tractable, soon domesticated, and easily kept to be killed for family use.

Our notice was frequently attracted by a number of hogs ranging in a wild state. They multiply to a great degree notwithstanding that the wolves have no objection to their flesh, and that panthers consider them as their nicest diet. In this natural state they attain considerable courage and ferocity, to which, perhaps, their multiplication and safety may be attributed. The sows we met with were savage to such a degree that they firmly stood between us and their young, till the latter scampered off and concealed themselves with a skill which baffled the minutest search. When a litter is discovered and attacked by a panther, the old sow stands all the brunt, and maintains a fight of sufficient duration to allow the young to disperse, though often at the expense of her own life. Hogs attract so many wild beasts about a house, that Mr. G. has given over keeping any in a domestic way. When he lays up his winter provision, he selects hogs from the woods, and considers their flesh much more delicate than that of home fed pork. Their food in the woods consists generally of acorns, nuts, berries, and roots, and occasionally on vermin, reptiles, and snakes, of which last they are extravagantly fond.

Coming to a fine creek which descended from the mountains, we halted, and made preparations to forward an excellent dinner, and repose during the violent heat of the the day. We started again before six, and continued walking through a country interrupted with gullies, ridges, and ereeks, till near ten, when we made fires, erected tents, and formed our establishment for the night. The place we had chosen was the scite of an old Indian village, as was manifest from the number of mounds and other remains of ancient works extant around us. I turned to rest under my small shed and near a good fire, full of the vague ideas, and wide and wandering notions which the place, situation, and circumstances irresistibly inspired. I slept in the midst of mounds, which some thousands of years before were inhabited by men whose name and history were no longer on the

face of the earth, and whose line and offspring I vainly sought for among existing nations. Overcome at length by toil, and weary of fruitless conjectures, I fell into the soundest sleep, and might have remained for hours in that oblivion, had I not been startled up by cries such as we are instructed to believe issue from spirits "confined fast in fire, to howl forever in regions of eternal night." In an instant we were up and armed. The cry however approached, and increased to an alarming degree; the shrubs rustled, the leaves flew, and the pursuing and pursued, passed us in apparent hundreds. The whole uproar, however, only was occasioned by a couple of wolves enjoying their nocturnal recreation in the chase of a herd of deer.

They hunt in the style of the best dogs, but give tongue with less melody. The Indians who have the first rate dogs, cross the breed with the wolf, and have this purpose effected by tying the female dog to a tree, in the haunt of wolves when she is in season. Roused up again by a din not likely to quit the ears in a short time, we pursued our way to the Kenhaway, and having met with no very particular event, I am again at liberty to conclude.

LETTER XIX.

Settlement of the French families removed from Galliopolis--their mode of life and domesticated animals-A French rural repast and dance-Navigation to Alexandria—account of the town and its vicinage-Portsmouth--the Sciota river-Chilicothe, principal town of the Ohio statedifficult access to it—the Peckawee plains—a grand situa• tion for a capital-antiquities of Chilicothe and barbarous taste of the inhabitants-the Governor, his worthy character-slavery entirely abolished-its beneficial effects— salt springs-run to Maysville.

Maysville, or Limestone Key, July, 1806. ON leaving the Great Kenhaway, I descended without interruption or stop twenty miles, when I made fast to the right hand shore, immediately opposite Little Sandy Creek.

I brought too for the purpose of enquiring into the sifuation of the French families who abandoned Galliopolis in consequence of the imposition practised. on them by the vender of the lands, and the ill health they enjoyed while on them. Opposite to the creek I have mentioned, and at the place I landed, is a tract of land of twenty thousand acres, extending eight miles on the river, granted by Congress to these unfortunate settlers, as some indemnification for the losses and injuries they had sustained; and four thousand acres adjoining, granted to M. Gervais, one of the principals, for the same purpose. On this latter tract, I understand, M. Gervais laid out a town named Burrsburgh, but it yet has to get an habitation and an inhabi

tant.

I found the settlers in something better health than at Galliopolis. They dwell altogether along the river bank. They pursue a mean system of agriculture. Their best exertion only extends to a few acres of Indian corn and garden-stuff to meet their rigid necessities. They appear to have no idea of farming, or to think, what I conceive perfectly just, that the price of produce is too contemptible to yield an equivalent for the labor and health necessarily wasted in bringing it to growth and maturity. The management of peach orchards suits their talents and habits, and these they bring to profit and perfection. There are here two peach distilleries at work, that vend about 3000 gallons of peach brandy, the amount of which furnishes the settlement with coffee, snuff, knives, tin ware, and other small articles in demand among French emigrants. I found the women constantly occupied in making an excellent strong cotton cloth, blue for the men,and party-coloured for themselves and children. I took a walk down the entire settlement, and was much pleased with the simple and primitive man-ner of its residents. The day is passed in the coarser industry, the evening sitting in the house, or under the most adjacent shade, the women spinning, sewing, and knitting, the men making and repairing their nets, gins, traps, and the children playing around, and instructing their pet animals. The blue jay arrived at the art of speaking better than any other bird I perceived among them; the paroquet also excelled in speaking; and the summer duck exceeded any thing I ever saw in point of plumage and colour. At one habitation were two beautiful tame deer-one as