and cleared the house. I suppose this is sufficient on this head; from it you can readily learn that the Congress is a violent vulgar assembly, which hired persons attend, to debate on state affairs, and that the public newspapers are conducted by foreign editors, who amplify such debates, and give them something of a polished and interesting. character.

Nor has the church any brighter ornaments than the state. The members of it have no conception of eloquence. Mr. Smith of Princeton College, has the highest reputation as a divine and orator. I went to hear him preach, and had the mortification to find a transposed sermon of Blair, delivered in a strain of dull monotony,

As the exposition of all law, and pleading of all facts is confined to the province of attornies, I was not surprised to find a want of ability and eloquence in, that department. The late general Hamilton, a West-Indian by birth, was the first attorney, and pleaded in America. The celebrated Mr. Burr, was his rival at the bar; and since the death of the former, and retreat of the latter, a Mr. Livingstone and a Mr. Emmet,. alone enjoy repute.

The physicians of eminence are very few. Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, and Wilson of New York, monopolize all the character of the country, of a medical nature; and yet the yellow fever rages and carries off their annual thousands, though these gentlemen have written themselves into the name of infallibility itself. There is no profession in America, so shamefully neglected as that of physic, or more destitue of able practitioners.

As to the department of science, I am told that there has been a Franklin and a Rittenhouse; the former shone in electricity, and the latter cunstructed an orrery on true principles. I will allow this; I have no disposition. to retract from the merits of such gentlemen, but I cannot admit that these two instances after the mediocrity of genius, are sufficient to justify Mr. Jefferson, in saying. that America is the most enlightened country in the world, and that M. Buffon was guilty of a gross error when he asserted that man and beast degenerated in America, and became in time inferior to those of Europe. M. Buffon, was perfectly right in his assertion and principle, but wrong in the proof he adduced. Mr. Jefferson took advantage of this error; all his followers have taken his ground, and

nothing is heard through the whole union, but " America is the most enlightened nation in the world." This cry has spread abroad; is believed at home, and M. Buffon is condemned. This is the natural fate of flattery and truthMr. Jefferson is held up as a great statesman and profound philosopher, while M. Buffon, is held in contempt as a prejudiced reasoner, jealous of the pride and honour of the quarter of the globe, which gave the former birth! The reflections likely to arise in your mind out of this, I shall not interrupt.

LETTER VIII.

General view of the river Ohio, and its beauties—its advantages-its course-its islands-its depth and navigationits obstructions might easily be removed.—Advice to persons wishing to descend the Ohio.

Wheeling, Virginia, on the Ohio, April 1806.

YOU will perceive, much to your satisfaction that I have left Pittsburg, whence I sent you so many tedious letters, and am about to descend the Ohio-Before however I commence that river's minute details, I must give you its general description.

The Obio commences at the junction of the Alleghany and Monangahela rivers, and there also commences its beauty. It has been truly described as beyond competition, the most beautiful river in the universe, whether it be considered for its meandering course through an immense region of forests; for its elegant banks, which afford innumerable delightful situations for cities, villages, and improved farms; or for those many other advantages which truly entitle it to the name originally given it by the French, of La belle riviere." This is the outline of a description given several years since, and it has generally been thought an exaggerated one. Now, the immense forests recede, cultivations smiles along its banks; numerous villages and towns decorate its shores; and it is not

extravagant to suppose, that the day is not far distant when its whole margin will form one continued series of villages and towns.

The reasons for this gratifying supposition are many; the principal ones are, the immense tracts of fine country that have communication with the Ohio by means of its tributary navigable waters; the extraordinary fertility, extent, and beauty of the river bottoms, generally high, dry, and productive; and the superior excellence of its navigation, through means of which the various productions of the most extensive and fertile parts of the United States must eventually be sent to market.

At its commencement at Pittsburg, it takes a north west course for about twenty five miles, then turns gradually to west south west, and pursuing that course for about five hundred miles, winds to the south west for nearly one hundred and sixty miles; then turns to the west for about two hundred and sixty miles; thence south west for one hundred and sixty, and empties into the Mississippi in a south east direction, about eleven hundred miles below Pittsburg, and nearly the same distance above New Orleans in lat. 36 43 north. It is so completely serpentine, that in several places a person taking observations of the sun or stars, will find that he sometimes entirely changes his direction, and appears to be going directly back; but its general course is south, sixty degrees west. Its width is from five hundred to fifteen hundred yards; but at the rapids, and near the mouth, it is considerably wider.

The numerous islands that are interspersed in this river, add much to the grandeur of its appearance, but they very much embarrass the navigation, particularly in low water, as they occasion a great many shoals and sand bars. The soil of those islands is, for the most part, very rich, the timber luxuriant, and the extent of some of them considerable. Where fruit trees have been planted, they are found to thrive, to bear well, and seldom fail of a crop.. Indeed this is the case wherever fruit trees have been tried. on the river bottoms, the soil of which is very similar to that of the islands, though not quite so sandy.

In times of high freshes, and during the effusion of ice and snow from the Alleghany and other mountains, vessels of almost any tonnage may descend; and it is never so low but that it may be navigated by canoes and other light

The

craft, not drawing more than twelve inches water. highest floods are in spring, when the river rises forty-five feet; the lowest are in summer, when it sinks to twelve inches on the bars, ripples, and shoals where waggons, carts, &c. frequently pass. Many of the impediments however which are to be met with when the water is low, might in a dry time be got rid of, and at no very considerable expense; at least the expense would be by no means beyond the advantages which would accrue from the undertaking if properly managed. Rocks, that now during the dry season, obstruct or render dangerous the large flat bottomed, or what are called Kentucky boats, might be blasted; channels might be made through the ripples; and the snags, and fallen timber along the banks entirely

removed.

These improvements, together with many others that might be enumerated, must undoubtedly, sooner or later, be carried into effect, as they are a national concern of the first importance. In the mean time, some general instructions respecting the present navigation, and which I have collected from the most experienced watermen, will be found useful to those who may hereafter propose descending the river, and who are unacquainted both as to the manner this voyage is to be undertaken, and with the nature and channel of the different rivers. Do not let it be said notwithstanding, that I mean to encourage any person to follow my steps or to reside on these waters. I repeat, that the parts of the river's banks, favourable for towns, villages, farms, &c. are without exception, unhealthy-exposing all descriptions of inhabitants, especially new comers, to annual visitations of dissentery, flux, pleuracy, and various species of intermittent fevers. This is to be expected of rivers which experience such extraordinary and great vicissitudes; at one period sufficient to carry a first rate man of war, and at another barely capable of floating a canoe; at one period running at seven miles an hour, and at another nearly stagnate in an unruffled bed.

The first thing to be attended to by emigrants, or traders, wishing to descend the river, is to procure a boat, to be ready so as to take advantage of the times of flood, and to be careful that the boat be a good one; for many of the accidents that happen in navigating the Ohio and Mis

sissippi, are owing to the unpardonable carelessness and penuriousness of the boat builder, who will frequently slight his work, or make it of injured plank; in either case putting the lives and properties of a great many persons to manifest hazard. This egregious misconduct should long before this time been rectified, by the appointment of a boat inspector at different places on the Monongahela. But as this has never been done, it belongs to every person purchasing Kentucky boats, which is the sort I allude to, to get them narrowly examined before the embarkation, by persons who may know a little of the strength and form of a boat suitable to a voyage of this kind. He must also remember this, that a boat destined for the Mississippi, requires to be much stronger timbered, and somewhat differently constructed, from one designed only to descend the Ohio.

Flat bottomed boats may be procured almost every where along the Monongahela river, and in some places on the Youghiogheny; very few are as yet built on the Alleghany, as the chief places of embarkation are confined to the Monongahela and Ohio. Keel boats and vessels of burden are also built at Brownsville, Elizabeth'stown, and many other places on the two last mentioned rivers.

autumn.

The best seasons for navigating the Ohio are spring and The spring season commences at the breaking up of the ice, which generally happens about the middle of February, and continues good for about three months. The autumn generally commences in October, and continues till about the first of December, when the ice begins to form. But the alternations of high water can scarce-` ly be called periodical, as they vary considerably, according to the wetness or dryness of the season, or earliness or lateness of the setting in, or breaking up of winter. The winter of 1802 was even an exception to every other, the Monongahela not having been closed at all with ice, so that there was nothing to impede the passage of boats into the Ohio, &c. This circumstance is the more extraordinary, the winters in general being very severe, some of which a few years past, kept the rivers blocked up for more than two months at a time. The cause of these sudden and great changes may usefully occupy the philosophic mind.