*

Marietta, was found, by M. Michaux, to measure 15ft. in diameter, at twenty feet from the ground. They often rise to an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet. The branches are very large and numerous, forming a spreading top, densely covered with foliage. Many of those trees, which attain the greatest size, are decayed in the interior of the trunk, long after the annual increase continues to be added at the exterior circumference. The growth of the American plane tree does not appear to be very rapid. It was remarked by Humboldt, that in the hot and damp lands of North America, between the Mississippi and the Alleghany mountains, the growth of trees is about one-fifth more rapid than in Europe, taking for examples the platanus occidentalis, the liriodendron tulipifera, and the cupressus disticha, all of which reach from nine to fifteen feet in diameter. It is his opinion that the growth in these trees does not exceed a foot in diameter in ten years. As far as our observation has enabled us to judge, this estimate rather exceeds than falls short of the truth. This growth is greatly exceeded in rapidity by the baobab, and other trees in the tropical parts of America; also by the gigantic adansonia of the eastern continent‡, and equalled, perhaps, by several trees in our own climate, whose duration is less extended than that of those above mentioned. [3]

The sycamore, or occidental plane tree, has been cultivated for more than one hundred and eighty years in England, yet it does not appear to have become entirely naturalized there, as we are informed by President Smith, that great numbers were killed by the severe frost of the winters of 1810-11. İn In America this tree is very widely distributed, and

Voy. a l'ouest des monts Alleghany, 1804. p. 93, + Pers. Nar. vol. i. p. 357. Philadelphia Edition. Salt's Abyssinia, p. 49. Amer. Edit.

extends northward beyond the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. In the fertile alluvial lands of Otter Creek, and other rivers which discharge into Lake Champlain, the sycamore attains more than one half the magnitude which it is seen to reach in the most prolific portions of the Mississippi valley; it appears, therefore, that some other cause than the frigidity of the climate, must have occasioned the destruction of the plane trees in England, since it is well known that the winters of Vermont and Lower Canada far surpass in severity those of the island of Great Britain.

The fruit of the sycamore is the favourite food of the paroquet, and large flocks of these gaily-plumed birds constantly enliven the gloomy forests of the Ohio.

During the night of the 18th, the weather being clear, we continued on our voyage, as is customary with most of the steam-boats navigating the Ohio.

It was long since remarked by Mr. Schultz, and considered by him as an inexplicable circumstance, that the reflection, by night, of the image of the banks of the Ohio, does not furnish an infallible guide to the middle of the bed of the river. Nothing is more manifest than that the banks at different places, having different degrees of elevation, and being sometimes naked, and sometimes covered with very tall trees, must, of necessity, cast shadows of different lengths, upon the surface of the water; consequently that the luminous stripe along the middle of the river, from the surface of which the sky and the stars are reflected, must be greatly subject to irregularities in position and direction. This circumstance often proves very annoying to inexperienced pilots, who attempt to navigate the Ohio, or any other river of similar character, by night, as we have had occasion in many instances to experience.

On the morning of the 19th we arrived at Louisville, having passed, in the night, the boats contain

ing the sixth regiment of infantry, then on their way to the Missouri. At Louisville, we stopped to procure a pilot to conduct our boat over the rapids. Two or three pilots appointed pursuant to an act of the legislature of Kentucky, reside at Louisville, always holding themselves in readiness to go on board such boats as are about to descend the rapids, and leaving them again at Shippingsport; for which service they are entitled to receive two dollars for each ark or raft.

At these rapids, called usually the falls of the Ohio, the river descends about twenty-two feet, in a distance of less than two miles. At times of high water an acceleration of current, not usual in other parts of the river, is all that is perceived in passing down this descent: at other times the water is dashed and broken upon the rocky and uneven bed of the channel, called the Indian chute, through which a great part of the water passes. The magnificence of a cataract is, however, at no time displayed here; and it is only in peculiar conditions of the atmosphere, that the noise of the fall can be heard at the distance of one-fourth of a mile from the bank of the river.

Large boats ascend the rapids at the time of the spring floods, by the aid of a cable made fast to a tree, or some other object above, and taken in by the capstan. In 1821, the Maysville, a steam-boat of about two hundred tons, was taken up, and had nearly reached the head of the rapid, when the cable broke; and the boat swinging round, was thrown against the rocks, in the bed of the river, and placed in such a situation as to render hopeless all attempts to get her off before the next annual rise of the water. Arks and small barges descend, by the aid of skilful pilots, for great part of the year. It is expected that the navigation of this dangerous rapid will soon be rendered more convenient, by canaling, which can be accomplished at a very inconsiderable

expense. The direction of the Ohio, above and below the rapids, is nearly from north-east to southwest, but where the stream passes the rocky obstruction occasioning the fall, it is a little deflected from its course, making a bend towards the west. Thus a point is formed on the south-eastern side projecting from the elevated bank, which, from its present position, would seem to indicate that the bed of the river had changed its place, having formerly traversed the point from north-east to south-west, in a direct line. In times of high floods the water is, in part, discharged through this old channel, and large boats are said to have ascended by that route within a few years past.

On this point stands the small town of Shippingsport, at the foot of the rapids. The proposed canal will traverse the point in the rear of this village. The obstacles to be encountered in opening a canal at this place are but trifling. The soil is firm and gravelly, being based on horizontal strata of compact limestone, and fine argillaceous sandstone.

The sandstone, which is the rock of most common occurrence about the_rapids, very closely resembles that of Pittsburgh. It is commonly of a compact texture, having an argillaceous cement, with a laminated structure. At Shippingsport, and at Clarksville, in Indiana, it is succeeded by bituminous clayslate. While we were waiting at the rapids, several of the party made an excursion to visit the boiling spring, at the foot of the Silver Creek hills, in Indiana, at a little distance from New Albany. This spring is small, discharging no water above the surface of the ground. It is an artificial excavation in the clayey bank of a small stream, called Fountain Creek. It is filled to the level of the water in the creek, the spring itself evidently discharging very little, if any water. That which fills the basin is turbid, being kept in constant agitation by the bubbles of inflammable air which rise through it. The

smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is perceptible at considerable distance about the spring; and a piece of silver, held near the surface of the water, was quickly tarnished. The Silver Creek hills are of argillaceous sandstone, and secondary clay-slate; and this spring seems to be placed near the meeting of the

two strata.

In the bed of the Ohio, opposite Shippingsport, is a tabular mass of rocks, visible above water for great part of the year, and called Corn Island. On the highest parts of this, are remaining some small portions of the limestone stratum, which appears in many places to have been worn through, and removed by the river. Five or six acres of the surface of this island are of the smooth compact argillaceous sandrock before mentioned, lying horizontally, and divided into squares and parallelograms by the natural fissures. These fissures contain some soil which supports, in the summer, a dense growth of herbaceous plants. Among these, we noticed the hypericum sphæcrocarpum of Michaux, (apparently not the plant mentioned by Nuttall, under that name, which has been noticed near Philadelphia, by Collins and others, but without doubt that originally described by Michaux). Two species of andropogon, the panicum virgatum, solanum nigrum, polygala verticillata, leplanthus gramineus, chenopodium botrys, &c. The lower part of the island is covered with loose sand; bearing some small cotton-wood and willow trees.

The

The unenclosed grounds, about Louisville and Shippingsport, are extensive, and afford pasturage to great numbers of domestic animals. They are, however, much overrun with luxuriant weeds. datura strammonium, which is common in every part of Ohio, is sometimes eaten by sheep; and the spiny capsules of the seed, when about half ripened, we have seen eaten with apparent avidity by cows. In addition to this loathsome plant, the common May-weed (anthemis cotula) has become abundant