branches of which, able to bear the weight, are, in the proper feafon of the year, loaded with eagles nefts. Their inftinctive wisdom has taught them to choose this place, as it is fecure, on account of the rapids above from the attacks either of man or beast.

From the best accounts that can be obtained from the Indians, we learn that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz. the St. Lawrence, the Miffiffippi, the river Bourbon, and the Oregon, or the river of the Weft, have their fources in the same neighbourhood. The waters of the three former, are faid to be within thirty miles of each other; the latter is rather farther weft.

This fhews that these parts are the highest lands in North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three quarters of the globe, that four rivers of fuch magnitude should take their rise together, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different, oceans, at the distance of more than two thousand miles from their fources. For in their paffage from this fpot to the bay of St. Lawrence, eaft; to the bay of Mexico, fouth; to Hudfon's Bay, north; and to the bay at the ftraits of Annian, weft; where the river Oregon is fuppofed to empty itself, each of them traverfes upwards of two thousand miles.

The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth: its current gentle, waters clear, and bofom finooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a fingle inftance only excepted. It is one quarter of a mile wide at Fort Pitt: five hundred yards at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway: twelve hundred yards at Louisville; and the rapids, half a mile, in fome few places below Louisville: but its general breadth does not exceed fix hundred yards. In fome places its width is not four hundred, and in one place particularly, far below the rapids, it is less than three hundred. Its breadth in no one place exceeds twelve hundred yards, and at its junction with the Miffiffippi, neither river is more than nine hundred yards wide. Its length, as measured according to its meanders by Capt. Hutchins, is as follows:

In common winter and fpring floods, it affords thirty or forty feet water to Louisville, twenty-five or thirty feet to La Tartes's rapids, forty miles above the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, and a fufficiency at all times for light batteaux and canoes to Fort Pitt. The rapids are in latitude 28° 8'. The inundations of this river begin about the laft of March, and fubfide in July, although they frequently happen in other months, fo that boats which carry three hundred barrels of flour, from the Monongahela, or Youhiogany, above Pittsburg, have seldom long to wait for water only. During thefe floods a firft rate man of war may be carried from Louifville to New Orleans, if the fudden turns of the river and the ftrength of its current will admit a fafe fteerage; and it is the opinion of Col. Morgan, who has had all the means of information, that a veffel properly built for the fea, to draw 12 feet water, when loaded, and carrying from twelve to fixteen hundred barrels of flour, may be more eafily, cheaply, and fafely navigated from Pittsburgh to the fea, than those now in ufe; and that this matter only requires one man of capacity and enterprize to ascertain it. He obferves, that a veffel intended to be rigged as a brigantine, fnow, or fhip, fhould be double decked, take her mafts on deck, and be rowed to the Ibberville, below which are no islands, or to New Orleans, with twenty men, so as to afford reliefs of ten and ten in the night.-Such a veffel, without the ufe of oars, he fays, would float to New Orleans, from Pittsburg, twenty times in twenty-four hours. If this be fo, what agreeable profpects are prefented to those who have fixed their refidence in the western country.

The rapids at Louisville defcend about ten feet in a length of a mile and a half. The bed of the river there is a solid rock, and is divided by an island into two branches, the fouthern of which is about two hundred yards wide, but impaffable in dry feasons, about four months in the year. The bed of the northern branch is worn into channels by the conftant course of the water, and attrition of the pebble ftoņes carried on with it, so as to be paffable for batteaux through the greater

part

part of the year. Yet it is thought that the fouthern arm m moft eafily opened for conftant navigation. The rife of the wa these rapids does not exceed twenty or twenty-five feet. The Americ have a fort, fituated at the head of the falls. The ground on the fouth fide rifes very gradually.

At Fort Pitt the river Ohio lofes its name, branching into the Monongahela and Allegany.

The Monongahela is four hundred yards wide at its mouth. From thence is twelve or fifteen miles to the mouth of Yohogany, where it is three hundred yards wide. Thence to Redstone by water is fifty miles, by land thirty. Then to the mouth of Cheat river by water forty miles, by land twenty-eight, the width continuing at three hundred yards, and the navigation good for boats. Thence the width is about two hundred yards to the western fork, fifty miles higher, and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids; which however with a fwell of two or three feet, become very paffable for boats. It then admits light boats, except in dry feasons, fixty-five miles further to the head of Tygart's valley, prefenting only fome small rapids and falls of one or two feet perpendicular, and leffening in its width to twenty yards. The western fork is navigable in the winter ten or fifteen miles towards the northern of the Little Kanhaway, and will admit a good waggon road to it. The Yohogany is the principal branch of this river. It paffes through the Laurel mountain, about thirty miles from its mouth; is fo far, from three hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide, and the navigation much ob ftructed in dry weather by rapids and fhoals. In its paffage through the mountain it makes very great falls, admitting no navigation for ten miles to the Turkey foot. Thence to the great croffing, about twenty miles, it is again navigable, except in dry seasons, and at this place is two hundred yards wide. The fources of this river are divided from those of the Potomak by the Allegany mountains. From the falls, where it interfects the Laurel mountain, to Fort Cumberland, the head of the navigation on the Potomak, is forty miles of very mountainous road. Wills's creek, at the mouth of which was Fort Cumberland, is thirty or forty yards wide, but affords no navigation as yet. Cheat river, another confiderable branch of the Monongahela, is two hundred yards wide at its mouth, and one hundred yards at the Dunkard's fettlement, fifty miles higher. It is navigable for boats, except in dry feafons. The boundary between Virginia and Pennfylvania croffes it about three or four miles above its mouth.

The Allegany river, with a flight fwell, affords navigation for light batteaus to Venango, at the mouth of French creek, where it is two hundred yards wide; and it is practifed even to Le Bœuf, from whence there

2

there is a portage of fifteen miles and a half to Pefque Isle on Lake Erie.

The country watered by the Miffiffippi and its eastern branches, conftitutes five-eights of the United States; two of which five-eighths are occupied by the Ohio and its waters; the refiduary ftreams, which run into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St. Lawrence, water the remaining three-eights.

Before we quit the fubject of the western waters, we will take a view of their principal connections with the Atlantic. These are four, the Hudfon's river, the Potomak, St. Lawrence, and the Miffiffippi. Down the laft will pafs all the heavy commodities. But the navigation through' the Gulf of Mexico is fo dangerous, and that up the Miffiffippi fo difficult and tedious, that it is thought probable that European merchandize will not be conveyed through that channel. It is most likely that flour, timber, and other heavy articles will be floated on rafts, which will themfelves be an article for fale as well as their loading, the navigators returning by land, as at prefent. There will therefore be a competition between the Hudson, the Potomak, and the St. Lawrence rivers for the refidue of the commerce of all the country weftward of Lake Erie, on the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio, and upper parts of Miffiffippi. To go to New-York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes or their waters must first be brought into Lake Erie. Between Lake Superior and its waters and Huron are the rapids of St. Marie, which will permit boats to pass, but not larger veffels. Lakes Huron and Michigan afford communication with Lake Erie by veffels of eight feet draught. That part of the trade which comes from the waters of the Miffiffippi must pafs from them through fome portage into the waters of the lakes. The portage from the Illinois river into a water of Michigan is of one mile only. From the Wabash, Miami, Muskingum, or Allegany, are portages into the waters of Lake Erie, of from one to fifteen miles. When the commodities are brought into, and have paffed through Lake Erie, there is between that and Ontario an interruption by the falls of Niagara, where the portage is of eight miles; and between Ontario and the Hudfon's river are portages of the falls of Onondago, a little above Ofwego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood creek to the Mohawks river two miles; at the little falls of the Mohawks river half a mile, and from Schenectady to Albany fixteen miles. Befides the increase of expence occafioned by frequent change of carriage, there is an increased risk of pillage produced by committing merchandize to a greater number of hands fucceffively. The Potomak offers itself under the following circumftance. For the trade of the lakes and their waters weftward of Lake Eric, when it fhall

have entered that lake, it must coaft along its fouthern fhore, on account of the number and excellence of its harbours, the northern, though the fhorteft, having few harbours, and thefe unfafe. Having reached Cayahoga, to proceed on to New-York it will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles, and five portages: whereas it is but four hundred and twenty-five miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the Potomak, if it turns into the Cayahoga, and paffes through that, Bigbeaver, Ohio, Yahogany, or Monongalia and Cheat, and Potomak, and there are but two portages; the firft of which between Cayahoga and Beaver may be removed by uniting the fources of these waters, which are lakes in the neighbourhood of each other, and in a champaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to the Potomak will be from fifteen to forty miles, according to the trouble which fhall be taken to approach the two navigations. For the trade of the Ohio, or that which fhall come into it from its own waters or the Miffiffippi, it is nearer through the Potomak to Alexandria than to New-York, by five hundred and eighty miles, and it is interrupted by one portage only. There is another circumstance of difference too. The lakes themselves never freeze, but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudson's river is itself shut up by the ice three months in the year: whereas the channel to the Chefapeek leads directly into a warmer climate. The fouthern parts of it very rarely freeze at all, and whenever the northern do, it is fo near the fources of the rivers, that the frequent floods to which they are there liable break up the ice immediately, fo that veffels may pass through the whole winter, fubject only to accidental and fhort delays. Add to all this, that in cafe. of a war with their neighbours of Canada, or the Indians, the route to New-York becomes a frontier through almost its whole length, and all commerce through it, ceases from that moment. But the channel to New-York is already known to practice; whereas the upper waters of the Ohio and the Potomak, and the great falls of the latter, are yet to be cleared of their fixed obftructions.

The rout by St. Lawrence is well known to be attended with many advantages, and fome difadvantages. But there is a fifth rout, which the enlightened and enterprizing Pennsylvanians contemplate, which, if effected, will be the eafieft, cheapest, and fureft paffage from the lakes, and the Ohio river; by means of the Susquehannah, and a canal from thence to Philadelphia. The latter part of this plan, viz. the canal between Sufquehannah and the Schuylkill rivers, is now actually in execu tion. Should they accomplish their whole scheme, and they appear confident of fuccefs, Philadelphia in all probability will become, in fome future period, the largest city that has ever yet exifted.

Vol. I.

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