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Show 131 68 FLAT BOATS-GALLIPOLIS----GUYANDOT----BURLINGTON. of the Ohio, from Pittsburg, and are sent with the produce of the country to New Orleans. These boats are large four-cornered chests, composed of beams and planks, are often heavily laden, draw much water, and, having neither masts nor sails, proceed very slowly. They are propelled with large oars, and can only go down the river; they are many months on the voyage to New Orleans, and the rowers are commonly new European emigrants, hired for low wages, and often merely for a free passage. Many of these boats are wrecked, and they are, therefore, frequently insured; at New Orleans they are sold for lumber. The woods in the valley of the Ohio are more lofty and luxuriant than on the other side of the Alleghany Mountains; vines twine round the trees, and present a faint image of the woods of warmer countries. The kingfisher was common ; the swallows had not yet taken their flight, and in some places the sandpiper was seen upon the bank. In the vicinity of the houses were cattle, horses, swine, large sheep, and numerous flocks of European geese and ducks ; here, too, the papaw tree was sometimes planted in rows. The river increased in breadth, but not in depth, of which we had the proof before us, for a flat boat had run aground, and the people stood in the water, trying to get it afloat. In this part of the country there are, in the state of Ohio, many Swiss colonists, who are much commended for their industry. The soil is extremely fruitful, and needs no manure. The dwellings of these people are small log-houses, exactly like the huts in Switzerland. Towards noon, before we reached Point Pleasant, we saw, in many places on the Ohio, considerable coal-pits, the sulphureous smell of which was perceptible in the steamer; many boats lay ready to take in cargoes ; negro children were sitting in groups on the bank, near their extensive plantations of maize. These people are free in the state of Ohio. After we had passed Point Pleasant, a village on the left bank, where fine forests cover the low bank of the great Kenhava River, which here falls into the Ohio, we reached, in about twenty minutes, Gallipolis, on the right bank, an old French colony, the inhabitants of which still speak the French language. Immediately below that town, there is a fine forest of beech trees; on the water-side, thickets of plane, and between them the papaw tree took the/place which, in Pennsylvania, is occupied by the Rhododendron maximum ; willows grew in front of the planes. The sun disappeared behind the hills on the bank ; the evening sky was clear and serene, and the bright mirror of the Ohio extended unruffled near Racoon Creek, where we saw large flocks of ducks. We intended to continue our voyage during the night; but, about nine o'clock, we struck violently on a sand-bank, near the Indian Guyandot River, where there is a small village of the same name, and, as a thick fog arose, we lay to, six miles below Guyandot. On the 12th of October, in the morning, a dense fog covered the river, and the thermometer was, at half-past six o'clock, at 10° Reaumur, above zero. We passed the mouth of Symes Creek, and then Burlington, a small scattered village in Lawrence County, where our boat struck upon some stones, and was thrown a little on one side. On the left bank was Cadetsburg, |