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Show , TRAVELS TIIROUGII NORTII AMERICA: is oppofitc to the city for one mile higher. where~ large rock ti fcs UJ in the n1iddlc of the river, on ea.ch fide of which there arc fand-b.lnk~. It is faid thlt there is a deep channel between thjs rock and the Chore, but it is Jo intricate that it would be dangC'rons to attempt t t.d<c a large vdfel through it. Tl1e navigl1tion, however, is f:tfe to the little fall~ for river craft, five miles fnrth~r on; here a canal, whtch extends two miles and a half, the length of thde falls or r~pids., has been cut and perfeCl:ed, which opens a free p·dfctgc for boats as Ltr as the grca~ ft 11., which arc icvcn tniles from the others. The dcfc ent of the nver at there is feventy-fix feet in a tnile and quarter; but it is ir tended to make a'lother canal here alfo; a part of it is already cut, J nd every exertion is making to have the whole con1pleted with expedition *·. FrOln hence to Fort Cumberland, one hundred and ninety-one mil ·s above the f~ kr.tl city, there is a free navigation, and boats are continu ~1 1ly paHing up and down. Beyond this, the pafTage in the river is obfhutleJ 111 numerou~ places; but there i a poffibility of opening it, and as foon a the compuny formed for the purpo{c have fuOicient funds, it will certainly be done. Prom the place up to which it is afferted the pa!fage of the Patowmac can be opened, the dillancc acrofs bnd to Cheat River is only thirty-feven miles. This latl river is not at prefent navigable for more than fifty miles above its mouth; bnt it can be rendered fo for boats, nod fo far up that there will only be the {hort portage that I have mentioned between the navigable waters of the two rivers. Things arc only great or f1nall by comparifon, and a portage of thirty [even n1iks will be thought a very iliort one, when found to be the only interrup .. tion to an inland navigation of npwa.rds of two thoufand [c.;ven hundred n1iles, of which two thoufand one hundred and eighty-three arc down flream. Cheat River is two hundred yards wide at its mouth, and falls into the Monongahela, which runs on to Pitdburgh, and there receives the A'llcghany River; united they form the Ohio, which after a courfc of one thoufancl one hundred and eighty-three n1iles, during which it receives twenty-four other confiderable rivers, fome of them 1ix hundred . • For a further defcription of thefc Falu !ee Lette.t X~XI. yards W A T E R C 0 M M U N I C A T I 0 N. 39 yards wiJc at the n1outh, and navigable for hundreds of n1iles up the country, empties itfclf into the MiffifTi; pi. If we trace the water communicatjon in an oppofite direCtion, its prodigious extent will be a 11ill gre:1lcr filbj-.!(1 of aflon10uncnt. By afcc nding the J\ 1lcghany P ivcr fron1 Pitdburgh ~u· fa r as French Creek, and aft ·rwnrds this la tter fircarn, you come to Fort lc Bccnf. This place is within fifteen n1il ·s of P reflu' IOc, a town fJtu· ted tlpon Lake Erie. which has a lurbou r ca pable of adtnittin~ vdi"cb drJ.wing nine feet water. Ot yon tn'ly get upon the Ltlu; by alcen\.ling the (}reat Miami River, which falls into the Obio tivc hun ired and fifty miles below Pittsburgh. Frotn the G reat Miami there JS a I'Orta~e of nine tniles only to Sandulky River, which runs into Lake Eric. It is n1ofl probable, however, that wha tevcr in tercour(c there Jnay be bet ween the lakes and the D'tkral city, it will be kept up by 1ncans of tho Alleghany R jver and French CrLck, rather than by the Nliami, as in the Jail: cafe it would be nt ccfl~lry to con1ba t again!l: the {[, ean1 of the Ohio for five hundred and fifty tni lcs, a very fcrions obj~.!Cl: of con Gdcration. Lal e E1 ic is three hundred miles in length, and ninety in breadth, ~ and the re is a free com n unication bet ween it, Lake I-I uron, and Lako l\llichigan. Lake Ifuron is upwards of one thou£111lltniles in circurn ... fer 'nce; Mich ig~m is fomcwhat fmallcr. N Utllbers of 1 trgc rivers fall into thefe lakes, after h,tving w;1tcred immcnic tracls of country in va ... rious dircClio!ls. Some of thefe rivers too are connetled in a moll: fingnlar manner with othe r , which run in a courfe totally different. For inilancc, after p.1 ffinJ over the Lakes Eric, St. Clair, and Michigan, to the head of Pu.m's B.1y, you come to Fox River; from hence there is a port:1gc of three miles only to Ouifconfing River, which empties itfdf into the Milrtnij)pi; and in the [\ll of the year, when the waters are high, and the rivers overflow, it is oftcntitnes poffible to pafs fron1 !lox River to Oui:conJing Riv r withont ever getting out of a canoe. Thus, excepting a portage of three miles only at the moll, it is poffible to go the whvle way by watu· fton1 Pref(1u' 10<', on L<lkc Eric, to New OrJeans, Jt the mouth of the Mifliilippi, a difl:1ncc of ncar four thouJJnd miles. It Wol1ld be an cndlcfs ta1k to trace the wat r co1nn1unication in '* every |
