Mansfield is another county town,[155] and is favoured as the seat of a bank. I lodged at Trucksville, a new town, consisting of about half a dozen of frame-houses. The lands of the neighbourhood appeared excellent.
On the 7th, I passed through a part of the country with a surface which is gently undulated. The little intervales seem to be nearly horizontal in their bottoms. This, with the woods that obstruct the view everywhere, imposes the aspect of a low flat country, an illusion that I could only dispel by recollecting that throughout my journey I had travelled in a direction contrary to the motion of the rivers, and by observing that the waters run in different directions, part towards the Ohio, and part towards Lake Erie.
It might be difficult to form a conception of any topographical inquiry more interesting to the State of Ohio, and some other parts, than the structure and conditions of the high grounds which separate between the waters of the river Ohio and Lake Erie. It remains to be ascertained, whether a sufficient quantity of water can be found for supplying the summit level of the contemplated canal between the river and the lake, and through what point in the ridge the lowest, or otherwise most eligible line may be drawn. When the first of these questions is solved, it will be easy to say whether New Orleans or New York will be the future emporium of this part of the country. I believe the only specific information on the subject, that has been published, is in a paper by Governor Brown,[156] of the State of Ohio, who has repeatedly recommended that the legislature should pass an act for causing the necessary surveys to be made, {282} but without effect. It is curious that it was the legislature of the same State (Ohio) that, a few years ago, made an overture to the Congress, for ascertaining whether it is practicable to make a canal between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
The country between New Lancaster and the heads of the waters that fall into Lake Erie (about a hundred miles) is high, fertile, well watered, and comparatively exempt from the endemical sicknesses which annoy the inhabitants of lower lands.
The country over which I travelled on the 8th, is intermixed with flat lands. The great holes and ruts in the roads showed that they are occasionally drenched with water. If my olfactory organs did not deceive me, the air was somewhat tainted.
At Munro, a small branch of Huron River, I had some difficulty in procuring breakfast. All the family in the tavern were either sick, or so much emaciated by recent disease, that they were scarcely able to do any thing. Every person in the town, old and young, had been attacked, two individuals being only excepted. For two years past, the place has been more unhealthy than formerly; and the people believe that the change has been occasioned by the erection of a mill-dam in the creek. The surmise is probably just, as the dam is now dry, and both the mud and vegetable matters are exposed to the heat and consequent decomposition, evolving hydrogen gas, which is understood to be deleterious.
At the distance of about fourteen miles from Portland, the road enters the great prairie that stretches along the south side of the lake. It is covered with coarse grass, of a luxuriant growth, and an immense variety of weeds. Some slight eminences are wooded, and resemble islands or {283} peninsulas in the plain. In passing along, I perceived openings which seemed to extend to the distance of twelve or fourteen miles.
For several miles the road is over a ridge, sixty or eighty feet in breadth, about eight feet higher than the plain, and five or six feet higher than the flat ground immediately to the southward. This ridge or step runs in a winding line, forming a convexity towards the lake, where it crosses the higher parts of the prairie, and recedes to the southward, forming a concave curve round hollows in the ground, thus preserving a horizontal position. A doubt of this having been once the margin of the lake can scarcely be entertained.
The ridge just mentioned is dry and of a gravelly soil. It is preferred by the settlers for the sites of their houses. Some patches of the prairie are inclosed by worn fences, and produce large crops of maize. Cattle range in the prairies, and are larger and fatter than those reared by the Ohio River. A few stacks of coarse natural hay stand on the ground that produced them.
Bloomingtown is a town consisting of about ten houses, and is situated on a sandy eminence in the edge of the prairie:—a small place, but deserving of notice from its abortive Bank. A company was formed, plates engraved, and the bank notes brought to the spot. At the time when this happened, the people had just become jealous of unchartered banks. The company applied to the Legislature of the State for a charter, which was refused. The bankers not venturing to sign the pictures, but unwilling to lose the expense of manufacturing them, sold them by auction. They were afterwards subscribed by a fictitious president and cashier, and fraudulently put into circulation.