Wheeling is a considerable town on the left bank of the river, ninety-six miles from Pittsburg. It is expected that the new road from Baltimore to this place will be completed in the course of a year.[51] This being a national highway, on which no tolls are to be levied, and the shortest connection between a sea-port and the Ohio, a great increase of trade is consequently anticipated.[52] Hereafter, Baltimore will be the most proper landing place for Europeans who would settle in western America. At present the carriage of goods from Baltimore to Wheeling is cheaper than from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. From this it is evident, that the new route is already the shortest and the cheapest.
About four and a half miles below Wheeling, I was surprised at hearing the river making a great noise, the Pittsburg navigator not giving any notice of a rapid, and as a thick fog prevented me from seeing the cause, I went on shore to reconnoitre. Before reaching the place from whence {82} the noise proceeded, a boy informed me that a great fresh (flood) in M’Mahon’s Creek, happened last summer, at a time when the Ohio was low, and that it had carried earth and trees from the bottom land, together with a house and a family, into the river. The devastation produced by this torrent is truly astonishing. It has cut a great chasm through the bottom land, which is about twenty-five feet high, and scooped it out many feet lower than the surface of the Ohio. A large bar, that in some measure dams the river, has large trees intermixed with it; their roots and branches standing above the water. This is the obstacle and cause that occasion the noisy ripple.
The last tavern that we passed here, had no sign-board. In consequence of which I supposed it to be a private house, and, after sailing several miles down the river, was obliged to put ashore, when nearly dusk, at a farm-house about nine miles below Wheeling.
November 5. The family with whom I lodged last night, seem to be industrious and well disposed. Two daughters were busily engaged in tailor work for the males. This, they said, is a common practice in the country. They also told me of a young lady of the neighbourhood, who had just gone to the house of her bridegroom, to make his marriage suit. As this occurrence was told with some degree of disapprobation, it is not to be viewed as in unison with the manners of the people.
Twelve miles and a half below Wheeling, and a quarter of a mile from the river, on the left-hand side, there is a remarkable mound of earth, called the Big Grave. This hill is about sixty-seven feet high, a hundred and eighty feet broad at the base, and about twenty-two feet broad at the top, which is a little hollow. Some have supposed that the earth {83} has been brought from a distance; but, as something similar to a ditch is to be seen on one side of it, and as the neighbouring surface is uneven, there can be no strong reason to warrant the conclusion. Several fallen trees on the sides, (for it is covered with a strong growth of timber,) have exposed the component earth, which is a fine vegetable soil. It is not known that the present Indian people perform such works, nor is it believed that their traditions inculcate veneration towards these monuments; hence their origin is perfectly obscure.
On the right-hand side of the river, and about four miles below Grave Creek, a bed of coal is wrought. It lies in a horizontal position, and under high-water mark. Boats take in lading close by the mouth of the mine.
Lodged at a tavern thirty-four miles from Wheeling, after rowing against head-winds, which rendered the work somewhat fatiguing. In the evening a number of young men came in from a husking of Indian corn in the neighbourhood; they commenced drinking and swearing, all bawling out and talking at once. Such noisy gabbling I never before heard.
November 6. To-day I got into a long stretch of the river, where it is straight for seventeen miles. This part is called the Long Reach.[53] The wind blew upward, and opposed a rolling surface to my progress. The labour was hard, but the headway very small; family boats have been obliged to land. I saw some young men in a canoe who had just killed a deer in the act of crossing the river.
Lodged at a tavern about half way down the long Reach. Two old women, (sisters,) were there, one was in quest of her husband, and the other of her daughter. The uncle is forty-five years of age, and the niece sixteen. Affinity and disparity of {84} age united, have not been sufficient to prevent the elopement.
From Wheeling to near this place, coal, limestone, and sandstone are abundant.