[142] Henry P. Coburn was adjutant-general of Indiana from December, 1819, to December, 1822. A native of Massachusetts and graduate of Harvard College (1812), he came to Indiana in 1816 and practised law in the southern part of the state until 1820. In that year he was made clerk of the supreme court, holding the position until his death in 1852.—Ed.
{270} LETTER XXIII
Passage from the Falls of the Ohio to Cincinnati—Drought—Banks—Militia—Journey to Lake Erie—Reading—Shakertown—Lebanon—Little Miami—Wood Pigeons—Insects—Clarkville and Leesburg—Greenfield and Oldtown—Large quantities of Grain raised by Individuals—The Great Sciota—Pickaway Plains—Wet Prairies—New Lancaster—Lebanon—Newark—Mount Vernon—Owl Creek—Clear Fork—Roads—Mansfield—Trucksville—Summit of the Country between the Ohio and Lake Erie—Munro—Sickness—The Great Prairie—The former Beach of Lake Erie—Bloomingtown—Bank—Mineral Strata—Portland—Venice—Sickness—Indians—Tavern Keepers—People.
Portland, (Ohio,) Oct. 13, 1820.
I left the Falls of the Ohio on the 12th ult. and took my passage in a steam-boat which plies between that place and Cincinnati.—There was no other passing on the Ohio at that time, on account of the lowness of the water.
From the difference of time occupied in ascending and descending the river, it appeared that the mean velocity of the stream was reduced to one mile per hour. In several ripples, the deepest part of the channel measured only three feet. The vessel repeatedly ran aground, so that an anchor was put out, and it became necessary that every man on board should work at the capstane. The boat was the same in which I ascended the river in June last, and of which I noted down the dimensions in my letter of the 26th of that month. {271} She is here considered to be a small vessel, and the best for navigating the river in dry seasons. On computing the velocity of the water wheel, I found that the boat would move at the rate of 81/2 miles per hour, supposing that it proceeded in the manner of wheel carriages, and that the actual velocity through still water was seven miles per hour. This gives a very good measure of the vis inertiæ of the fluid.
We did not arrive at Cincinnati till the 15th, being obliged to stop during the night, as it was impossible to keep in the proper channel in the dark, at the present low stage of the river. The vessel returned downward nearly empty, to be laid up till the next rise of water.
The hills in the neighbourhood of Cincinnati, which were beautifully verdant in June last, are now withered to whiteness, by the scorching drought.[143]
The trade of Cincinnati continues to be dull. Two of the banks have given up business altogether, and two others are struggling for existence. Their money is 331/2 and 60 per cent under par. One of these establishments has been in the habit of giving in exchange for its own notes, those of another paper shop at a considerable distance; when the paper so obtained is presented at the second, it is taken in exchange for the money of a third bank still farther off. At the third, the bills are exchanged for the money of the first. This is in reality making banks “equally solvent with their neighbouring institutions.” Some of the stockholders, {272} who are themselves the debtors of the banks, procure a part of the money, which is either much depreciated, or entirely sunk to satisfy for the same debts.
Females of a certain description are not to be seen in the streets of Cincinnati after dusk. This is attributed, not so much to police regulations, as to the boys, whose practice it is to chase them.