A heavy fall of rain was very welcome to us, the water in the river being so low that our boat frequently grounded. At a narrow part of the river we came to the village of Newark, and then to the mouth of the Muskingum River, at the town of Marietta, which was founded in 1788.[64] This 67 place is small, but it has neat brick buildings, some of which looked like churches. We have read much about the ancient Indian remains and ramparts, between the Ohio and the Muskingum. Smith Barton, Attwater, Schultz, and especially Warden,[65] have written on this highly interesting subject, and given ground plans of the Indian ramparts, which are met with at many places in the state of Ohio, at Cincinnati, Wheeling, Chillicothe, as well as in all the States west of the Alleghanys, and respecting which Warden has collected everything that is known; but most of these interesting remains have been entirely annihilated by the love of devastation, or the negligence of the new settlers. Thus Marietta is built just on the fore part of the Indian works, and many of them are no longer to be seen. It is much to be lamented that the government of the United States suffers all this to be done without any attempt to prevent it. It looks on unmoved, while the plough continues from year to year the destruction of these remains of ages long since past, the only historical monuments of this country. Schultz gave, in 1820, a ground plan of the ramparts near Marietta, as Smith Barton and Warden did more recently; and Mr. Thomas Say made a sketch of them in 1815, which he communicated to me. A great part of them has been since ploughed over.
From Marietta we came to the Island of Muskingum, and then to Vienna Island; opposite to which, on the left bank, lies the village of Vienna. Swallows, which had long since left Pennsylvania, were still flying about here. We everywhere heard accounts of the great flood in the Ohio, when the steam-boats were on a level with the second story of the houses in Marietta.
We saw tall forest trees, among the thick branches of which the river had deposited beams and other pieces of wood.[66] Below Parkersburg, a village on the southern side, the little Kenhava River issues from the high bank opposite Belpie, a settlement of a few houses.[67] A steam-boat, which had been entirely crushed by the ice, proved how violent the effects of the breaking up of the ice in the Ohio sometimes are. Our captain lay to for the night, on the right bank, which was necessary, on account of the unfavourable weather; the rain being so heavy, that it drenched the upper row of beds in the large cabin.
On the 11th October the weather was fairer, but very cool. The appearance of the bank was the same as before—an unbroken, thick forest, with here and there some little settlements. We reached, at an early hour, the Little Hocking River, which comes from the state of Ohio. Ducks, particularly teal, flew past us, and we observed, also, many other birds of passage on their flight. Near Shade Creek, the banks of the river consisted of stratified, rocky walls, which appeared to be Grauwacke slate;[68] we observed, in the forest, trees of remarkable forms and colours; the trunks, covered with the scarlet foliage of the five-leaved ivy, were particularly beautiful. We frequently met, in the river, with flat boats, which are built all along the banks 68 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.[69] 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.[70]
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, 69 with Big Sandy Creek, then Hanging Rock, a small village, where most of the iron utensils for the whole of Ohio are shipped. The situation of the place is picturesque, surrounded with forests and rocks. On the left, or Kentucky bank, we passed Greenupsburg, a row of seventeen or eighteen small houses, on the high bank. The inhabitants, in order to attract the notice of the vessels that pass by to their public-houses, stores, or shops, have set up posts, with boards painted white, on which their trade, &c., is described in very large letters. The beech woods on this part of the river were remarkably fine, their foliage green and yellow. On our right hand was the little Scioto River; we then came to the village of Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto River, on the Ohio bank, where the celebrated Ohio Canal begins, which connects that river with lake Erie. At this place we took on board a number of European emigrants, among whom were many Germans, with their baggage, beds, and other effects, and many children. The negroes brought provisions for sale; one of them had a number of fowls, all of which escaped, and caused no little amusement. From this place, fine forests covered the bank, in which were tall poplars (Populus Angulata, or Canadensis), which I had not before observed. Here, too, I noticed some interesting forms of mountains, which in general are very rare in this country. Most of the summits are round, some broad, but very few pointed. Towards evening we came to the village of Rockville,[71] on the right bank, which was not marked on our map, and lay to, at nightfall, when we learned that our vessel had caught fire, but happily it was already extinguished. On the bank near the steam-boat, a large fire was burning, the reflection of which, on the dark forest, had a fine effect, and so had the steamers that hastened past us, which were brightly lighted up inside, and emitted sparks of fire as they rushed along in the dark night.
On the 13th, at daybreak, the landscape was obscured by rain. We had passed, during the night, Adamsville, Manchester, Aberdeen, Ripley, Vanceburg, Maysville, and Augusta, and were now off the village of Neville, where the Helen Mar steam-boat lay near us, to take in wood. We then came to Moscow, then to Point Pleasant, and on the right bank to New Richmond.[72] Near the little Miami River, six miles from Cincinnati, the Ohio was so shallow, that we saw the shells at the bottom, and our boat struck several times. The Miami River was nearly dry. At Columbia, in the state of Ohio, the valley becomes rather wider, but the hills soon close in again upon the river, and we come to the beginning of the great town of Cincinnati.
Cincinnati, the most important and flourishing town of the West, with more than 36,000 inhabitants, was at this time visited by the cholera, which, as we were assured by a physician who came to our vessel, carried off, on an average, forty persons daily. I therefore resolved not to stop now, but to visit this town on my return; our baggage was transferred to the Portsmouth steamer, which was just about to depart; and at noon we reached the mouth of Big Miami River.[73]
On the 14th of October, we had pleasant sunshiny weather. The river had become considerably broader, when we came to Six-miles Island, a beautiful island six miles from Louisville. 70 We had passed several places during the night, and likewise the celebrated Big-bone Lick,[74] where colossal bones of the mammoth have been dug up at the foot of a hill of black earth. I would gladly have stopped at this spot, but some of our passengers, who were well acquainted with the country, assured me that there was now nothing to be seen there, nor was anything more found. All that had been obtained had been sold to England and the American museums.