A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America

by S. A. Ferrall

CHAPTER X

I left Kentucky, and passed up the river to Wheeling, in Virginia. There is little worthy of observation encountered in a passage up this part of the Ohio, except the peculiar character of the stream, which has been before alluded to. At Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, ship-building is carried on; and vessels have been constructed at Pittsburg, full 2000 miles from the gulf of Mexico. About seventy miles up the Kenhawa river, in Virginia, are situated the celebrated salt springs, the most productive of any in the Union. They are at present in the possession of a chartered company, which limits the manufacture to 800,000 bushels annually, but it is estimated that the fifty-seven wells are capable of yielding 50,000 bushels each, per annum, which would make an aggregate of 2,850,000 bushels. Many of these springs issue out of rocks, and the water is so strongly impregnated with salt, that from 90 to 130 gallons yield a bushel. The whole western country bordering the Ohio and its tributaries, is supplied with salt from these works.

Wheeling, although not large, enjoys a considerable share of commercial intercourse, being an entrepôt for eastern merchandize, which is transported from the Atlantic cities across the mountains to this town and Pittsburg, and from thence by water to the different towns along the rivers.

The process of "hauling" merchandize from Baltimore and Philadelphia to the banks of the Ohio, and vice versâ, is rather tedious, the roads lying across steep and rugged mountains. Large covered waggons, light and strong, drawn by five or six horses, two and two, are employed for this purpose. The waggoner always rides the near shaft horse, and guides the team by means of reins, a whip, and his voice. The time generally consumed in one of these journeys is from twenty to twenty-five days.

All the mountains or hills on the upper part of the Ohio, from Wheeling to Pittsburg, contain immense beds of coal; this added to the mineral productions, particularly that of iron ore, which abound in this section of country, offers advantages for manufacturing, which are of considerable importance, and are fully appreciated. Pittsburg is called the Birmingham of America. Some of those coal beds are well circumstanced, the coal being found immediately under the super-stratum, and the galleries frequently running out on the high road. Notwithstanding the local advantages, and the protection and encouragement at present afforded by the tariff, England need never fear any extensive competition with her manufactures in foreign markets from America, as the high spirit of the people of that country will always prevent them from pursuing, extensively, the sordid occupations of the loom or the workshop.

The upper parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania are in a high state of improvement; the land is hilly, and the face of the country picturesque. The farms are well cultivated, and there is a large portion of pasture land in this and the adjoining states. I encountered several large droves of horses and black cattle on their way to the neighbourhood of Philadelphia and to the state of New York. The black cattle are purchased principally in Ohio, whence they are brought into the Atlantic states, to be fattened and consumed. The farmers and their families in Pennsylvania, have an appearance of comfort and respectability a good deal resembling that of the substantial English yeoman; yet farming here, as in all parts of the country, is a laborious occupation.

I crossed the Monongahela at Williamsport, and the Youghaghany at Robstown, and so on through Mountpleasant to the first ridge of mountains, called "the chestnut ridge." I determined on crossing the mountains on foot; and after having made arrangements to that effect, I commenced sauntering along the road. Near Mountpleasant, I stopped to dine at the house of a Dutchman by descent. After dinner, the party adjourned, as is customary, to the bar-room, when divers political and polemical topics were canvassed with the usual national warmth. An account of his late Majesty's death was inserted in a Philadelphia paper, and happened to be noticed by one of the politicians present, when the landlord asked me how we elected our king in England. I replied that he was not elected, but that he became king by birthright, &c. A Kentuckian observed, placing his leg on the back of the next chair, "That's a kind of unnatural." An Indianian said, "I don't believe in that system myself." A third—"Do you mean to tell me, that because the last king was a smart man and knew his duty, that his son, or his brother, should be a smart man, and fit for the situation?" I explained that we had a premier, ministers, &c.;—when the last gentleman replied, "Then you pay half-a-dozen men to do one man's business. Yes—yes—that may do for Englishmen very well; but, I guess, it would not go down here—no, no, Americans are a little more enlightened than to stand that kind of wiggery." During this conversation, a person had stepped into the room, and had taken his seat in silence. I was about to reply to the last observations of my antagonist, when this gentleman opened out, with, "yes! that may do for Englishmen very well"—he was an Englishman, I knew at once by his accent, and I verily believe the identical radical who set the village of Bracebridge by the ears, and pitched the villagers to the devil, on seeing them grin through a horse-collar, when they should have been calculating the interest of the national debt, or conning over the list of sinecure placemen. He held in his hand, instead of "Cobbett's Register," the "Greenville Republican."—He had substituted for his short-sleeved coat, "a round-about."—He seemed to have put on flesh, and looked somewhat more contented. "Yes, yes," he says, "that may do for Englishmen very well, but it won't do here. Here we make our own laws, and we keep them too. It may do for Englishmen very well, to have the liberty of paying taxes for the support of the nobility. To have the liberty of being incarcerated in a gaol, for shooting the wild animals of the country. To have the liberty of being seized by a press-gang, torn away from their wives and families, and flogged at the discretion of my lord Tom, Dick, or Harry's bastard." At this, the Kentuckian gnashed his teeth, and instinctively grasped his hunting-knife;—an old Indian doctor, who was squatting in one corner of the room, said, slowly and emphatically, as his eyes glared, his nostrils dilated, and his lip curled with contempt—"The Englishman is a dog"—while a Georgian slave, who stood behind his master's chair, grinned and chuckled with delight, as he said—"poor Englishman, him meaner man den black nigger."—"To have," continued the Englishman, "the liberty of being transported for seven years for being caught learning the use of the sword or the musket. To have the tenth lamb, and the tenth sheaf seized, or the blanket torn from off his bed, to pay a bloated, a plethoric bishop or parson,—to be kicked and cuffed about by a parcel of 'Bourbon gendarmerie'—Liberty!—why hell sweat"—here I—slipped out at the side door into the water-melon patch. As I receded, I heard the whole party burst out into an obstreperous fit of laughter.—A few broken sentences, from the Kentuckian and the radical, reached my ear, such as "backed out"—"damned aristocratic." I returned in about half an hour to pay my bill, when I could observe one or two of those doughty politicians who remained, leering at me most significantly. However, I—"smiled, and said nothing."

"The Chestnut ridge" is a chain of rocky, barren mountains, covered with wood, and the ascent is steep and difficult. It is named from the quantity of chestnut trees that compose the bulk of its timber. Being a little fatigued in ascending, I sat down in a wood of scrub oak. When I had been some time seated on a large stone, my ear caught the gliding of a snake. Turning quickly, I perceived, at about a yard's distance, a reptile of that beautiful species the rattle-snake. He ceased moving: I jumped up, and struck at his head with a stick, but missed the blow. He instantly coiled and rattled. I now retreated beyond the range of his spring. Perceiving that I had no intention of giving him fair play by coming within his reach, he suddenly uncoiled and glid across a log, thinking to make good his retreat; but being determined on having—not his scalp, for the head of a rattle-snake is rather a dangerous toy—but his rattle, I pursued him across the log. He now coiled again, and rattled most furiously, thus indicating his extreme wrath at being attacked: the bite of this reptile is most venomous when he is most enraged. I took up a flat stone, about six inches square, and lobbed it on his coil. He suddenly darted out towards me; but, as I had anticipated, he was encumbered with the stone. I now advanced, and struck him on the head with my stick. I repeated the blow until he seemed to be deprived of sensation, when I drew my hunting knife and decapitated him. For a full hour afterwards the body retained all the vigour and sensitiveness which it possessed previous to decapitation, and on touching any part of it, would twist round in the same manner as when the animal was perfect. Sensation gradually disappeared, departing first from the extremities—more towards the wounded extremity than towards the other, but gradually from both, until it was entirely gone. The length of this reptile was about four feet, and the skin was extremely beautiful. Nothing could exceed the beauty of his eye. A clear black lustre characterizes the eye of this animal, and is said to produce so powerful an effect on birds and smaller animals, as to deprive them of the power of escaping. This snake had eight rattles, so that he must have been at least eleven years old. I understood afterwards that there was a rattle-snakes' den in the neighbourhood. They appear to live in society, and the large quantities that are frequently found congregated together are astonishing. The Jacksonville (Illinois) Gazette of the 22d April, 1830, says, "Last week, a den of rattle-snakes was discovered near Apple Creek, by a person while engaged in digging for rock in that part of our country. He made known the circumstance to the neighbours, who visited the place, where they killed 193 rattle-snakes, the largest of which (as our informant, who was on the spot, told us) measured nearly four feet in length. Besides these, there were sixteen black snakes destroyed, together with one copper-head. Counting the young ones, there were upwards of 1000 killed." There are two species of rattle-snake, which are in constant hostility with each other. The common black snake, whose bite is perfectly innoxious, and the copper-head, have also a deadly enmity towards the rattle-snake, which, when they meet it, they never fail to attack.