Should this plan become generally adopted on those rivers where the navigation fails annually from the loss of water, it will, among other good results, conduce essentially to the health of the climate; by preventing the stagnant pools left in hollows, and the exposure of slime and mud to the sun, now the pregnant source of disorders.
Where, or when an American uses water for the purpose of washing more than his face and fingers, [149] does not appear, for no water ever goes up stairs at a tavern unless your own servants take it. Under the shed of the house, water and tin basons are placed in the morning, and each one on coming down rubs his face and hands over;—they may bathe perhaps in the rivers occasionally; if not, they are decidedly dirty people.—An English youth at our inn at Wheeling in order to wash himself a little more effectually, let his shirt down to his waistband; an attempt at cleanliness so unusual, caused a general surprise and laugh among the yahoos.
At a small place called Claysville, a stage from Washington (Pensilvania), a man came to offer to the tavern-keeper for sale a fat pig; the price he demanded was about two shillings and sixpence sterling per stone of fourteen pounds, and I was told that he would have taken a quarter less.—Another proof this, if one were wanting, of the cheapness and plenty of food.[52]
We stayed a day at Washington, Pensilvania, comfortably received at Mr. Morris's good tavern, and then took a new route by the south-west corner of this State: crossing the Monongahela river we baited at Brownsville,[53] at an excellent house kept by Mr. Evans, an emigrant; from [150] thence, by a fine new road through Union Town,[54] we soon entered the picturesque State of Maryland, and arrived at a small town called Fort Cumberland. The traveller by this route will pass the mountains scarcely knowing it, except from the fine views of the subjacent country which are frequently presented to view; that from the top of the hill about eleven or twelve miles west of Cumberland is truly magnificent. Along this well-formed road we pass without once being stopped to pay toll, and I understood it to be the intention of the United States government to finish and support this western road, from Washington the seat of the government down to New Orleans, by a fund to be raised solely for that purpose; a liberal plan and worthy of imitation. Of the few picturesque stations it has been our lot to see, Fort Cumberland stands first; it is not in itself a town of any importance or containing many good buildings, but surrounded as it is by mountains covered with beautiful foliage, and its stream winding through the vale, it forms a whole worthy the pencil of a master: at the distance of about six miles are some natural curiosities of rock, cave, and waterfall, which, owing to the lateness of the season, I did not chuse to lose a day in viewing though invited to it by the respectable old Patriarch of [151] the settlement, who in his ninetieth year yet offered to walk and accompany us to the scene.
View at Fort Cumberland, Maryland
The reader will be mistaken if, from what has been said of good roads and fine weather, he supposes we meet with nothing else; from a few miles off Wheeling until this day or two, the air has been filled with what in England would be thought a thick fog,—here they say it is smoke arising from burning barrens and prairies which are yearly at this time set on fire; indeed we have lately passed near enough to woodland on fire to see the flames and to hear the crackling of the timber; to our eyes a melancholy sight, accustomed as they have been to value and admire the forest growth. This brings to remembrance what has been told me of the great danger, and of lives lost in the Prairie country, from the custom of setting fire to the long grass in order to obtain a fine beautiful herbage, which, in a few weeks after succeeds it: the devouring element assisted by the wind advances so quickly that the speed of a horse has sometimes proved unavailing. The effect upon the long rushy grass as the fire reaches it, is frightfully grand; the heat first elevates and then throws it forward like waves, thus crossing the country at a rate inconceivably rapid;—instances have occurred of houses, cattle, and people suddenly falling a sacrifice to this rash [152] method of clearing the ground: the way to avoid such a catastrophe, the neglect of which occasioned to Mr. Flower the loss of some stacks, is to mow the herbage to a sufficient distance round the premises.
Nor is this danger to be apprehended only in the Prairie country. An emigrant, crossing the mountains some few years ago, wrote thus back to his alarmed friends, "the fire is before and behind me, I dare neither go forward nor return, and what will become of me I know not:" as his letter came safe we will hope he escaped.
Within this week a considerable number of waggons laden with goods and people have passed on their way to the Western country: as this Indian summer cannot last much longer, these parties would seem to be some of the improvident of the earth not to have moved earlier to their destination.