The country near the Ohio abounds with these mounds. What they were, and by whom they were formed, is quite uncertain. The general opinion that they are the graves of some ancient people is sustained by the fact that they contain human bones, sometimes in considerable numbers.
A gentleman on board the boat, a man of intelligence, informed me, that he had seen, in Eastern Tennessee or Western North Carolina, a species of mounds of a very different description. They were composed essentially of small stones, between which were layers of bones. And what made the case very remarkable indeed, there are no stones, of the kind found in these mounds within many miles of them, and there is no appearance of there ever having been any.
CHAPTER XII. A SUSPENSION BRIDGE.
About noon the third day, we came in sight of Wheeling, in Virginia. This is a considerable place. It contains about ten thousand inhabitants.
The boat stopped at Wheeling an hour or more to unload a part of her freight. This gave us a fine opportunity to go on shore and view the town. It is well built, but, like most of the places all the way from Cincinnati to Pittsburg, has quite a sooty appearance, caused by the dust of the coal, which they burn here in large quantities. Wheeling is, moreover, a place of considerable manufacture.
But the greatest curiosity at this place, and one of the greatest I have ever seen, is the suspension bridge thrown over the Ohio. It must be something like one thousand feet in length, as broad as most bridges are, and not far from ninety feet above the surface of the river when the water is low; though much less, of course, at times when the river rises.
This bridge is much more remarkable than the suspension bridge first built over Niagara River; for while that is much higher above the water than this, it is, in comparison, very narrow indeed. The suspension bridge at Wheeling is broad enough for several carriages to go side by side on it; but that below Niagara Falls is only just broad enough for one.