LETTER VI

Descend the Ohio from Pittsburg to Beaver—Occurrences and remarks there

Atkinson’s Tavern, by Beaver,28th October, 1818.

As a great part of my notes since I last wrote, relate to rapids, bars, islands, &c. I shall omit the description of many of them, as being altogether uninteresting.

On the 14th of October, I embarked on the Monongahela, about half a mile above its junction with the Allegany. A gentleman to whom I had been introduced, very kindly assisted me in arranging my lading, and rowed me down to the lower point of the town.

The Allegany being a clear, and the Monongahela {67} a turbid river, their compound, the Ohio, as might be expected, is of the intermediate character. The mud, that covers the gravel at the height of three or four feet above the present level of the water, shows, that a very slight rising of the river carries much soil along with it. One of the earliest writers who gives a detail of the beauties of this river, states, that the bottom, and even fishes, may be seen in several fathoms of water. During the present dry season, the bottom is indistinctly visible at the depth of five or six feet. The water, when taken up in a bright tinned vessel, appears to be perfectly limpid; but after standing in it for an hour, a very small sediment is deposited. From the experience of boatmen, and others who drink this water, it is understood to be healthful.

To me this was a novel method of travelling. Steep ridges of hills on both sides of the river, about 300 feet above the surface of the water, and these covered with a profusion of timber, now clothed in all the variegated hues of autumn, form an avenue of the most magnificent description. For nearly the length of six miles, the surface of the water has all the smoothness of a mill-pond, which gave an additional effect to the scenery, but which imposed on me the labour of rowing incessantly. My boat, besides being without rudder, or even that short piece of keel in the after-part which is so essential in moving forward in a straight line, went on in a zig-zag direction, occasioningmuch trouble, and promising no great degree of safety on my coming into quick running water.

At a rapid, six miles from Pittsburg, a boat has recently been stove. I saw the people on shore drying their goods. In this same rapid, my ill sailing bark put about broadside to the current. On reaching the lower extremity of the declivity, {68} my situation was rather alarming. Here the violence of the current being opposed by deeper and more placid water, produces a sort of heaving motion. The sidelong motion over this swelling surface, was much aggravated by a top-heavy load. Travellers are fortunate when they arrive early in the season, as the stream at that period propels a boat much quicker than the most laborious rowing can do now.

After having passed several rapids, which are commonly called ripples in this country, I attempted to land for the night, on the head of Dead Man’s Island, a low bar covered with small willows, but found the water to be so shallow that I could not approach the dry ground, and that with a short rope, I could not effect a mooring to any log, bush, or fixed object. The possibility of an unforeseen rise of water in such a long river caused me to determine not to sleep aground, without being securely fastened. It was now nearly dark, and I judged it impossible to cross to the opposite shore to find a mooring, as the roaring of the Dead Man’s Ripple, (a furious rapid, between the island and the right hand shore,) convinced me that I was already almost within its draught. The only alternative which remained, was to push into the principal stream. I adopted it, and was soon carried through an impetuous winding channel, where I could perceive large dark-coloured masses, supposed to be rocks, above water, at small distances on each side.

October 15.Last night I put ashore about half a mile below the Dead Man’s Ripple. The margin was of a convenient depth, admitting my lying aground, to avoid the danger of my leaky bark’s sinking in the night. Having made it fast to a log, and piled up my boxes toward the prow, and spread three pieces of board over the seats behind for a {69} bed, I covered the three hoops with a sheet for a canopy, laid down my portmanteau for a pillow, and wrapping myself in a blanket, I went to rest.

As I neither saw any light, nor heard the voice of a human being, I imagined that I was far from the neighbourhood of any house. The only sounds that saluted my ear, arose from bells attached to cows in the woods, and from the breakers produced by the Ripple. The sheet which served me for a roof, was not long enough to reach the sides of the boat, a cold wind that blew down the river, passed in a constant current through my lodgment, and for a considerable time prevented me from sleeping. About midnight I heard the noise of footsteps approaching me on the gravel, and looked out to see what my visitor might be: a faint glimmering of moonlight enabled me to discover the white face of a young cow that had come down to drink.

It would be imprudent to sleep ashore and leave goods in a boat on the river, boatmen being much blamed for stealing.

I put off about seven o’clock in the morning. A continuation of the same ridges of hills, and the same woods, bounded the view on both sides of the river. The bottom land is narrow, and the parts which have been cleared are chiefly covered with crops of Indian corn. Bottom land is of two sorts; the lower by the margin of the river; andthe higher by the foot of the ridge. The lower bottoms are about twenty feet higher than the surface of low water; but as the trees on the beach are peeled by ice and drifted wood, to the height of four or five feet above the level of the ground, occasioned by floods; it follows that the lower bottoms are subject to inundation, and that their height must be increased {70} by the earth deposited from every high rising of the waters. Nothing, in the present state of things, seems to offer a solution of the formation of the higher bottoms, which are here about twenty feet higher than the lower ones, and appear to be equally flat, and forming plains parallel to them. I shall hereafter be very attentive to facts with regard to this anomaly.

About six hundred yards above the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, my skiff ran upon the top of a large mass of stone under water, which the ripplings occasioned by a slight breeze of wind, prevented me from seeing. In attempting to push her off, she upset, so as to admit a gush of water all along the lower side. The hoops over her after part, not allowing me to leap directly upon the stone, I plunged into the water and mounted the stone just in time to catch the bark by the after part, and prevent it from being carried down by the stream. By a considerable exertion, I succeeded in keeping the after end close to the stone, while the fore part sunk obliquely to a great depth in the water. Here the cargo must unavoidably have slipped into the bottom of the river, except for a large box, that wedged itself into the narrow forepart of the boat, and the others, resting on it, were kept in their places. Two black men came in a skiff to my relief. They took me in, and rowed toward the shore, while I still retained my hold of the wreck, and succeeded in getting it safely moored. Thisinterruption happened exactly before the door of a tavern, where I was accommodated with board, and the means of having my baggage dried.

Afternoon.While exposing my books to the wind, a respectable looking man, apparently a farmer, entered into conversation with me. His inquiries {71} respecting the scientific and literary personages of Edinburgh, and his acquaintance with the poetry and provincial dialect of Scotland, were more minute than I could have expected in this part of the world.

October 16.I have discovered that my skiff is too weak for carrying any considerable weight. It is so much strained, that many of the nails have their heads drawn half an inch out of the timber, and others much more. The misfortune of the 15th, has probably saved me from a worse one. The system of boat building at Pittsburg cannot be too strongly reprobated. Defects in caulking, in the number, and in the strength of the nails, were in the case of my boat, disgraceful[42]

October 19.A farmer, in removing Indian corn from an island to his residence, had his flat sunk, and much of the cargo lost, within a few yards of the point where I stopped short. I am resolved on procuring a better skiff, and waiting a few days in hopes of a rise of water. Floods at or before this season of the year, are considered annual occurrences. The oldest residents recollect of only one year in which there was no autumnal rise of the Ohio.

October 20.The mornings and evenings are now cool, usually about 34° of Fahrenheit’s scale. To-day, at two o’clock P.M. the temperature of the sun’s rays was 90°.Thick fogs continue over the river in the mornings, till eight or nine o’clock. These are no doubt occasioned by the water being hotter than the air. The radiant heat passing upward, necessarily carries humidity with it, which is immediately condensed, and rendered visible by the colder air. Whenever the heat of the air is of a temperature equal to that of the water, the phenomenon disappears. The same principle may be {72} very plausibly applied, in explaining the autumnal risings of the Ohio. The great and long continued heats of summer in this country, render the air capable of accumulating a great quantity of moisture. It is not till the sun recedes considerably to the southward, and till a great portion of the atmosphere is cooled, that rains are precipitated over any great extent of the country. The Allegany mountains, and other high parts, are soonest cooled, and first produce a deposition of rain. Hence autumnal floods occur, which proceed from the higher country alone, without corresponding risings in the lower tributaries of the Ohio. In seasons when the heat continues long, the flood occurs late. With such hot days as we now enjoy, a rising in the river is not to be expected.

26th.Went up Beaver Creek.[43]This is a large stream, with a rapid descent over a sandstone bottom. Within three miles of its mouth there are three saw-mills, a grist-mill, an iron furnace and forge, a fulling-mill, a carding-mill, and a mill for bruising flax-seed. At the iron furnace, cast goods are fabricated, the coarsest that I have ever seen. Coal is abundant, but not used in reducing the ores.

It has been suggested, that a navigation connecting Cayahogo,on Lake Erie, with Alexandria on the Potomak, should pass through Big Beaver Creek;[44]but it appears altogether improper that such a communication should descend so low as the mouth of this creek, thereby incurring the ascent of the Ohio to Pittsburg, and the Monongahela to the bases of the Allegany ridge. The longer route to New York seems to be vastly preferable, and, as it is now in progress, it must supersede the Pennsylvanian line.

I saw some people thrashing buck wheat: they had dug a hollow in the field, about twenty feet in {73} diameter, and six or eight inches in depth. In this the grain was thrashed by the flail, and the straw thrown aside to rot in the field. The wheat is cleared of the chaff by two persons fanning it with a sheet, while a third lets it fall before the wind.

Indian corn is separated from the husks or leaves that cover the ear, by the hands. In the evenings neighbours convene for this purpose. Apples are also pared for preservation in a similar way. These are commonly convivial meetings, and are well attended by young people of both sexes.

A respectable English family put ashore with a leaky boat, almost in the act of sinking. They had run foul of a log in a ripple. The craft, called family boats, are square arks, nine or ten feet wide, and varying in length as occasion may require. They are roofed all over, except a small portion of the fore part, where two persons row. At the back end, a person steers with an oar, protrudedthrough a hole, and a small fire-place is built of brick. Such boats are so formed as to carry all the necessaries of new settlers. The plough, and the body of the waggon, are frequently to be seen lying on the roof; and the wheels hung over the sides. The bottom is made of strong plank, not liable to be stove in, except where the water is in rapid motion; and the whole fabric is exempt from the danger of upsetting, except in violent gales of wind. Family boats cost from thirty to fifty dollars at Pittsburg. A great proportion of the families to be seen, are from the northern parts of New York, and Pennsylvania, also from the state Vermont, and other parts. They have descended the Allegany, a river that I have not hitherto mentioned as a thoroughfare of travellers.[45]

The gentleman mentioned in a former paragraph, is Brigadier General L——k,[46]who {74} is at present a member of the Senate of the United States. I have had several accidental interviews with him, and find that he is acquainted with the late works of imagination and taste published in Edinburgh, down to the Second Series of the Tales of My Landlord.[47]

October 28.Settlers continue to be much retarded in getting down the river. Head winds oblige them to put ashore sometimes for a whole day. Families for the eastern parts of Ohio State, are proceeding by the road. The father may be seen driving the waggon; and the womenand children bringing up two or three cows in the rear. They carry their provisions along with them, and wrap themselves in blankets, and sleep on the floors of taverns. The hostess here does not charge any thing for this sort of entertainment.

Travelling by land at this season is, for various reasons, economical. Families by this means avoid delay and expense at Pittsburg; they are not obliged to sell their waggons and horses at an under value there; but take them along, as a necessary stock for their farms; and they are not put to the expense of a boat, which would be ultimately sold for a mere trifle, or left to rot by the water side. Besides, their rate of travelling is now more speedy than by water. Those who go below Wheeling will have a farther advantage, as the distance from Pittsburg to that place is 38 miles shorter than by the river. The waggons and horses must also be of immediate use to those, who settle at a distance from navigable waters. It is impossible to state the distance to which horses and waggons should be carried from Pittsburg; this wholly depends on the state of the river, the quantity of goods to be transported, the price of freight, (if paying passage instead of purchasing a boat is contemplated,) the {75} price of a boat, and the certain loss on selling horses and waggons at Pittsburg. Strangers will do well to make strict inquiries, and the most careful calculations, of the expense of both modes of travelling, previous to the adoption of either of them.

After examining the advantage of the different ways of travelling, it will be but an ordinary exercise of candour to state wherein I have erred myself.—I purchased a skiff, too small and too weak for my purpose, and I ought not to have undertaken the passage without taking some person along with me, who would have been continually onthe outlook for stones or logs under water, and who occasionally would have steered my bark. Being obliged to sit on a low seat with my back forward, I was most unfavourably placed for observing obstacles in the way, and, on approaching rapids, I was usually in the very draught of them, before I could discern the proper channel.

The weather has of late been cold during the night, and the season is so far advanced that I cannot calculate on sleeping hereafter in an open boat. To enable me to put my baggage ashore every night, I have procured smaller boxes, to supersede the use of larger ones. Travellers in this country ought not to adopt large boxes, which are the most liable to injury, from the jolting of waggons, and are comparatively unmanageable on every occasion. Eighty or a hundred pounds, are enough for each parcel.

There is not the least appearance of a rise on the river. I have exchanged my pine skiff for a larger and a stronger oak one, and have determined on getting once more upon the water.

During my stay here, I have had the satisfaction of living with a polite and respectable family, which has treated me with the utmost civility; {76} their integrity is beyond suspicion.—If I had entertained any doubt on that head, the very repacking of my baggage would at once have removed it.—My inventory is complete, not a single article is wanting.

FOOTNOTES:[42]Had Flint read hisNavigatorcarefully, he would have found specific warnings on the subject of defective boats; these were on every occasion palmed off on the uninitiated by Pittsburg sharpers.—Ed.[43]For the early history of Beaver Creek, see Croghan’sJournals, volume i of our series, note 93.—Ed.[44]It was Washington’s favorite plan to unite the waters of the Potomac and Ohio, and in turn, those of the Ohio and Lake Erie, by means of canals. The Beaver River was always one of the possible links in this chain of inland communication between the Great Lakes and tidewater. As Flint observes, the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) was the most feasible, and eventually the only successful, undertaking to join the sea and the lakes.—Ed.[45]The Allegheny route was the common one for New England emigrants who had journeyed through New York on the old Genesee Road; it became of more importance after the Erie Canal was in operation. See Buttrick’sVoyages, volume viii of our series.—Ed.[46]For a brief biography of General Lacock, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 57.—Ed.[47]“Tales of My Landlord,” by Sir Walter Scott, includeThe Black Dwarf,Old Mortality,The Heart of Midlothian, etc. The two former were published in 1816 and the latter in 1818.—Ed.

[42]Had Flint read hisNavigatorcarefully, he would have found specific warnings on the subject of defective boats; these were on every occasion palmed off on the uninitiated by Pittsburg sharpers.—Ed.

[43]For the early history of Beaver Creek, see Croghan’sJournals, volume i of our series, note 93.—Ed.

[44]It was Washington’s favorite plan to unite the waters of the Potomac and Ohio, and in turn, those of the Ohio and Lake Erie, by means of canals. The Beaver River was always one of the possible links in this chain of inland communication between the Great Lakes and tidewater. As Flint observes, the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) was the most feasible, and eventually the only successful, undertaking to join the sea and the lakes.—Ed.

[45]The Allegheny route was the common one for New England emigrants who had journeyed through New York on the old Genesee Road; it became of more importance after the Erie Canal was in operation. See Buttrick’sVoyages, volume viii of our series.—Ed.

[46]For a brief biography of General Lacock, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 57.—Ed.

[47]“Tales of My Landlord,” by Sir Walter Scott, includeThe Black Dwarf,Old Mortality,The Heart of Midlothian, etc. The two former were published in 1816 and the latter in 1818.—Ed.

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