In common winter and fpring floods, it affords thirty or forty feet water to Louisville, twenty-five or thirty feet to La Tartes's rapids, forty miles above the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, and a fufficiency at all times for light batteaux and canoes to Fort Pitt. The rapids are in latitude 28° 8'. The inundations of this river begin about the last of March, and fubfide in July, although they frequently happen in other months, fo that boats which carry three hundred barrels of flour, from the Monongahela, or Youhiogany, above Pittsburg, have feldom long to wait for water only. During thefe floods a first rate man of war may be carried from Louisville to New Orleans, if the fudden turns of the river and the ftrength of its current will admit a safe fteerage; and it is the opinion of Col. Morgan, who has had all the means of information, that a veffel properly built for the fea, to draw 12 feet water, when loaded, and carrying from twelve to fixteen hundred barrels of flour, may be more eafily, cheaply, and fafely navigated from Pittsburgh to the fea, than those now in use; and that this matter only requires one man of capacity and enterprize to afcertain it. He obferves, that a veffel intended to be rigged as a brigantine, fnow, or fhip, fhould be double decked, take her masts on deck, and be rowed to the Ibberville, below which are no islands, or to New Orleans, with twenty men, fo as to afford reliefs of ten and ten in the night.-Such a veffel, without the ufe of oars, he fays, would float to New Orleans, from Pittsburg, twenty times in twenty-four hours. If this be fo, what agreeable profpects are prefented to thofe who have fixed their refidence in the western country.

The rapids at Louisville defcend about ten feet in a length of a mile and a half. The bed of the river there is a folid rock, and is divided by an island into two branches, the fouthern of which is about two hundred yards wide, but impaffable in dry feafons, about four months in the year. The bed of the northern branch is worn into channels by the conftant course of the water, and attrition of the pebble ftones carried on with it, fo as to be paffable for batteaux through the greater

part

part of the year. Yet it is thought that the fouthern arm may be the moft eafily opened for conftant navigation. The rife of the waters in thefe rapids does not exceed twenty or twenty-five feet. The Americans have a fort, fituated at the head of the falls. The ground on the south fide rifes very gradually.

At Fort Pitt the river Ohio loses its name, branching into the Monongahela and Allegany.

The Monongahela is four hundred yards wide at its mouth. From thence is twelve or fifteen miles to the mouth of Yohogany, where it is three hundred yards wide. Thence to Redstone by water is fifty miles, by land thirty. Then to the mouth of Cheat river by water forty miles, by land twenty-eight, the width continuing at three hundred yards, and the navigation good for boats. Thence the width is about two hundred. yards to the western fork, fifty miles higher, and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids; which however with a fwell of two or three feet, become very paffable for boats. It then admits light boats, except in dry feafons, fixty-five miles further to the head of Tygart's valley, prefenting only fome fmall rapids and falls of one or two feet perpendicular, and leffening in its width to twenty yards. The western fork is navigable in the winter ten or fifteen miles towards the northern of the Little Kanhaway, and will admit a good waggon road to it. The Yohogany is the principal branch of this river. It paffes through the Laurel mountain, about thirty miles from its mouth; is so far, from three hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide, and the navigation much ob ftructed in dry weather by rapids and fhoals. In its paffage through the mountain it makes very great falls, admitting no navigation for ten miles to the Turkey foot. Thence to the great croffing, about twenty miles, it is again navigable, except in dry seasons, and at this place is two hundred yards wide. The fources of this river are divided from thofe of the Potomak by the Allegany mountains. From the falls, where it interfects the Laurel mountain, to Fort Cumberland, the head of the navigation on the Potomak, is forty miles of very mountainous road. Wills's creek, at the mouth of which was Fort Cumberland, is thirty or forty yards wide, but affords no navigation as yet. Cheat river, another confiderable branch of the Monongahela, is two hundred yards wide at its mouth, and one hundred yards at the Dunkard's fettlement, fifty miles higher. It is navigable for boats, except in dry feafons. The boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania croffes it about three or four miles above its mouth.

The Allegany river, with a flight fwell, affords navigation for light batteaus to Venango, at the mouth of French creek, where it is two hundred yards wide; and it is practised even to Le Bœuf, from whence

there is a portage of fifteen miles and a half to Pefque Isle on Lake Erie.

The country watered by the Miffiffippi and its eastern branches, confitutes five-eights of the United States; two of which five-eighths are occupied by the Ohio and its waters; the refiduary streams, which run into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St. Lawrence, water the remaining three-eights.

Before we quit the subject of the western waters, we will take a view of their principal connections with the Atlantic. These are four, the Hudfon's river, the Potomak, St. Lawrence, and the Miffiffippi. Down the laft will pass all the heavy commodities. But the navigation through the Gulf of Mexico is fo dangerous, and that up the Mississippi so difficult and tedious, that it is thought probable that European merchandize will not be conveyed through that channel. It is moft likely that flour, timber, and other heavy articles will be floated on rafts, which will themfelves be an article for fale as well as their loading, the navigators returning by land, as at prefent. There will therefore be a competition between the Hudfon, the Potomak, and the St. Lawrence rivers for the refidue of the commerce of all the country weftward of Lake Erie, on the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio, and upper parts of Miffiffippi. To go to New-York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes

or their waters must first be brought into Lake Erie. Between Lake Superior and its waters and Huron are the rapids of St. Marie, which will permit boats to pafs, but not larger veffels. Lakes Huron and Michigan afford communication with Lake Erie by veffels of eight feet draught. That part of the trade which comes from the waters of the Miffiffippi muft pafs from them through fome portage into the waters of the lakes. The portage from the Illinois river into a water of Michigan is of one mile only. From the Wabash, Miami, Muskingum, or Allegany, are portages into the waters of Lake Erie, of from one to fifteen miles. When the commodities are brought into, and have paffed through Lake Erie, there is between that and Ontario an interruption by the falls of Niagara, where the portage is of eight miles; and between Ontario and the Hudfon's river are portages of the falls of Onondago, a little above Ofwego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood creek to the Mohawks river two miles; at the little falls of the Mohawks river half a mile, and from Schenectady to Albany fixteen miles. Befides the increase of expence occafioned by frequent change of carriage, there is an increased risk of pillage produced by committing merchandize to a greater number of hands fucceffively. The Potomak offers itself under the following circumftance. For the trade of the lakes and their waters weftward of Lake Erie, when it shall

have entered that lake, it must coast along its fouthern shore, on account of the number and excellence of its harbours, the northern, though the fhorteft, having few harbours, and thefe unfafe. Having reached Cayahoga, to proceed on to New-York it will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles, and five portages: whereas it is but four hundred and twenty-five miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the Potomak, if it turns into the Cayahoga, and paffes through that, Bigbeaver, Ohio, Yahogany, or Monongalia and Cheat, and Potomak, and there are but two portages; the firft of which between Cayahoga and Beaver may be removed by uniting the fources of these waters, which are lakes in the neighbourhood of each other, and in a champaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to the Potomak will be from fifteen to forty miles, according to the trouble which shall be taken to approach the two navigations. For the trade of the Ohio, or that which shall come into it from its own waters or the Miffiffippi, it is nearer through the Potomak to Alexandria than to New-York, by five hundred and eighty miles, and it is interrupted by one portage only. There is another circumftance of difference too. The lakes themselves never freeze, but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudson's river is itself shut up by the ice three months in the year: whereas the channel to the Chesapeek leads directly into a warmer climate. The fouthern parts of it very rarely freeze at all, and whenever the northern do, it is fo near the fources of the rivers, that the frequent floods to which they are there liable break up the ice immediately, so that veffels may pass through the whole winter, subject only to accidental and short delays. Add to all this, that in cafe of a war with their neighbours of Canada, or the Indians, the route to New-York becomes a frontier through almost its whole length, and all commerce through it, ceases from that moment. But the channel to New-York is already known to practice; whereas

the

upper waters of the Ohio and the Potomak, and the great falls of the latter, are yet to be cleared of their fixed obstructions.

The rout by St. Lawrence is well known to be attended with many advantages, and some disadvantages. But there is a fifth rout, which the enlightened and enterprizing Pennfylvanians contemplate, which, if effected, will be the easiest, cheapest, and fureft paffage from the lakes, and the Ohio river; by means of the Sufquehannah, and a canal from thence to Philadelphia. The latter part of this plan, viz. the canal between Sufquehannah and the Schuylkill rivers, is now actually in execu tion. Should they accomplish their whole scheme, and they appear con. fident of fuccefs, Philadelphia in all probability will become, in fome future period, the largest city that has ever yet existed.

Vol. I.

Cc

Particular

Particular defcriptions of the other rivers in the United States, are referved to be given in the geographical account of the states, through which they refpectively flow. One general obfervation refpecting the rivers will, however, be naturally introduced here, and that is, that the entrances into almost all the rivers, inlets and bays, from New-Hampfhire to Georgia, are from fouth-east to north-west.

BAYS.

The coaft of the United States is indented with numerous bays, fome of which are equal in fize to any in the known world. Beginning at the north-easterly part of the continent, and proceeding fouthwesterly, you first find the bay or gulf of St. Lawrence, which receives, the waters of the river of the fame name. Next are Chedabukto and Cebukto Bays, in Nova-Scotia, the latter diftinguished by the loss of a French fleet in a former war between France and Great-Britain. The bay of Fundy, between Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, is remarkable for its tides, which rife to the height of fifty or fixty feet, and flow fo rapidly as to overtake animals which feed upon the fhore. Paffamaquody, Penobscot, Broad and Cafco Bays, lie along the coaft of the district of Maine. Maffachusetts-Bay spreads eastward of Boston, and is comprehended between Cape Ann on the north, and Cape Cod on the fouth. The points of Bofton harbour are Nahant and Alderton points. Paffing by Narraganfet and other bays in the ftate of Rhode-Ifland, you enter Long-Ifland Sound, between Montauk-point and the Main. This Sound, as it is called, is a kind of inland fea, from three to twenty-five miles broad, and about one hundred and forty miles long, extending the whole length of the island, and dividing it from Connecticut. It communicates with the ocean at both ends of Long-Island, and affords a very fafe and convenient inland navigation.

The celebrated straight, called Hell-Gate, is near the west end of this found, about eight miles eastward of New-York city, and is remarkable for its whirlpools, which make a tremendous roaring at certain times of tide. These whirlpools are occafioned by the narrowness and crookedness of the pafs, and a bed of rocks which extend quite across it; and not by the meeting of the tides, from east to west, as has been conjec tured, because they meet at Frogs-point, feveral miles above. A skilful pilot may with fafety conduct a fhip of any burden through this ftrait with the tide, or at ftill water with a fair wind *.

* The following ingenious geological remarks of Dr. Mitchell's, on certain maritim parts of the state of New York, deferve a place in this connection: