A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OHIO RIVER. 739 



before pointed out, must be a society like that of ancient Peru, 

 dreadful to contemplate, in which the mass of the people, elabo- 

 rately regimented in groups of 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000, ruled by 

 officers of corresponding grades, and tied to their districts, were 

 superintended in their private lives as well as in their industries, 

 and toiled hopelessly for the support of the governmental organi- 

 zation. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OHIO RIVER. 



By Pbof. JOSEPH F. JAMES, M. Sc. 



TpAR up in one of the wildest regions of eastern North. Amer- 

 -L ica rise most of the streams which form the Ohio River. 

 These streams are separated from the head-waters of the Potomac 

 by a spur of the Appalachian Mountains only a few miles wide. 

 This region, in Randolph County, West Virginia, was called, many 

 years ago, and, for aught I can say to the contrary, may still be 

 known as "Canaan." It is a wild, undeveloped tract of thou- 

 sands of acres, with many deer and bears ; surrounded by rugged 

 mountains, abounding in leaping trout-streams, and full of laurel 

 brakes impenetrable alike to man and beast. Within these pre- 

 cincts are the sources of one of the great rivers of the continent. 



The picturesque birth of the Ohio River is a fitting prelude to 

 its romantic history. Its physical history is almost that of the 

 continent, for its birth dates back to a time when a large part 

 of eastern North America rose for the last time above the sur- 

 face of the sea. Centuries ago its valley was the home of the 

 hairy mammoth and the lordly mastodon. In later times it saw 

 the bison in countless herds reflected in its waters. The mound- 

 builders have left some of their most wonderful works within the 

 confines of its valley. Later still, its hills have re-echoed the 

 shouts and battle-cries of Indian and of white ; and now the hum 

 of industry and the homes of civilized man fill its valley from 

 end to end. " La belle riviere " it still remains, and to this it 

 might add another epithet, " La me'chante riviere " (or the way- 

 ward river), because of its astonishing variations in volume of 

 water. 



The Ohio River proper results from the union of two streams 

 in the western portion of Pennsylvania. One of these the Mo- 

 nongahela rises in that " Canaan " already referred to, and is in 

 its turn formed of two branches, the Cheat and the Tygart's Val- 

 ley Rivers. These are formed again of minor streams, whose ulti- 

 mate sources lie along the back-bone or high ridge which sepa- 

 rates the sources of the rivers of the Atlantic coast from those of 

 the Mississippi Valley. The Cheat is a wild and romantic stream, 



