Captain Alexander's Journey in America. 383 



in a steam- vessel ; but she got snagged on iheQih. Running along 

 at the rate of seven knots, with the water as smooth as a mirror, 

 she struck heavily on a concealed tree, in the middle of the stream, 

 where it was about 60 feet deep ; quivered from stem to stem; the 

 water rushed in like a mill-race, she hung on the snag for a time, 

 and then dropped off. She sunk ; the crew, passengers, and 

 their baggage were saved, but the cargo entirely lost. I left, 

 before the catastrophe landed, at Memphis, and journeyed 

 through Tenessee and Kentucky to Somerville, Falls of Ohio. 

 You may inquire, " Why do they not try to clear the endless 

 rivers "^ Is it not possible to get rid of the snags and saw- 

 yers?*" A New Englander has got a contract to clear the 

 Mississippi, which he does not fulfil as he ought to do. Thus, he 

 has a steamer of a peculiar construction, which he runs over a 

 snag, makes fast a hawser to it, and, \f he can^ drags it up, by 

 setting on steam ; if he cannot move it, he saws it off at low- 

 water ; and it was on one of these that our boat struck. Four- 

 teen steam- vessels have been lost this year in the Mississippi and 

 Ohio, and this besides sundry explosions. There are altogether 

 190 at present on the river. As is naturally to be expected, the 

 roads in the back woods, with a scanty population, are very 

 abominable ; to mend them, they plough and harrow them in the 

 fall of the year, and from the dreadful jolting, I expected every 

 instant that the tilt would fly off the waggon. Miserable cause- 

 ways, broken bridges, and stumps all impeded our progress; 

 but we arrived safe and sound on the level banks of the Ohio, 

 decked in the varied tints of autumn, and proceeded up the 

 river to Wheeling. 



Next I crossed the State of Ohio to Lake Erie, which I sailed 

 down, and remained some time at the glorious Niagara. I was 

 requested by the Secretary of the Royal Geological Society to 

 note how much the water had lately worn away the rock, but I 

 found that no great change had taken place in the Horse- Shoe 

 Fall since Captain Hall visited it. The American Fall seems 

 to be fast approaching the horse-shoe form. In standing under 

 the Falls, one ever and anon hears the sound of falling rocks 

 amidst the roar of the cataract ; many of these may have rolled 

 from a distance down the Rapid, and it may not be the rock of 

 the cascade itself which is faUing. I looked attentively for the 

 water-rockets, which Captain Hall stated are projected upwards 



