SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 31 



of civilization, and the domestic animals which now occupy 

 their place, have nothing to characterize them. We cannot, 

 however, omit noticing the extraordinary size and strength 

 of the Pennsylvania waggon horse, which yields in these 

 particulars to but few breeds. There are several appellations 

 by which the different breeds of this useful animal are 

 distinguished in Pennsylvania, such as the Conestoga, the 

 Chester line, &c. but these are principally of a local im- 

 port. The usual height of farm and waggon horses is 

 about sixteen hands or five feet four inches, measured 

 according to the usual custom. We were credibly informed 

 that horses seventeen, seventeen and a half, and even 

 eighteen hands high, are by no means rare. A few have been 

 known to exceed that size, and we have been told that one, 

 the largest ever known in the country, had attained the 

 gigantic size of nineteen hands or six feet four inches. A.s 

 a proof of the great strength which they sometimes attain, 

 it is said that an experiment was once tried in the city of 

 Lancaster, which resulted in a single horse's dragging 

 around the court-house on the bare pavements, without the 

 intervention ofwheels or rollers, two tons of bar iron, which 

 had been bundled together for this experiment. 



The town of Wheeling appears to be in a very flourishing 

 condition, and the increase in its population has been very 

 great, since the completion of the national road. Business has 

 taken a new direction ; instead of centering, as it formerly 

 did in Pittsburg, it now goes principally to Wheeling, 

 which has the advantage of a much more permanent navi- 

 gation all the year round. The population amounts at 

 present to upwards of two thousand inhabitants. The 

 situation of the town is pleasant, the river here is about 

 five hundred yards wide, and there is opposite to the town 

 a large and beautiful island nearly three-quarters of a mile 



