53 EXPEDITION TO THE 



the produce yielded by agriculture so far exceeds all de- 

 mands for it, that it has become a sort of dead stock in 

 the hands of its owners. The price of grain has fallen so 

 low, that the only mode of disposing of it consists in dis- 

 tilling it into whiskey, of which the price is twelve and a 

 half cents per gallon, and when retailed in small quanti- 

 ties it sells at the rate of twenty-five cents per gallon. 

 Such prices must of course be a check upon all industry, 

 and at the same time productive of much mischief by of- 

 fering a temptation to intoxication, which too many find 

 it impossible to resist. 



The weather had already set in very warm, the thermome- 

 ter standing usually at noon at upwards of eighty degrees. 

 Observations for latitude and longitude were commenced 

 here, but were interrupted by the storm. 



Wednesday, May 21st, the expedition left Columbus on 

 its way to Piqua, situated on the Miami, about seventy 

 miles west of Columbus, and likewise in the state of Ohio. 

 The intermediate country is but thinly settled ; the soil is 

 black, and not very deep, seldom more than eight inches ; 

 it is underlaid with sand and pebbles, which are evidently 

 the detritus of granitic rocks, similar to the large boulders 

 observed every where throughout the country. No rocks 

 to be met with in place. Although the country is very 

 high, being probably from the best measurements which 

 have been made, at least three hundred and fifty feet above 

 the surface of Lake Erie, and consequently upwards of 

 nine hundred feet above the surface of the ocean, it is very 

 wet, being swampy, with occasional open woods and soft 

 marshy prairies, very unlike those that are described by 

 travellers as existing to the westward, and which we after- 

 wards met with on the St. Peter's, &c. The whole of this 

 part of our route led us irresistibly to the conclusion, that 



