68 EXPEDITION TO THE 



the Mississippi. As wc shall have frequent opportunity 

 of recurring to the singular feature, which this country 

 presents in the interlockage, almost every where apparent, 

 between the head streams of two mighty rivers, whose 

 waters fall into the ocean at a distance of upwards of two 

 thousand miles, we need not enter at present into many 

 particulars. It will suffice to state, that after leaving the 

 tributaries of the Miami, we came, in less than two hours' 

 ride, to the rivers which send their waters to the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. The intermediate country is wet and 

 marshy, there is no appearance of a ridge, properly speak- 

 ing ; it is an elevated flat plateau, the nature of which is 

 marshy. 



This remarkable feature in the topogi-aphy of the state of 

 Ohio, has not escaped the attention of its inhabitants. Wc 

 find that the possibility of establishing a connexion between 

 the rivers that empty into the lakes, and the tributaries of 

 the Ohio, has long since been asserted by the statesmen of 

 the west. The only point which remained unsettled was, 

 what direction should be given to the proposed works, and 

 which of the many routes suggested, was preferable? On 

 this point it cannot be doubted that the prerequisite infor- 

 mation had not been obtained, and consequently that no 

 decisive answer could be given; in the absence of authentic 

 calculations, prepossessions founded on local interest were, 

 perhaps, allowed to exercise too great a sway. To avoid 

 these evils, and with a view of doing justice to the whole 

 state, the legislature of Ohio by a very liberal policy 

 appointed a board of commissioners to examine the whole 

 country, make accurate surveys of the various routes which 

 had been suggested^ ascertain by gaging or otherwise, the 

 quantity of water on each route ; and finally locate lines of 

 canals upon such routes as appeared to them practicable. 



