SOURCE OF ST. Peter's river. 211 



ing upon a bed of sand, gravel, or pebbles. In addition to 

 the tree just mentioned, the woodlands comprise the oak, 

 ash, elm, hickory, sugar-tree, wild cherry, black walnut, 

 ]iriodendron,poplar, hop-horn-beam, and in some places cot- 

 ton-wood and sycamore, most of which attain a gigantic size. 



The general elevation of this portion of country may be 

 estimated, as before, at about one thousand feet above tide 

 water. It is remarkable, that the strip or zone of country, 

 in which numerous tributaries of the Ohio interlock with 

 those of Lake Erie, should decrease in altitude as we pro- 

 ceed from the Miami river, eastward; also, that a hilly 

 region should intei^vene between the Ohio river and the 

 zone above mentioned, or the country in which its tribu- 

 taries, from the north, have their origin, of greater eleva- 

 tion than that of the zone itself. Yet however repugnant 

 to the doctrines of the geologist, and however discordant 

 to the general principles of hydrography, such is never- 

 theless the case, as has been satisfactorily ascertained by 

 the surveys recently made in Ohio, on the several canal 

 routes that have been explored. From the Miami north- 

 westward to Lake Michigan, a very gradual declension of 

 the surface takes place, in so much, that in the vicinity of the 

 lake, the general level is about seven hundred feet above- 

 tide water. 



In regard to the facilities for artificial water communi- 

 cations, between the lakes and the Mississippi, through 

 this district of country, no doubts can exist, but in relation 

 to the supply of water on the several summits in a dry 

 season. Of the routes across the state of Ohio, notice has 

 already been taken in a former part of this work. The 

 route through the Maumee and Wabash, and that through 

 the two St. Joseph's and Kankakee rivers, remain to be 

 explored. Of the practicability of these routes there can 



