1824.] 
Western Canal, in the State of New 
York, from Albany to Lake Erie, has 
been nearly completed in six years from 
its commencement, and is now open for 
nearly 300 miles! The inland trade 
with the lakes is thus surprisingly aug- 
mented, and the produce of the immense 
regions between New Orleans and the 
rocky mountains, can thus be cheaply 
and safely transmitted to the harbour 
of New York. The principal source of 
the Ohio, the Alleghany River, is navi- 
gable for 200 miles above Pittsburgh 
to within fifteen miles of Erie, on the 
lake of that name; the Wabash, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Cumberland 
Rivers, all tributaries. of the Ohio, are 
each of them navigable for several hun- 
dred miles, and the Ohio itself rolls on 
its placid waters for more than 1,000 
miles before they are lost in the Mis- 
sissippt. The main branch of the Mis- 
sissippi; the Missouri, is navigable 3,000 
miles defore it joins that river near St. 
Louis, a distance of 1,500 miles from 
the Gulf of Mexico, thus presenting a 
navigation of 4,500 miles! Steam- 
boats ascend the Missouri to a distance 
of 3,000 miles from the sea; and on all 
the western rivers this rapid medium of 
communication is bringing distant re- 
gions into contact. 
The climate is not so hot as in the 
‘south, nor so cold as in the eastern 
states. The thermometer is often as 
high as 90° in June and July, some- 
times as high as 97°, but more gene- 
rally below 90°. The end of Septem- 
ber, and the Indian summer (part of 
October and November), are as delight- 
ful as any seasons in the globe. The 
heat is not oppressive; the roads are 
excelient (previous to the wet season), 
and the espect of the fields and woods 
are beatitiful in the extreme. This is 
the harvest season for maize, for corn 
Srolies, quilting frolies, and the other 
amusements that distinguish the Carni- 
val of the western country. In some 
parts of Ohio and Illinois, intermittent 
fevers prevail in September; but the 
western country, with the exception of 
the low lands at the mouth of the Ohio 
and at the head of Lake Erie, may be 
considered as very salubrious. English 
emigrants, of careful and sober habits, 
who do not expose, themselves to the 
night air, will generally preserve their 
health aswell as in England; or if 
attacked by fevers, will speedily re- 
cover. Gentle emetics, and fotal absti- 
nence from food {or ‘one or two days, 
Letters Jrom America.—No. I. 
309 
almost always sueceed in removing 
every symptom of dysentery, fever, or 
other inflammatory disease. 
The population is derived from every 
state in America, and from every coun- 
try in Europe. Irishmen and New 
Englanders form the majority: west of 
the Ohio river; Kentucky and Ten- 
nesse are slave states, and have been 
settled by Virginians and Carolinians. 
The planters live in great abundance, but 
little comfort—at least what is called 
comfort in England. Their fields, whe- 
ther of maize, cotton, or tobacco are 
cultivated solely by negro slaves; the 
master occupies himself in horse-racing, 
whipping his negroes, or in travelling to 
New Orleans or Philadelphia. But 
though the general aspect of manners 
here is not of an amicable kind, there 
are many hundreds of families in Ken- 
tucky as accovsplished and refined as 
any in America, and no where will you 
meet more agreeable society than in 
Lexington. But the western, or Yan- 
kee, side of the Ohio, presents the 
fairest prospect to a stranger: here no 
slaving prevails. ‘The farmers are gene- 
rally in easy circumstances, but very few 
of them possessed of wealth; they are 
a hardy industrious race, with neat 
houses, fine fields, good orchards, and 
the external appearance of prosperity. 
The small squatters \who settle without 
leave on government lands) are in 
general a lazy unsettled race, with large 
families half naked, crowded into one 
solitary hut in the woods. They have 
plenty to eat; and for external appear- 
rances, they are as profoundly indif- 
ferent as the Indian hunter. The 
towns on the banks of the Ohio, Wheel- 
ing, Steubenville, Marietta, Maysville, 
and Cincinnati are inhabited by an en- 
terprising people, and present a scene 
of commercial activity which, consider- 
ing the recent settlement of the country, 
is astonishing. 
The general aspect of the United 
States is that of a boundless forest. 
Even travelling between the populous 
cities on the coast, you pass through 
uncleared tracks for nearly three-fourths 
of your way; and in the most populous 
and well settled states (as those of Mas- 
sachusets and Connecticut) more than 
half of the surface is uncultivated. In 
some of the various states, the produce 
of almost every climate is raised, from 
corn of the north to the sugar of the 
south. Maize, or Indian corn, is culti- 
vated in all the states from Maine to 
Georgia, 
