1829. 
tons of gigantie brutes—of metallic ornaments, 
warlike implements, and earthen utensils, found 
buried in the soil—of the vestiges of temples and 
fortifications—in short, of the many remains of a 
civilized population, we were inclined to consider 
them as gross impostures. Yet tliese curiosities 
actually exist, as well as others of equal interest. 
Of all these wonderful matters, however, 
the reader will hear no more. 
Pittsburgh is entirely a new creation—the 
chief seat of the iron factories—the magnifi- 
cent scenery of which he is never weary of 
describing :— 
But the prospect which the good people of Pitts- 
burgh consider as most lovely “to soul and to 
eye,’ is to be found on the northern face of Coal- 
hill.. The yawning caverns which here display 
their hideous mouths, would have been celebrated 
among the ancients as the abodes of unpropitious 
deities; the less classical citizens have peopled 
them with spirits of sterner stuff—have made them 
mines of inexhaustible wealth, and drawn from 
them the materials of substantial comfort. Not 
only this hill, but the whole of the surrounding 
country, is full of coal of excellent quality, which 
s found in immense strata, lying almost invaria- 
bly upon one and the same level. It contains a 
large proportion of sulplur, and is hard, heavy, 
and of a deep shining black colour; it is easily 
ignited, and produces an intense heat ; but is very 
dirty, emits immense volumes of smoke, and 
throws up an unusual quantity of cinders and 
dust. These latter fill the atmosphere, and are 
continually falling in showers, to the great terror 
of strangers and sojourners, and with manifest 
injury to the dresses of the ladies, and the white 
hands of eastern gentlemen. From this cause, 
every thing in Pittsburgh wears a sombre hue; 
even the snow as it falls brings with it particles of 
cinder, and loses its purity by the connexion. But 
the people are now so used to the black and mid- 
night appearance of the objects in their city, as 
scareely to be aware of its inconvenience ; so that 
I once heard a lady exclaim, on witnessing a snow 
storm out of town, “ La! what white snow!” 
The men, it seems, are not very ‘ polished 
or urbane ;? but the sweetness and affabi- 
lity of the ladies have beauty and grace 
enough ‘to decorate a ball room to great 
advantage.” Indeed he has seldom seen 
finer displays of female loveliness—in defi- 
ance of the filth too. 
But Pittsburgh is, besides, the chief depo- 
sitory for goods destined for the western 
country. ‘They come chiefly from Balti- 
more and Philadelphia, in waggons, carry- 
ing about forty or fifty hundred weight— 
four thousand in a year; but this very pro- 
fitable monopoly it is soon likely to lose— 
indeed has already began to lose, from the 
unwise economy of the Philadelphians, who 
have kept and left the road in a state barely 
passable. The river, again, is not always 
equally navigable up to Pittsburgh. New 
York and Maryland have, accordingly, de- 
tected an opening for their own advantage ; 
the first has projected, for the purpose, a 
grand canal from the Hudson to the Lakes ; 
and the Marylanders, prompted by the west- 
Domestic and Foreign. 
199 
ern ‘states, have nearly completed the great 
* national turnpike,’ as they call it, from 
Cumberland Fort, on a branch of the Poto- 
mac, to Wheeling, in Virginia, on the 
Ohio, but many miles lower down the 
stream than Pittsburgh; and this road is 
intended, it seems, to be carried into the 
Ohio state, as faras Zanesville. Pittsburgh, 
therefore, so far as its prosperity depends on 
the traffic to the west, must scon succumb 
to Wheeling, unless the Pensylvanians bestir 
themselves more than they have yet done, 
and the river between Pittsburgh and Wheel- 
ing be cleaned and rendered more uniformly 
navigable. 
It is worth a voyage down the Ohio, the 
author says, to pass the rapids :— 
They are two miles in length, with a descent of 
twenty-two feet and a half in that distance, and 
are formed by ledges of rock, which extend quite 
across the river. The current is said to have an 
average velocity of thirteen miles an hour, which 
of course is increased or diminished by high or 
low water. 
As you approach the head of the rapids, the 
mighty stream rolls on in a smooth unbrokea 
sheet, increasing in velocity as you advance. The 
business of preparation creates asense. of im- 
pending danger; the pilot, stationed on the deck, 
assumes command; a firm and skilful helmsman 
guides the boat; the oars, strongly manned, are 
vigorously plied to give the vessel a momentum 
greater than that of the cnrrent, without which 
the helm would be inefficient. he utmost silence 
prevails among the crew; but the ear is stunned 
with the sound of rushing waters: and the sight 
of wayes dashing, and foaming, and whirling 
among the rocks and eddies below, is grand and 
fearful. The boatadyances with inconceivable 
rapidity to the head of the channel—* takes the 
Chute”*—and seems no lunger manageable among 
the angry currents, whose foam dashes upon her 
deck, but in a few moments she emerges from 
their power, and rides again in serene waters. 
“ The French have left some curiousnames 
in Missouri,” he says, ‘‘ and some curious 
corruptions have followed. La Femme Osage, 
the Osage Woman—Misere, Misery—Creve 
Ceur, Broken Heart—Vuide Poche, Empty 
Pocket—Bois Brulé, Burnt Wood, which the 
Americans pronounce Bob Ruby—Cote sans 
Dessein, which you,’’ says the author, “may 
translate for yourself. I should call it Acci- 
dental Hill, which is justified by the appear- 
ance of the place. It is an eminence,” he 
adds, and we hope the reader will under- 
stand it—“on a hill, without a valley, and 
which looks as if it did not belong to the 
place, but had dropt there by accident.’ 
A creek, called Dordon Eye, took its name 
from an Indian chief, noted for his vigi- 
lance, and to whom the French gave the 
name of Dor d’wn Gil. A small stream in 
ilinois has the very strange name of Bum- 
paw, from Bonpas—and that from Bonne 
Passe. 
* The word is evidently Frenecli—the author 
struggles hard for a puu—the boat, he says, 
shoots like an arrow. 
