Ten Days in Ohio. . 223 
ters in his house, and preferred it to wood, which grew in plenty near 
his dgor. Directly after crossing the creek we ascend a long slope 
of a hill side, to the uplands. 
Channels of Creeks and Rivers. 
The beds of the creeks in the hilly parts of Ohio, being invariably 
found from fifty feet to two hundred feet below the general level 
of the country, increasing in depth as they approach the large streams, 
and diminishing towards their head branches, until they terminate 
near the top of some ridge, afford strong support to the opinion that 
this was once a level region, and gradually brought into its. pres- 
ent broken and confused state by the wash and abrasion of the streams 
during the long succession of ages, since its emersion from that an- 
cient ocean, which once covered the ia now called ‘the Val- 
ley of the Ohio. 
. After the ocean left it, many ages must have passed before it was. 
covered with forest trees, and daring this period, it is probable most 
of the water courses and rivers were formed and abrasions took place. 
Changes equally interesting have occurred in our forests. Large 
tracts of country were once covered with pine timber, where now 
not a solitary tree is to be found for many miles around. | Its place 
is supplied by the different species of oak and other trees. We have 
all the proof we can ask of the fact in the thousands of pine knots 
which lie mouldering under the leaves ; and the spots most favorable 
and most used for the manufacture of Tar, are now covered with a 
heavy growth of oak. Another proof of pine, once having been the 
prevailing timber amongst the forests of the hills, is found in the char- 
coal taken from mounds and tumuli, being almost invariably the pro- 
duct of pine wood. Four miles beyond Meigs’s creek, and thirty two 
from Marietta, we passed the night with a very hospitable and kind 
innkeeper. In the course of the day, observed many wild flowers 
beside the road. The Prunus Virginiana and Ribes villosa in full 
bloom. Podophyllum peltalum nearly out of bloom. The root of 
the latter affords an excellent cathartic, and the fruit of the former, 
a delicious food and valuable medicine in bowel complaints. 
May 23d.—The morning was cloudy and rainy, took an Ohio 
breakfast of bacon, coffee and good bread and butter, before start- 
ing. The road for about twenty miles, passes along the dividing ridge 
between the east and west branches of Meigs’s creek, forming a nat- 
ural turnpike, in some places, of only a rod or two in breadth. On 
the more elevated portions of the-ridge, many fine views of the adja- 
