236 Ten Days in Ohio. 
the landing nearest to his dwelling. At Wheeling or Pittsburgh he 
seats himself in the stage, and in eight and forty hours, with very little 
trouble, crosses the mountain ranges, once so formidable to the 
equestrian ; thus accomplishing, in five or six days, a journey from 
the falls of the Ohio to Philadelphia. His goods now reach the 
heads of the Ohio, in ten days, and the steam boat, in a very short 
period, takes them to his home, greatly abridging time, fatigue, and 
expence. The change has wrought no good for tavern keepers, 
whatever it may have done for the community. 
SOMERSET. 
At | P. M., we reached Somerset, the capital of Perry County. 
It is pleasantly seated on elevated ground, and surrounded by a rich 
agricultural region. It has a neat, brick court house, some good 
dwelling houses and stores, and about eight hundred inhabitants. 
Catholics. 
More than one half the population of the town and county are pro- 
fessors of the Roman Catholic religion. ‘They have a substantial 
brick chapel and nunnery, or school for educating young females. 
The seminary is in good repute, and many protestant families send 
their daughters here for that purpose. It is supposed, that in a few 
years, the whole county will be catholic ; as they embrace every op- 
portunity of purchasing the farms and the houses of ‘the protestants, 
and occupying them with those of their own creed, from other places. 
A few proselytes are also made, although rarely. The early preju- 
ices of education, and the little intercourse between the protestant 
and catholic portions of the community, seem to have generated a 
general desire amongst the former to leave the place, as soon as they 
conveniently can; thus giving the catholics peaceable, and quiet pos- 
session of their hearths, and long cherished homes.’ It was a wise 
provision in our constitution which left religion free and every indi- 
vidual in our happy country at liberty to attach himself to that sect 
which he preferred. So long as this liberty remains, there is little 
danger of the catholic religion either ruling, or overturning the gov- 
ernment. 
RUSHVILLE AND RUSH CREEK.— Geology. 
A few miles west of Somerset, we passed through Rushville, a 
small village in Fairfield County seated on the high ground east of 
