Ten Days in Ohio. 251 
boulders of primitive formations deeply covered with a rich coat of 
vegetable soil; a substantial dam of stone crosses the river a mile 
below the aqueduct, and furnishes water to a main feeder for the ca- 
nal. Five miles below, the canal passes along under the edge of the 
* Scioto Bluffs ;” which are high banks of gravel, belonging to the 
uplands, and occasioned by the undermining of the river in its mi- 
grations from one side of the valley to the other. They are from 
fifty to one hundred feet high, and extend for two and a half miles 
along the river. The bottom and bank of the canal next the river 
are formed of this gravel, while the Bluffs themselves make the oth- 
er bank of the canal. The Scioto washes the foot of the bank on 
one side, and when high, becomes very turbulent and angry at the 
encroachments made on its territories; while on the other, the Bluffs 
are occasionally slipping down and filling up the canal, occasioning 
not a little trouble and vexation to the managers of the work, a few 
years will probably regulate the work, and the whole will become 
solid. We passed eight locks between Circleville and Chilicothe, 
which are all built in a neat substantial manner; many of the top or 
coping stones being ten or twelve feet long, four wide and a foot thick. 
We reached C. at 9, A. M. 
CHILICOTHE. 
This town is the seat of justice for Ross County, and was for ma- 
ny years also the seat of government for the state. It contains about 
3000 inhabitants, and the whole county 25,000. It derives its name 
from that of a celebrated Indian town, seated on the waters of Paint 
Creek, twelve miles N. W. of this, and which was probably the larg- 
est of the kind in Ohio.’ Chilicothe has increased rapidly since the 
location of the canal; which passes directly through one of the prin- 
cipal streets near the river. Many substantial warehouses are built 
along its borders, and a large amount of business is transacted. * It 
is seated on a level alluvial plain, about forty feet above low water 
in the river, and bordering a fertile tract of about 10,000 acres.” 
“The Scioto washes the northern limit of the town, while Paint 
Creek winds along its southern verge; the two streams being here 
about three fourths of a mile apart.” The principal streets run par- 
allel with the course of the river and are crossed at right angles by 
others, extending from the river to Paint Creek. The main streets 
cross each other at the centre of the town and are ninety nine feet 
wide. Water street, which fronts the river, and along which the ca- 
nal passes, is eighty two feet wide; all the others are sixty six feet. 
