JOURNAL 



above 50 yards from the river and are upwards of 10 yards above 

 high water. The river now becomes more winding than we have 

 hitherto found it. It is sometimes so serpentine that it appears 

 before and behind like a continuation of lakes, and the hills on 

 its banks seem to be the separations. Altogether, nothing can 

 be more beautiful. 



885. June nth. A very hot day, but I could not discover the 

 degree of heat. On going along we bought two Perch, weighing 

 about 8 Ibs. each, for 25 cents, of a boy who was fishing. Fish 

 of this sort will sometimes weigh 30 Ibs. each. 



886. June 122/2. Pass Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto 

 River. A sort of village, containing a hundred or two of houses. 

 Not worthy of any particular remark. 



887. June i^th. Arrived at Cincinnati about midnight. Tied 

 our ark to a large log at the side of the river, and went to sleep. 

 Before morning, however, the fastening broke, and, if it had not 

 been for a watchful back-woods-man whom we had taken on 

 board some distance up the river, we might have floated ten or 

 fifteen miles without knowing it. This back-woods-man, besides 

 being of much service to us, has been a very entertaining com 

 panion. He says he has been in this country forty years, but that 

 he is an Englishman, and was bred in Sherwood Forest (he could 

 not have corne from a better nursery). All his adventures he 

 detailed to us very minutely, but dwelt with particular warmth 

 upon one he had had with a priest, lately, who, to spite him for 

 preaching, brought an action against him, but was cast and had to 

 pay costs. 



888. June i^th and i^th. Called upon Doctor Drake and upon 

 a Mr. Bosson, to whom we had letters. These gentlemen shewed 

 us the greatest civility, and treated us with a sort of kindness 

 which must have changed the opinion even of the English officer 

 whom we saw at Pittsburgh, had he been with us. I could tell 

 that dirty hireling scout, that even in this short space of time, I 

 have had the pleasure to meet many gentlemen, very well in 

 formed, and possessing great knowledge as to their own country, 

 evincing public spirit in all their actions, and hospitality and 

 kindness in all their demeanor ; but, if they be pensioners, male 

 or female, or sinecure place lords or ladies, I have yet come across, 

 thank God, no respectable people. 



889. Cincinnati is a very fine town, and elegantly (not only in 

 the American acceptation of the word) situated on the banks of 

 the rivet, nearly opposite to Licking Creek, which runs out of 

 Kentucky, and is a stream of considerable importance. The 

 country round the town is beautiful, and the soil rich ; the fields 

 in its immediate vicinity bear principally grass, and clover of 

 different sorts, the fragrant smell of which perfumes the air. 

 The town itself ranks next to Pittsburgh, of the towns on the 

 Ohio, in point of manufactures. 



, 890. We sold our ark, and its produce formed a deduction from 



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