PERRYSBUHG MAMEE OHIO. 303 



I passed through the village of Perrysburg, situated on the 

 south bank of the river Mamee, which flows into the south 

 west point of Lake Erie, and is navigable to the village. It 

 is a thriving place, and when the canal, now forming, which 

 is to connect the waters of the Wabash and Mamee is com 

 pleted, it will soon become a place of importance. 



On the opposite side of the river, and a little higher up 

 than Perrysburg, is the village of Mamee, consisting of 

 fifteen or twenty houses, where I dined, and arrived at Mun- 

 roe in the evening. Next day I reached Detroit, and tra 

 velled part of the w r ay with an overgrown man, who wore a 

 blue cotton frock-coat above his clothes, and a pair of double- 

 barrelled guns over his shoulders. He spoke the English lan 

 guage imperfectly, and stated he was from Saxony, and had 

 just settled in Michigan. His family was at Detroit, and he 

 expected ten thousand of his countrymen to join him next 

 season. 



The soil from Lower Sandusky, on the road by Perrysburg 

 to Michigan boundary, is not of first-rate quality, though 

 good. The surface is level, and thinly settled. Throughout 

 the whole of my travels in the state of Ohio, the country was 

 chiefly forest, and seemingly not more than one-sixth of the 

 surface cleared of wood. Perhaps the other lines of road were 

 still more thinly settled. The state contains above one 

 million of souls. 



The part of Michigan seen in passing from Mamee to 

 Detroit is thickly wooded, wet, and very thinly settled. There 

 is no part of the United States which disappointed me so 

 much as Michigan. Having passed through its whole breadth 

 from Detroit to Niles, and along the shores of Lake Erie, 

 and the banks of the river Detroit, I met with more indiffer 

 ent soil in these routes, than in all the other Western States 

 put together. There may be much good soil in Michigan, 

 which did not come under my notice, but I am quite satisfied 

 its eligibility for settlers has been greatly overrated. An 

 inhabitant of New England, who may have resided all his 

 life on poor soil, thickly covered with forest, can hardly fail of 

 being pleased with seeing the timbered land and oak-openings 



