44 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



The primitive rocks, were generally stopped, in their slow 

 progress, southwardly, by the hills, in the State of Ohio, be- 

 cause, we never saw one of them, in Kentucky or Tennessee; 

 nor did we find them in the southern parts of the State of 

 Illinois. 



The same cuiTent seems to have swept over all the country, 

 west of the Alleghanies, but it remains doubtful, with the wri- 

 ter, whether any primitive rocks, were transported by it, 

 west of the Mississippi river. Whether primitive rocks are 

 found, between Fort Winnebago and lake Superior, we do not 

 know, not having visited that elevated tract of country, in 

 person. 



RIVERS. 



The streams of water, which we call rivers, and which orig- 

 inate in this State, are the tributaries, either of Lake Erie or 

 of the river which gives its name to the state. 



THE OHIO RIVER, 



Assumes that name at Pittsburgh, in western Pennsylvania, 

 at the confluence of the rivers Alleghany" and Monongahala. 

 From Pittsburgh, it flows in a gentle,current, southwestward- 

 ly, nine hundred miles, to the Mississippi river, in latitude 37° 

 north, where it is lost, in the " great water" as the Indian 

 name implies — Meesyseepee. In a straight line from Pitts- 

 burgh, it is six hundred and forty miles to its mouth, in longi- 

 tude, 12° west of Washington city. Its mean breadth, is 

 about eight hundred yards. Its gentle current, in a common 

 stage of water, is no where great, except at Louisville, in lati- 

 tude 38° 10' north, where, in about two miles' distance, it de- 

 scends twenty-two feet. The Louisville canal, obviates these 

 rapids, and promises to be forever useful to all the towns locat- 

 ed above it, on the Ohio river. Towards the upper end of this 

 river, are several islands, the largest of which, are Blanner- 

 liassett's, below the mouth of the Little Kanhawa; Zane's near 

 Wheeling; and one, a few miles above Steubenville, formerly 



