54 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



The canal boats, the lake vessels, the steamer of seven hun- 

 dred tons, with its tall masts, its wide expanded sails, with the 

 sailor's " ye up ye o," fill the mind of the spectator, with 

 life and energy. 



GRAND RIVER, 



Rises in the northwestern part of Trumbull county, and 

 proceeds cautiously along towards the lake, turning, some 

 times to the right and then again to the left hand, a distance of 

 thirty miles, to Austinsburg in Ashtabula county, where its 

 course being arrested in that direction, it turns abruptly off to 

 the westwaard after its repulse at Austinsburg, and runs more 

 rapidly twenty miles farther onward and enters lake Erie, at 

 Fairport. General Paincsville, three miles from its mouth, is 

 the largest town, on its banks. Iron ore abounds along its 

 shores, in some places, and a furnace for its manufacture is 

 erected, in its vicinity. Mills are erected on this river at Aus- 

 tinsburg, and at some other places. 



Fairport, is as good a port as its name imports, and. both sides 

 of the river, at its mouth, are improving. The United States 

 have improved the harbor, which is constantly visited by lake 

 vessels. It is thirty-two miles cast of Cleveland. 



Thus we have noticed, very briefly indeed, all the principal 

 streams, along lake Erie, within the State of Ohio. The 

 Maumee is much the largest — the longest, widest and deepest. 

 The Cuyahoga, in size ranks next, and is the best for mills and 

 machinery, moved by water power. It has the most min- 

 eral wealth on its banks, or near them. As to canal navicra- 

 lion, the Cuyahoga has the start of the Maumee, though the 

 scene will be shifted within a few short years, when the Ohio 

 canal, ending at Portsmouth and Cleveland, three hundred and 

 nine miles in length, will be surpassed by the Wabash and 

 Maumee canal, extending from Evansville, near the mouth of 

 the Wabash, quite to lake Erie, at the entrance of the Maumee 

 river, into the lake. The lower end of the Maumee bay, is 

 several miles in width, and this canal mingles its waters with 



