SUMMIT LEVELS. 55 



those of the lake, at Manhattan. If the rivers which descend 

 into the Ohio river, from the same summit level, where the lake 

 rivers originate, are longer than the latter, yet, they are not so 

 useful as mill streams. The rivers descending into the Ohio 

 river, seem to have been intended to produce, by their slug- 

 gishness, a rich alluvial country, where grain would best come 

 to maturity, and the lake rivers, by their great descent and 

 constancy of volume, were designed to furnish a water power, 

 to grind their neighbors' grain, and to manufacture the south- 

 ern minerals into all the articles, that a whole great state shall 

 eventually, and, forever need. 



Here, a few remarks on the summit level of all our longer 

 rivers, may not be improper. 



Lake Erie is five hundred and sixty -five feet above the sur- 

 face of the sea. The summit between Grand river and Mahon- 

 ing is three hundred and forty-two feet above lake Erie — that 

 is the lowest summit, and two hundred and twenty-four feet 

 above the Ohio river at the mouth of the Mahoning-. 



lit- ^ * ' ' 



The summit between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas in Mor- 

 tage county, is in a swamp, from which, streams run northerly " 

 into the Si. Lawrence a:nd southerly into the Mississippi — it is 

 there four hundred and four feet above lake Erie and four hun- 

 dred and twelve feet, above the mouth of the Muskingum, at 

 Marietta. 



The summit of Black river of lake Erie, and the Killbuck, a 

 branch of the Muskingum, is three hundred and thirty-seven 

 feet above the lake, and three hundred and sixty-one feet above 

 the mouth of the Muskingum, at Marietta. 



The summit between the sources of tlie Scioto and Sandus- 

 ky rivers, is three hundred and fifty-four feet above the lake, 

 and four hundred and fifty-five feet above low water in the 

 Ohio river at Portsmouth. 



The summit between the Maumee and Great Miami rivers 

 is three hundred and fifty-four feet above the lake, and six hun- 

 dred feet above the mouth of the Miami river. 



These are the lowest summit levels between the waters of 

 the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence in the state of Ohio. The 



k 



