CV111 



LIFE OF WILSON. 



teen feet wide, and from forty to seventy feet long, covered 

 above, rowed only occasionally by two oars before, and steer- 

 ed by a long and powerful one fixed above, as in the annexed 

 sketch. 



Jirk. 



Barge for passing up stream. 



" The barges are taken up along shore by setting poles, at 

 the rate of twenty miles or so a day; the arks cost about one 

 hundred and fifty cents per foot, according to their length; and 

 when they reach their places of destination, seldom bring more 

 than one-sixth their original cost. These arks descend from 

 all parts of the Ohio and its tributary streams, the Alleghany, 

 Monongahela, Muskingum, Sciota, Miami, Kentucky, Wa- 

 bash, &c. in the months of March, April, and May particular- 

 ly, with goods, produce and emigrants, the two former for 

 markets along the river, or at New Orleans, the latter for va- 

 rious parts of Kentucky, Ohio, and the Indiana Territory. I 

 now return to my own expedition. I rowed twenty odd miles 

 the first spell, and found I should be able to stand it perfectly 

 well. About an hour after night I put up at a miserable cabin, 

 fifty-two miles from Pittsburg, where I slept on what I sup- 

 posed to be corn-stalks, or something worse; so preferring the 

 smooth bosom of the Ohio to this brush heap, I got up long 

 before day, and, being under no apprehension of losing my 

 way, I again pushed out into the stream. The landscape on 

 each side lay in one mass of shade, but the grandeur of the pro- 

 jecting headlands and vanishing points, or lines, was charming- 



