AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM 61 



in their exertions to iaciliiate and extend communication 

 with every part of the country around ; and especially 

 with those vast fertile tracts which are watered by the 

 widely spreading branches of the upper Potoniack, whose 

 industrious and weaUhy farmers must ever look on 

 the Ports of Columbia as their natuitil Emporium — And 

 not only these, — the people of the whole western coun- 

 try, on the Ohio, on the Mississippi, and, even, on the 

 Missouri and the La;kes, have their eves directed to the 

 navigable waters of the Potomak, as likely to afford 

 them the most easy and direct avenue for intercourse 

 with the Atlantic. Nevv Oi-leans, without doubt, vviH be 

 the great Depot for most of the heavy and bulky pro- 

 ducts of all that vast region ; but when the United States' 

 road from Cumberland to Wheeling, and others to diiler- 

 ent points on tlie Ohio, are opened and made, and when 

 the improvements now contemplated, on the boatable 

 waters of the l*otomak, arc fully ejected, many arti- 

 cles of the lightfr native products of that country, would 

 find a more certain and more profitable market in 

 the District of Columbia, were even her present 

 means brought to act in concert; and almost the whole 

 supply of foreign merchandize requisite for the rapidly 

 increasing population of all th.at immense territory, 

 which lies to the North of a line of latitude, drawn 

 throng!) the mouth of the Ohio, would be borne to tiiem 

 from the Potomak, with more expedition and less ex- 

 pencc than by any other channel. 



In his notes on Virginia, Mr. Je&rsoii observes, that 



* the Western Waters have three principal connexions 

 ' with the Atlantic; the Hudson's river, the Potomak^ 

 ' and the Mississippi itself* Down the last will pass 



* all heavy commodities. But the navigation throujih 



* In the appendix (A) two others arc neted; one from 

 Presque fsle on Lake Erie to Le IJoeuf, down the Al- 

 legany to Kiskiminiias, then up the Kiskiminitas, and 

 from thejice, by a small portage to Juniati; which 



