COMPI^E^TION O^ THEi ORNITHOI^OGY 97 



reach their places of destination, seldom bring more 

 than one-sixth their original cost. These arks de- 

 scend from all parts of the Ohio and its tributary 

 streams, the Alleghany, Monongahela, Muskingum, 

 Scioto, Miami, Kentucky, Wabash, &c., in the 

 months of March, April and May particularly, with 

 goods, produce and emigrants, the two former for 

 markets along the river, or at New Orleans, the 

 latter for various parts of Kentucky, Ohio, and the 

 Indiana Territory. I now return to my own expedi- 

 tion. I rowed twenty odd miles this 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 supposed 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 projecting headlands and vanishing 

 points, or lines, was charmingly reflected in the 

 smooth glassy surface below. I could only dis- 

 cover when I was passing a clearing, by the crow- 

 ing of cocks; and now and then, in more solitary 

 places, the big-horned owl made a most hideous 

 hollowing, that echoed among the mountains. In 

 this lonesome manner, with full leisure for obser- 

 vation and reflection, exposed to hardships all day, 

 and hard berths all night, to storms of rain, hail 

 and snow, for it froze severely almost every night, 

 I persevered from the 24th of February to Sunday 



