13 



tain it makes very jrreat fall*!, admitting no navi^ration 

 for 10 miles to the Tnrkey Foot. Thence to the (jJreat 

 Crossing about 20 miles, it is aj^ain navigal)Ie, except 

 in dry seasons, and at this place is 200 yards wide. 

 The sources of this river are divided from those of the 

 Patowmac by the Alleghaney monnrain. From the falls, 

 where it intersects the Laurel n/ountain, to Fort Cum- 

 berland, the head of the Navigation on the Patowmac, 

 is 40 miles of very mountainous road. Wills's creek, at 

 the mouth of which was Fort Cundierland, is 30 or 40 

 yards wide, but affords no navigation as yet. Cheat 

 river, another con.-;ideral)le branch of the iMotiongahela, 

 is 200 yard^ wide at its mouth, and 100 yards at the 

 Dunkanrs settlement, 50 miles higher. It is navigable 

 for boats, except in dry seasons. The boundary be- 

 tween Virginia and Pennsylvania crosses it about 3 or 

 4 miles above its moutli. 



The JJlleghanei/viver, with a slight swell, affords navi- 

 gation for light batteaux to Venango, at the mouth of 

 French creek, where it is 200 yards wide, and is prac- 

 tised even to Le Hceuf, from whence there is a portage 

 of 15 miles to Presque Isle on the Lake Erie. 



The country watered by the iSiississippi and its east- 

 ern branches, constitutes five-eighths of the United 

 States, two of which five-eigliths are occupied by the 

 Ohio and its waters: the residuary streams which run 

 into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St Lau- 

 rence, water the remaining three-eighths. 



Before we quit the subject of the western waters, 

 we will take a view of their principal connexions with 

 the Atlantic. These ai'e tliree ; the Hudson's river, the 

 Patowniac, and the Mississi[)pi itself. Down the last 

 will f)ass all heavy commodities. Hut the navigation 

 throijgh the Gul|)h of Mexico is so dangerous, and that 

 up the Mississippi so difficult and tedious, that it is 

 thought probable that European merchandise will not 

 return through that cliannel. It is njost likely that 

 flour, timber, and other heavy articles will be floated 

 on rafts, which will themselves be an article for sale as 

 well as their loading, the navigators returning by land 



