324 Notes on certain parts of the Staite of Ohio. 
The State of the Roads. 
The roads, through the summer and autumn months, are 
tolerably good. In the winter and spring, they partake of 
the quality of all the Ohio roads, an abundance of mud. In 
those roads, which border the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, 
the travelling is very delightful in the summer months. The 
bridges across the small streams are generally kept in repair ; 
though subject to many casualties, from the high water. We © 
have two handsome toll bridges across Duck creek—one at 
the mouth, and one about two miles up the creek. We for- 
merly had one across Little Muskingum, at the mouth. It 
was thrown across with onearch, of about one hundred and 
fifty feet, supported with stone abutments. ‘The abutments 
are yet standing; but the arch was demolished by a high 
freshet in 1808. A grant was made last winter by the Legisla- 
ee to a company to rebuild it, with the privilege of taking 
toll. 
Trade and Commerce, what kind of boats and ships employed 
in them, their number and of what, and how constructed. 
The trade on the rivers, is carried on by keel boats, barges, 
and flat bottomed boats ; or as they are usually called ‘ Or- 
leans boats,’’ from their being used for transporting flour, &c. 
to New Orleans. The keel boats, are from fifty to eighty 
feet in length, and about nine or eleven feet in width; built 
with a keel and frame, a little after the manner of a ship’s 
long boat. They will carry from ten to thirty tons—are pro- 
pelled against the current, by poles ; and of late years they 
use a mast and large square sail—and as the wind blows up 
the Ohio for at least two-thirds of the time, from March to 
November, the sail is of yreat use tothem. In their voyages 
down stream, they make use of oars. The principal com- 
merce of the country, is carried on in these boats. ‘The 
are usually navigated by six or eight men. Ship-building 
was carried on here, quite briskly, for a number of years ; 
and as many as twelve or fourteen vessels were built, of 
from one hundred and fifty to three hundred tons burthen. 
Some of them were completely riggec, at Marietta ; others 
were rigged at New Orleans. The embargo first gave a 
check to the spirit of building; and the loss or damage of 
several ships at the falls of Ohio, has puta stop to any fur- 
fher attempts. Steam-boats now seem to be the order of the 
