Ten Days in Ohio. 219 



The young ladies' academy has been established two or three 

 years, and is in a flourishing condition. The two departments are 

 under the direction of nine trustees, with corporate powers. The 

 cost of the buildings, library, apparatus, &;c. was about $8,000, which 

 was raised by donation from the inhabitants of Marietta and the vi- 

 cinity. 



MARIETTA TO ZANESVILLE. 



The road from Marietta to Zanesville, for the first twenty miles, 

 passes up the valley of the Muskingum, is composed entirely of rich 

 alluvion, and varies in width from half a mile to a mile between the 

 hills which line each side of the valley. 



The river is about two hundred yards in width, and of sufficient 

 depth for steam boat navigation, a part of the year, and for " keels" 

 at all seasons. It holds a devious course through the valley, some- 

 times visiting the base of the hills on the east side, and sometimes on 

 the west, leaving barely room for the road, constituting what is called 

 " narrows," while on the opposite side is found a wide " bottom." 

 These bottoms are converted into beautiful farms, and produce abund- 

 ant crops of grass and grain. Fruit trees grow with wonderful ra- 

 pidity. An apple tree is now standing a little way above the mouth 

 of Coal Run, twenty miles from Marietta, which, at the age of thirty 

 years, was three feet in diameter, a few feet from the ground, and 

 produced apples, in one season, sufficient for twenty barrels of cider. 

 Allowing seven bushels to a barrel, we have one hundred and forty 

 bushels of apples, a prodigious quantity for a single tree. 



Twelve miles above Marietta, we crossed the mouth of Bear 

 Creek, in a " flat boat," the bridge once erected here being removed 

 by a flood, and the " back water" from the Muskingum being too 

 deep to admit of fording. 



Two miles further up we crossed Cat's creek, on a bridge. The 

 early settlers often named the streams from some incident or feat, in 

 bunting, which took place on its w^aters, instead of retaining the 

 names of the aborigines, which are much more harmonious and sig- 

 nificant. 



The bottoms between these two streams are wide and rich. The 

 crops of wheat look well, but the Indian corn is barely appearing 

 above ground, and looks pale and sickly. The farmers generally 

 complained of the damaged condition of their " seed corn," so that 

 they have, in many instances, replanted their fields two or three times. 

 This defect in germinating, was doubtless owing to the sudden and 



