Ten Days in Ohio. 251 



boulders of primitive formations deeply covered with a rich coat of 

 vegetable soil ; a substantial dam of stone crosses the river a mile 

 below the aqueduct, and furnishes water to a main feeder for the ca- 

 nal. Five miles below, the canal passes along under the edge of the 

 " Scioto Bluffs ;" which are high banks of gravel, belonging to the 

 uplands, and occasioned by the undermining of the river in its mi- 

 grations from one side of the valley to the other. They are from 

 fifty to one hundred feet high, and extend for two and a half miles 

 along the river. The bottom and bank of the canal next the river 

 are formed of this gravel, while the Bluffs themselves make the oth- 

 er bank of the canal. The Scioto washes the foot of the bank on 

 one side, and when high, becomes very turbulent and angry at the 

 encroachments made on its territories ; while on the other, the Bluffs 

 are occasionally slipping down and filling up the canal, occasioning 

 not a little trouble and vexation to the managers of the work, a few 

 years will probably regulate the work, and the whole will become 

 solid. We passed eight locks between Circleville and Chilicothe, 

 which are all built in a neat substantial manner ; many of the top or 

 coping stones being ten or twelve feet long, four wide and a foot thick. 

 We reached C. at 9, A. M. 



CHILICOTHE. 



This town is the seat of justice for Ross County, and was for ma- 

 ny years also the seat of government for the state. It contains about 

 3000 inhabitants, and the whole county 25,000. It derives its name 

 from that of a celebrated Indian town, seated on the waters of Paint 

 Creek, twelve miles N. W. of this, and which was probably the larg- 

 est of the kind in Ohio. Chilicothe has increased rapidly since the 

 location of the canal ; which passes directly through one of the prin- 

 cipal streets near the river. Many substantial warehouses are built 

 along its borders, and a large amount of business is transacted. " It 

 is seated on a level alluvial plain, about forty feet above low water 

 in the river, and bordering a fertile tract of about 10,000 acres." 

 " The Scioto washes the northern limit of the town, while Paint 

 Creek winds along its southern verge ; the two streams being here 

 about three fourths of a mile apart." The principal streets run par- 

 allel with the course of the river and are crossed at right angles by 

 others, extending from the river to Paint Creek. The main streets 

 cross each other at the centre of the town and are ninety nine feet 

 wide. Water street, which fronts the river, and along which the ca- 

 nal passes, is eighty two feet wide ; all the others are sixty six feet. 



