2 Steam Boats. — Sun-fish Creek. 



Instead of one immense boiler, the boats now carry from four to six 

 of a moderate capacity. The engineers are better educated, and 

 are often chosen from among the architects of the boats. The boats 

 now employed on the river between Louisville and Pittsburgh, 

 amount to nearly one hundred. Many of these are kept in the best 

 order, and for neatness and accommodation, may be safely compared 

 with any boats in America. The crews are subjected to much 

 more strict discipline, since that lawless, independent, but hardy race 

 of keel-boat-men, from whom the hands were formerly chosen, have 

 disappeared from our waters. The genteel manners and civil de- 

 portment of most of the passengers, have also a silent, but a sure and 

 perceptible influence on the manners of the crew. Good habits, as 

 well as bad, are easily adopted ; and, above all, the banishment of 

 whiskey, that bane of the west, from many of the boats, is doing still 

 more than all other causes combined, for the improvement of mor- 

 als, as well as of manners. 



Sun-fish Creek. — At nine o'clock this morning, the boat passed the 

 mouth of Sun-fish Creek, a small stream falling into the Ohio from the 

 right bank. The hills here are nearly three hundred feet high, much 

 broken and divided by deep ravines into isolated masses. They are 

 now clothed to their very summits with the richest verdure of the for- 

 est, and at this season are displaying the various tints of the different 

 species that cluster around their sides — the pure white of the Cornus 

 florida, and the rich pink of the Celtis Ohioensis, now in full bloom, 

 appears beautifully contrasted with the rich green of the wood- 

 lands. For the painter, this spot affords some of the finest views 

 that are to be found on the Ohio. The river makes an abrupt bend 

 opposite the mouth of the creek, and opens an extensive perspec- 

 tive of the richest scenery, both up and down the stream. The 

 creek itself is lined with beautiful hills and shady ravines, some of 

 which have given employment to the pencil of Mr. Sullivan, who 

 has produced several masterly pieces taken from this vicinity. He is 

 almost the only painter who has taken living views from the enchant- 

 ing landscapes of the Ohio. This summer he proposes visiting the 

 cliffs of New River and the valley of the Greenbrier, where some of 

 the most sublime and grand scenery has rested for ages, unnoticed 

 and unknown, except to the passing traveller, or the hunter, while 

 chasing the deer amidst these lovely solitudes. No country possesses 

 more rich or varied scenery, than the mountain regions on the trib- 

 utary streams of the Ohio ; in grandeur they may be excelled by the 

 alpine groups of the globe, but in loveliness they are not surpassed. 



