14 Lewis Wetzel. 



Virgil have immortalized the Roman agriculture and horticulture, 

 and produced a poem not only instructive, but highly attractive, 

 and which, for eighteen centuries, has been a classical study. 



After spending a very pleasant day, and receiving many marks of 

 kindness and attention from my friends, 1 embarked on board the 

 steam boat Hero, at 4, P. M., for the mouth of the Big Beaver 

 River. This stream was so named on account of the great number 

 of beavers found on its head branches, and in the small ponds from 

 which some of its waters flow. It is a stream of considerable nnag- 

 nitude, abounding in valuable mill seats, and is destined to furnish a 

 supply of water for that portion of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal 

 which passes down its valley. The distance from Steubenville to 

 Beaver is about forty miles. 



Adventure of Leivis Wetzel.* — Amongst the heroes of border 

 warfare, Lewis Wetzel held no inferior station. Inured to hard- 

 ships while yet in boyhood, and familiar with all the varieties of for- 

 est adventure, from that of hunting the beaver and the bear, to that 

 of the wily Indian, he became one of the most celebrated marks- 

 men of the day. His form was erect, and of that height best adapt- 

 ed to activity, being very muscular, and possessed of great bodily 

 strength. From constant exercise, he could without fatigue, bear 

 prolonged and violent exertion, especially that of running and walk- 

 ing; and he had, by practice acquired the art of loading his rifle when 

 running at full speed through the forest, and wheeling on the instant, 

 he could discharge it with unerring aim, at the distance of eighty or 

 one hundred yards, into a mark not larger than a dollar. This art 

 he has been known more than once to practice with fatal success on 

 his savage foes. 



A marksman of superior skill was, in those days, estimated by the 

 other borderers, much in the same way that a knight templar, or a 

 knight of the cross, who excelled in the tournament or the charge, 

 was, valued by his cotemporaries, in the days of chivalry. Chal- 

 lenges of skill often took place ; and marksmen who lived at the dis- 

 tance of fifty miles or more from each other, frequently met by ap- 

 pointment, to try the accuracy of their aim, on bets of considerable 

 amount. Wetzel's fame had spread far and wide, as the most ex- 

 pert and unerring shot of the day. It chanced that a young man, a 



* Received from a gentleman of my acquaintance, to whom one of the party re- 

 lated the story, a few years after the transaction took place; and with which my 

 friend was also familiar from the narration of others. 



