Roads. — Villages. 33 



is Massasauga. It is probably the species known to naturalists as 

 the Crotalus miliarius, although from the early period of the season 

 I had not an opportunity of seeing one. The large rattle snake, or 

 Crotalus horridus, appears to be nearly extinct in this part of Ohio. 



Roads. — May 12th : Left Poland this morning, in company with 

 Dr. K. for the Falls of the Cuyahoga, distant about fifty eight miles. 

 The main road here takes a due east and west course, and runs in this 

 direction, with little variation, for one hundred and sixty miles : and 

 for one hundred and twenty of this distance it passes through the cen- 

 tre of the southern range of townships in "the Reserve." This is 

 probably the longest road pursuing an undeviating course in the United 

 States. The townships or towns, as they are here called, are all 

 five miles square, and it is the undeviating practice to run the roads 

 on right lines from east to west, and from north to south. One pass- 

 es through the centre of every township in these directions, and one 

 on the line between each township, with minor roads at intervals of 

 one mile and a quarter, for the convenient intercourse of the inhab- 

 itants. Few countries will admit this beautiful arrangement, but here 

 the surface is so level, or only occasionally diversified with a broad 

 but moderate elevation, that a road may be run in any direction. 



Villages. — In the centre of each town where the roads cross, is 

 usually a smcill village, made up of one or more churches or meeting 

 houses,* the school house, one or two stores, a tavern, smith's shop, 

 with a number of neat private dwellings, including those of the law- 

 yer and physician. Many of these villages are finely situated, and 

 the buildings being generally of wood, painted white, make a very 

 neat appearance, in contrast with the rich green of the meadows, 

 and the foliage of the trees. We passed through several such in 

 the course of the day, and among them the village of Canfield 

 is eminently beautiful. From a number of low hills we had an ex- 

 tensive view of the adjacent country, embracing a horizon of ten or 

 twelve miles, and bringing at once under the eye the spires and whi- 

 tened walls of four or five distant villages. At the period of the first 

 settlement of this portion of Ohio, in the year 1798, the soil was 

 very wet over many extensive tracts, which it was feared would 

 never be fit for cultivation ; but as the forests are opened, and the 

 rays of the sun and the winds admitted, the soil becomes sufficiently 



* A name derived from the Puritans of New England, because in Britain at the 

 period of their emigration, no houses for public worship were called churches, ex- 

 cept those of the establishment ; the rest were houses for meeting or meeting houses. 



Vol. XXXI.— No. 1.5 



