Old Portage. — Cascade. — Akron. 53 



sand cubic feet per minute, and for more than half the year it affords 

 five times this quantity. For the convenience of visiters, Mr. Nevi^- 

 berry has erected a strong and safe flight of steps, by which to de- 

 scend to the foot of the chfFs, at a point which affords a fine view of 

 the falls, and where the perpendicular walls are more than one hun- 

 dred feet high.* 



Old Portage, May 15. — The apple is but just fairly 'in blossom 

 at this place, while at Marietta the blossoms had fallen ten days 

 since. There was a slight frost this morning. The old portage from 

 the Cuyahoga to the Tuscarawas, passed across the tract between 

 these two streams, beginning at the foot of the falls, and taking a 

 southerly course. The distance was about ten miles, and was the 

 route pursued by the savages, and by Indian traders in early days. 

 After the peace of 1795, white men occupied the same route in 

 carrying goods and merchandise from the Lake to the towns on the 

 heads of the Muskingum River, and even as low down the stream 

 as Zanesville, as late as the year 1805 or 1806. We left Cuyahoga 

 Falls at 9' A. M., crossing the Little Cuyahoga, a fine mill stream, 

 after travelling two miles in a southerly direction ; and shortly after 

 the small canal that conducts the water from the Little Cuyahoga to 

 the fourth lock, below the summit level. The village, where it ter- 

 minates, is called " Cascade," from the rapid descent of the water 

 for the use of machinery. The water power thus acquired is very 

 great. This village lies half a mile below the town of Akron, and 

 will in a hw years be united with it in a continuous street, so that 

 the towns can only be distinguished by the " Cascade" portion, and 

 the "Akron" portion. The waste weirs furnish an immense amount 

 of water power, a considerable portion of which is already occupied 

 by mills for flour, furnaces, &tc. The population in the two villages 

 is said to be fifteen hundred. In travelling from " the Falls" to the 

 summit level, we passed through the village of Middlebury, a very 

 thriving and industrious place, seated at the falls of the Little Cuya- 

 hoga. This stream is about thirty yards wide, and takes its rise in 



* Cuyahoga village is by far the most bustling and active town I have seen ia 

 my journey. The demand for lots and new buildings, has given an impulse to 

 every thing; while the rush and hurry of the waters, and rapid motion of the saw 

 mills, has communicated, by sympathy, a quickening influence to the muscular 

 motions of the inhabitants, which to me was very striking and apparent. The 

 joiners, in planing a board, made three strokes with the plane, in the same time 

 that I ever saw two made at any other spot. The same rapidity of movement 

 was perceived in every other action, which maybe rationally explained in no 

 other way thaa by the power of sympathy. 



