CHAP. XXXVI. ] LOUISVILLE. 279 



CHAP. XXXVI. 



Louisville. Nolle Site for a Commercial City. Geology, 

 Medical Students. Academical Rotation in Office. Epis* 

 copal Church. Preaching against the Reformation. Service 

 in Slack Methodist Church. Improved Condition of Negroes 

 in Kentucky. A coloured Slat- e married as a free ]\ hite. 

 Voyage to Cincinnati. Naturalised English Artizan gam 

 bling. Sources of Anti-British Antipathies Progress of 

 Cincinnati. Increase of German Settlers. Democracy of 

 Romanists. Geology of Mill Creek. Land Tortoises. 

 Observatory. Cultivation of the Vine. Sculpture by Hiram 

 Powers. 



April 5. 1846. FROM Xew Albany we crossed the 

 river to Louisville, the metropolis of Kentucky, and 

 found the Gait House the best hotel we had been in 

 since we left the St. Louis at Xew Orleans. On our 

 way through the streets, we saw written in large 

 letters, over a smith s shop, the word &quot; blacksmithy,&quot; 

 and another inscription ran thus : &quot; Cash paid for 

 coon, mink, wild-cat, beaver, musk-rat, otter, bear, 

 wolf, and deer-skins ;&quot; which reminded us that this 

 city, being the first place where large vessels coming 

 up the river are stopped by the Falls, is the natural 

 emporium for the produce of the western hunting 

 grounds. A more noble site for a great commercial 

 town cannot be imagined ; and several merchants ex 

 pressed to me their opinion, that Cincinnati, founded 

 at a later date, would not have outstripped her rival 

 in the race, so as to number now a population of 

 nearly 100,000 souls, more than double that of Louis- 



