CHAP. XXXVIL] CINCINNATI TO PITTSBUKG. 297 



CHAP. XXXVIL 



Cincinnati to Pittsburg. Improved Machinery of Steamer. 

 Indian Mound. Gravel Terraces. Pittsburg Fire. 

 Journey to Greensburg. Scenery like England. Oregon 

 War Question. Fossil Foot-prints of Air-breathing Reptile 

 in Coal Strata. Casts of Mud- cracks. Foot-prints of Birds 

 and Dogs sculptured by Indians. Theories respecting the 

 Geological Antiquity of highly organized Vertebrata, Pre 

 judices opposed to the Reception of Geological Truths. Popu 

 lar Education the only Means of preventing a Collision of 

 Opinion between the Multitude and the Learned. 



April 13. 1846. FKOM Cincinnati we embarked 

 in the Clipper steamer for Pittsburg, a distance of 

 no less than 450 miles ; so magnificent is the scale of 

 the navigation of this mere tributary of the Missis 

 sippi ! Yet there are other large steamers also ply 

 ing above Pittsburg, on the tributaries of the Ohio. 

 We observe more punctuality than in 1842, in the 

 starting of the steamers. The Clipper made ten 

 miles an hour against the current, including stop 

 pages. We fell in with some large artificial rafts 

 of wood stretching more than half across the river, 

 and met a steamer, which had run foul of one of 

 them, still entangled, and, though bound for Pitts 

 burg, floating down the stream with the raft. Our 

 steamer only draws 3~ feet water, and her engines 

 are of a very peculiar construction, hitherto used ia 



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