Ixxii LIFE OF "WILSON. 



ing'left the coach several miles below. These high ranges continiied for more 

 than one hundred miles to Greensburg, thirty-two miles from Pittsburgh ; 

 thence the country is nothing but an assemblage of steep hills, and deep valleys, 

 descending rapidly till you reach within seven miles of this place, where I 

 arrived on the 15th instant. We were within two miles of Pittsburgh, when 

 suddenly the road descends a long and very steep hill, where the Alleghany 

 river is seen at hand, on the right, stretching along a rich bottom, and bounded 

 by a high ridge of hills on the west. After following this road, parallel with 

 the river, and about a quarter of a mile from it, through a rich low valley ,-a 

 cloud of black smoke, at its extremity, announced the town of Pittsburgh. On 

 arriving at the town, which stands on a low flat, and looks like a collection of 

 blacksmith's shops, glasshouses, breweries,, forges and furnaces, the Monou- 

 gahela opened to the view, on the left, running along the bottom of a range of 

 hills so high that the sun, at this season, sets to the town of Pittsburgh at a 

 little past four : this range continues along the Ohio as far as the view reaches. 

 The ice had just begun to give way in the Monongahela, and came down in 

 vast bodies for the three following days. It has now begun in the Alleghany, 

 and, at the moment I write, the river presents a white mass of rushing ice. 



"The country beyond the Ohio, to the west, appears. a mountainous and 

 hilly region. The Monongahela is lined' with arks, usually called Kentucky- 

 boats, waiting for the rising of the river, and the absence of the ice, to descend. 

 A perspective view of the town of Pittsburgh at this season, with the numerous 

 arks- and covered keel-boats preparing to descend the Ohio; its hills, its great 

 rivers — the pillars of smoke rising from its furnaces and glass-works — would 

 make a noble picture. I began a very diligent search in this place, the day 

 after my arrival, for subscribers, and continued it for four days. I succeeded 

 beyond expectation, having got nineteen names of the most wealthy and 

 respectable part of the inhabitants. The industry of Pittsburgh is remarkable ; 

 everybody you see is busy; and as a proof of the prosperity of the place, an 

 eminent lawyer told me that there has not been one suit instituted against a 

 merchant of the town these three years. 



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" Gentlemen here assure me that the road to Chilieothe is impassable on 

 foot by reason of the freshets. I have therefore resolved to navigate myself a 

 small skiff, which I have bought, and named the Ornithologist, down to 

 Cincinnati, a distance of five hundred and twenty-eight miles; intending to 

 visit five or six towns that lie in my way. From Cincinnati I will cross over 

 to the opposite shore, and, abandoning my boat, make my way to Lexington, 

 where I expect to be ere your letter can reach that place. Were I to go by 

 Chilieothe, I should miss five towns, as large as it. Some say that I ought 

 not to attempt going down by myself — others think I may. I am determined 

 to make the experiment, the expense of hiring a rower being considerable. As 

 soon as the ice clears out of the Alleghany, and the weather will permit, I shall 

 shove off, having everything in, readiness. I have ransacked the woods and 

 fields here without finding a single bird new to me, or indeed anything but a 

 few snow-birds and sparrows. I expect to have something interesting to com- 

 municate in my next. 



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