LIFE OF WILSON. Ixxiii 



'' My friends will please accept through you my best wishes and kindest 

 respects; and I regret that while the grand spectacle of mountains, regions 

 of expanded forests, glittering towns, and noble rivers, are passing in rapid 

 succession before my delighted view, they are not beside me to enjoy the vary- 

 ing scenery ; but as far as my pen will enable me, I will freely share it with 

 them, and remember them affectionately until I forget myself. 



"February 23d. My baggage is on board — I have just to despatch this 

 and set off. The weather is fine, and I have no doubt of piloting my skiff in 

 safety to Cincinnati. Farewell ! God bless you 1" 



To Mr. Alexander Lawson. 



" Lexington, April 4th, 1810. 

 " My Dear Sir. 



" Having now reached the second stage of my bird-catching expedition, I 

 willingly sit down to give you some account of my adventures and remarks since 

 leaving Pittsburgh ; by the aid of a good map, and your usual stock of patience, 

 you will be able to listen to my story, and trace all my wanderings. Though 

 generally dissuaded from venturing by myself on so long a voyage down the 

 Ohio, in an open skiff, I considered this mode, with all its inconveniences, as 

 the most favorable to my researches, and the most suitable to my funds, and I 

 determined accordingly. Two. days before my departure, the Alleghany river 

 was one wide torrent of broken ice, and I calculated on experiencing consider- 

 able difficulties on this score. My stock of provisions consisted of some biscuit 

 and cheese, and a bottle of cordial presented me by a gentleman of Pittsburgh ; 

 my gun, trunk, and great-coat, occupied one end of the boat; I had a small 

 tin occasionally to bale her, and to take my beverage from the Ohio with ; 

 and, bidding adieu to the smoky confines of Pitt, I launched into the stream, 

 and soon winded away among the hills that everywhere enclose this noble river. 

 The weather was warm and serene, and the river like a mirror, except where 

 floating masses of ice spotted its surface, and which required some care to steer 

 clear of; but these, to my surprise, in less than a day's sailing, totally dis- 

 appeared. Far from being concerned at my new situation, I felt my heart 

 expand with joy at the novelties which surrounded me; I listened with 

 pleasure to the whistling of the Red-bird on the banks as I passed, and con- 

 templated the forest scenery as it reced'ed, with increasing delight. The 

 smoke of the numerous sugar camps, rising lazily among the mountains, gave 

 great effect to the varying landscape ; and the grotesque log cabins, that here 

 and there opened from the woods, were diminished into mere dog-houses by the 

 sublimity of the impending mountains. If you suppose to yourself two parallel 

 ranges of forest-covered hills, whose irregular summits are seldom more than 

 three or four miles apart, winding through an immense extent of country, and 

 enclosing a river half a mile wide, which alternately washes the steep declivity 

 on one side, and laves a rich, flat, forest-clad bottom on the other, of a mile or 

 so in breadth, you will have a pretty correct idea of the appearance of the 

 Ohio. The banks of these rich flats are from twenty to sixty and eighty feet 

 high, and even these last were within a few feet of being overflowed in Decem- 

 ber, 1808. 



