Rocky Mountains 27 



ous rapid will soon be rendered more convenient, by canal- 

 ing, which can be accomplished at a very inconsiderable ex- 

 pense. The direction ot the Ohio, above and below the 

 rapids, is nearly from north-east to south-west, but where the 

 stream passes the rocky obstruction occasioning the fall, it is 

 a little deflected from its course, making a bend towards the 

 west. Thus a point is formed on the south-eastern side pro- 

 jecting from the elevated bank, which, from its present posi- 

 tion, would seem to indicate that the bed of the river had 

 changed its place, having formerly traversed the point from 

 north-east to south-west, in a direct line. In times of high 

 floods the water is, in part, discharged through this old chan- 

 nel, and large boats are said to have ascended by that route 

 within a few years past. 



On this point stands the small town of Shippingsport, at 

 the foot of the rapids. The proposed canal will traverse the 

 point in the rear of this village. The obstacles to be encoun- 

 tered in opening a canal at this place are but trifling. The 

 soil is firm and gravelly, being based on horizontal strata of 

 compact limestone, and fine argillaceous sandstone. 



The sandstone, which is the rock of most common occur- 

 rence about the rapids, very closely resembles that of Pitts- 

 burgh. It is commonly of a compact texture, having an ar- 

 gillaceous cement, with a laminated structure. At Ship- 

 pingsport, and at Clarksville, in Indiana, it is succeeded by 

 bituminous clay slate. While we were waiting at the rapids, 

 several of the party made an excursion to visit the boiling 

 spring, at the foot of the Silver Creek hills, in Indiana, at a 

 little distance from New Albany. This spring is small, dis- 

 charging no water above the surface of the ground. It is an 

 artificial excavation in the clayey bank of a small stream, 

 called Fountain Creek. It is filled to the level of the water in 

 the creek, the spring itself evidently discharging very little, 

 if any water. That which fills the basin is turbid, being kept 

 in constant agitation by the bubbles of inflammable air which 



