ALEXANDER WILSON. l xxv 



siderable deal of business is done in importation for the interior of 

 Kentucky. It stands on a high narrow plain, between the moun- 

 tains and the river, which is fast devouring the bank, and encroach- 

 ing on the town ; part of the front street is gone already, and unless 

 some effectual means are soon taken, the whole must go by piece- 

 meal. This town contains about one hundred houses, chiefly log 

 and frames. From this place I set out on foot for Washington. 

 On the road, at the height of several hundred feet above the present 

 surface of the river, I found prodigious quantities of petrified shells 

 of the small cockle and fan-shaped kind, but whether marine 

 remains or not, I am uncertain. I have since found these petrified 

 concoctions of shells universal all over Kentucky, wherever I have 

 been. The rocks look as if one had collected heaps of broken 

 shells and wrought them up among clay, then hardened it into 

 stone. These rocks lie universally in horizontal strata. A farmer, 

 in the neighbourhood of Washington, assured me, that, from seven 

 acres he reaped at once eight thousand weight of excellent hemp, 

 fit for market. 



" Amidst very tempestuous weather, I reached the town of 

 Cincinnati, which does honour to the name of the old Roman, and 

 is the neatest and handsomest situated place I have seen since I 

 left Philadelphia. You must know, that, during an unknown series 

 of ages, the river Ohio has gradually sunk several hundred feet 

 below its former bed, and has left, on both sides, occasionally, 

 what are called the first or nearest, and the second or next, high 

 bank, the latter of which is never overflowed. 



" The town of Cincinnati occupies two beautiful plains, one on 

 the first, and the other on the second bank, and contains upwards 

 of five hundred houses, the greater proportion of which are of brick. 

 One block house is all that remains of Fort Washington. The 

 river Licking comes in from the opposite shore, where the town of 

 Newport, of forty or fifty houses, and a large arsenal and barracks, 

 are lately erected. Here I met with Judge Turner, a man of extra- 

 ordinary talents, well known to the literati of Philadelphia : he 

 exerted himself in my behalf with all the ardour of an old friend. 

 A large Indian mound, in the vicinity of this town, has been lately 

 opened by Dr Drake, who showed me the collection of curiosities 

 which he had found in that and others. In the centre of this 



