WESTERN STATES. 



333 



to be all earned to distant markets, too much of it is therefore converted into spirits. There 

 is much peach brandy, and also a concentrated cider, called cider royal. In the older settle- 

 ments there is cider, and in every considerable town are breweries for porter and beer. Sev- 

 eral vineyards produce tolerable wine, but not enough for more than local consumption : — 

 when, however, the rich soil and sunny climate of the West shall produce wines enough to 

 supply the demand for them, it is probable that not only there, but in the whole country, the 

 consumption of ardent spirits will be much diminished. From natural indications, the grape 

 must thrive well in the West. There is no wild vine there which grows more luxuriantly than 

 the grape, and it is common to see vines G inches and more in diameter, running up and cover- 

 ing the tops of the highest trees. In Arkansas, and several other places, the wild grapes are 

 delicious. 



15. Diseases. These are generally bilious fevers, for the pulmonary complaints are not, 

 compared with the same in New England, as 1 to 50. Intermittent fevers are common and 

 troublesome, though to have the ague is in some places so common, that the patient can 

 hardly claim the privileges of sickness. In some few places, half the people are said to have 

 agues. Many large districts, however, are entirely free from them, and they are everywhere 

 becoming less. The great remedies used are bark and calomel. The diseases, Iiow'ever, 

 are so regular, that most families have some book of doinestic medicine, to which they trust 

 in common cases. " Indian Doctors " are esteemed by the more ignorant people ; these 

 practise generally in the herbs, used or represented to be used by the Indians. They are 

 " Faith Doctors," also, who receive their title from the perfect confidence which they require 

 in the patient, to some mysterious medicine. 



16. Traveling. The people of the West, like those of the East, are distinguished for their 

 propensity to travel. Their country is intersected with navigable streams, so that the farmer's 

 best market is at New Orleans, distant thousands of miles, and there are very few people of 

 substance who have not been there. An Englishman resident In the West remarks, that peo- 

 ple here think less of a journey of 3,000 miles, than men do of 300 in England. Conceptions 

 of space and distance are on no ordinary scale, though with respect to facility of communica- 

 tion, Pittsburg is as near to New Orleans as Edinburgh to London. The people are therefore 

 well acquainted with various parts of their own section of country. 



There are lines of stagecoaches, though less commodious than in the East ; but general!}-, 

 the traveling on land is on horseback, as the roads are too rough for comfortable motion in car- 

 riages. The traveler has an oiled cover for his hat, a portmanteau, and umbrella, and thus ap- 

 pointed, even ladles travel thousands of miles. The rivers, however, are the great natural 

 roads, and on these there is a choice of every water conveyance ever invented, and of many 

 which have never received a name.* There are the rude, shapeless masses, that denote the 



* River Distances in the West. We copy, from the 

 Wheeling Times, the following useful and convenient table, 

 showing the distances from each other of the places named, 

 and from Wheeling, with the prices of passage. It is pro- 

 per to observe, that these are the established rates, but that 

 some boats charge less, the prices depending in some de- 

 gree upon the number of boats in port, and the abundance 

 or scarcity of passengers: 



Up the Rieer. 



Wheeling to Wellsburg, Va. 

 Steubenville, Ohio .... 

 Wellsville . ... 

 Beaver, Penn. .... 

 Pittsburg ..... 



Down the River. 

 Marietta, Ohio .... 

 Parkeisburg, Va. 



Point Pleasant .... 

 Galliapolis, Ohio . 

 Guyandotte, Va. .... 

 Portsmouth, Ohio 

 Mavsville, Ky. 



Ripley, Ohio .... 

 Cincinnati ..... 

 Port William , mouth of Kentucky 

 Madison, Indiana .... 



Miles. 



I'are. 



1(5 





.ifi 0.75 



7 



23 



i.on 



20 



43 



1.50 



26 



69 



2.50 



27 



96 



3.00 



82 





2.50 



10 



92 



2.50 



78 



170 



5.00 



3 



173 



5.00 



37 



210 



6.00 



50 



260 



7.00 



47 



307 



8.00 



12 



319 



9.00 



46 



355 



10.00 



79 



434 



11.00 



13 



447 



11.00 



Westport, Ky 



Louisville 



Rome, Indiana . . . . 



Troy 



Yellow Banks, Ky. . 



Evansville, Indiana 



Henderson, Ky. . . . . 



Shawneetown, 111. . 



Smithland, mouth of Cumberland 



Mouth of Ohio 



New Madrid, Mo. 



Memphis, Tenn. 



Helena, Ark. Ter. 



Vicksburg, Mi,ss. 



Natchez . . . . . 

 New Orleans, La. . 



Miles. 

 20 407 



20 

 100 

 35 

 25 

 40 

 12 

 53 

 63 

 66 

 75 

 150 

 85 

 307 



no 



300 



487 

 5.'<7 

 622 

 647 

 G87 

 6; 19 

 752 

 815 

 881 

 956 

 1,100 

 1,191 

 1,498 

 1.608 

 1 ,908 



Fare. 



12.00 



12.0(1 



15.00 



15. 00 



15.00 



18 00 



18 00 



18.00 



If.OO 



2f).00 



22.00 



25 00 



20 00 



,^0.110 



30.00 



35.00 



The above prices of passage include boarding. The 

 prices of deck passage are about one fourth of these, the 

 passengers finding themselves. Thus, to Louisville, the 

 deck passage is #3, cabin, $12; to New Orleans, deck, 

 jji 8, cabin, $-3,5. The deck is covered, and contains berths, 

 but it is a very undesirable way of traveling. The pas- 

 sage to Louisville is generally jicrformed in two days and 

 a half, and to New Orleans in from eight to ten ; return 

 ing, nearly double this time. The ordinary speed of the 

 boats is 12 miles an hour down the river, and 6 up. 



