Ixxii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
ing left the coacli several miles below. These high ranges continued 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 fiat, and looks like a collection of 
blacksmith's sh-ops, glasshouses, breweries, Ibrges and furnaces, the Monon- 
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. 
" Gentlemen here assure me that the road to Chilicothe 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 
Chilicothe, 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. 
