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 tJicm aft'ectionately until I forget mijself. 
" 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!" 
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 flivorable 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 receded, 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. 
