LIFE OF WILSON. 
CXIX 
knowledged are the most valuable commodities of a country ; viz. 
men, women and children, horses and ploughs, flour, millstones, &c. 
Several of these floating caravans were loaded with store goods for 
the supply of the settlements through which they passed, having a 
counter erected, shawls, muslins, &c. displayed, and every thing 
ready for transacting business. On approaching a settlement they 
blow a horn or tin trumpet, which announces to the inhabitants 
their arrival. I boarded many of these arks, and felt much inter- 
ested at the sight of so many human beings migrating like birds 
of passage to the luxuriant I'egions of the south and west. The 
arks are built in the form of a parallelogram, being from twelve 
to fourteen feet wide, and from forty to seventy feet long, covered 
above, rowed only occasionally by two oars before, and steered by 
a long and powerful one fixed above, as in the annexed sketch. 
Barge for passing up stream. 
The barges are taken up along shore by setting poles at the 
rate of twenty miles or so a day ; the arks cost about one bundled 
and fifty cents per foot, according to their length, and when they 
reach their places of destination, seldom bring more than one-sixth 
their original cost. These arks descend from all parts of the Ohio 
and its tributary streams, the Alleghany, Monongahela, Muskin- 
gum, Sciota, Miami, Kentucky, Wabash, &c. in the months of 
March, April, and May particularly, with goods, produce and emi- 
grants, the two former for markets along the river, oi at Newoi- 
leans, the latter for various parts of Kentucky, Ohio, and the Indi- 
ana Territory. I now return to my own expedition. I rowed 
twenty odd miles the first spell, and found I should be able to stand 
it perfectly well. About an hour after night I put up at a misera- 
ble cabin, fifty-two miles from Pittsburg, where I slept on what I 
