CXIV 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
had collected heaps of broken shells, and wrought them up 
among clay, then hardened it into stone. These rocks lie uni- 
versally 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 un- 
known series of ages, the river Ohio has gradually sunk seve- 
ral 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 over- 
flowed. 
“ The town of Cincinnati occupies two beautiful plains, one 
on the first, and the other on the second bank, and contains up- 
wards 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 extraordinary 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 
Doctor Drake, who showed me the collection of curiosities 
which he had found in that and others. In the centre of this 
mound he also found a large fragment of earthen ware, such as 
I found at the Big Grave, which is a pretty strong proof that 
these works had been erected by a people, if not the same, dif- 
fering little from the present race of Indians, whose fragments 
of earthen ware, dug up about their late towns, correspond ex- 
actly with these. Twenty miles below this I passed the mouth 
of the Great Miami, which rushes in from the north, and is a 
large and stately river, preserving its pure waters uncontami- 
nated for many miles with those of the Ohio, each keeping 
