ALEXANDER WILSON. 
lxxi 
alternately washes the steep declivity on one side, and leaves a 
rich, 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 December, 1808. 
“ I now stripped with alacrity to my new avocation. The current 
went about two and a half miles an hour, and I added about three 
and a half miles more to the boat’s way with my oars. In the 
course of the day, I passed a number of arks, or, as they are 
usually called, Kentucky boats, loaded with what it must be 
acknowledged are the most valuable commodities of a country ; 
viz. men, women, and children, horses and ploughs, flour, mill- 
stones, &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 those arks, 
and felt much interested at the sight of so many human beings 
migrating, like birds of passage, to the luxuriant regions 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. 
“ 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 hundred 
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, 
Muskingum, Sciota, Miami, Kentucky, Wabash, &c, in the months 
of March, April, and May, particularly with goods, produce, and 
emigrants, the two former for markets along the river, or at New 
Orleans, the latter for various parts of Kentucky, Ohio, and the 
Indiana territory. I now return to my own expedition : 
“ I rowed twenty odd miles the first spell, and found Tshould 
be able to stand it perfectly well. About an hour after night, I 
put up at a miserable cabin, fifty-two miles from Pittsburgh, where 
