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tions on the left bank, of which one was called Chalk Bank, the 
other Iron Bank. About one o’clock in the afternoon we found 
ourselves opposite the mouth of the Ohio river. The river is 
here very broad, and both streams with their low banks, grown 
thick with wood, puts one in mind of the Mecklenburg lakes. 
The Western Navigator says, in a note concerning the Ohio: 
“ The Ohio arises from the junction of the Alleghany with 
the Monongahela at Pittsburgh, the first is about three hundred 
and seventy, the latter near five hundred yards broad at their 
mouths. After a west-south-westerly course of nine hundred 
and fifty-two miles the Ohio empties itself into the Mississippi 
about in the degree of north latitude thirty-seven. It changes 
its breadth from four hundred to fourteen hundred yards. At 
Cincinnati it is eight hundred and forty-seven yards wide, which 
may be considered its medium. Its course is gentle, not broken by 
falls or rapids, except at. Louisville. It is inferior to few streams 
in the convenience of communication from one part to the other, 
especially if the operation of canaling the falls, and erecting 
of locks, which has long been contemplated, be carried through 
with success. The height of the falls is estimated at twenty-two 
and a half feet, the length of the descent two miles. The greatest 
extremes of falling in the height of the river, are between Pitts¬ 
burgh and the Mississippi; they lessen as the river is descended, 
and the medium height is from twenty-five to thirty feet. At 
the lowest state of water, the river is fordable in many places 
above the falls. 
The mouth of the Ohio is nine hundred and seventy-seven 
miles from New Orleans, and one hundred and seventy-three 
from St. Louis. Two steam-boats, the Friendship and Philadel¬ 
phia, which had remained near us all the way from New Orleans, 
here left us, and ascended the Ohio. The Mississippi continues 
still very broad above the Ohio, and contains many islands. 
From the mouth of the Ohio, the left shore of the river belongs 
to the state of Illinois, the right, as already observed, to the 
state of Missouri. The banks of the Mississippi begin to be 
something higher, and at times still more rocky. We stopt at 
a couple of solitary houses on the right bank for wood. During 
this halt I went into the wood lying back, to walk, and remarked 
several sycamores of an uncommon height and stoutness; I be¬ 
lieve I can affirm that one of them was twenty feet in circum¬ 
ference. We observed from the cooler air, and the less preco¬ 
cious vegetation, that we were again in a more northern climate. 
A few of the trees were in leaf, others were blossoming, which 
in New Orleans, occurred six weeks ago. Near the dwellings were 
large orchards, in which the apple-tree was in blossom. On the 
