O II I O. 433 
dant, but inexhauftible, from Pitflbufgh many miles 
down the river. Boles and pigments are found on the 
banks of the rivers: clay fuitable for pottery and bricks 
is abundant. On the banks of the Ohio are fine marca- 
frtes, fometimes called thunder-ftones; thefe are black, 
iefs ponderous than coal, and yet capable of giving fire 
when (truck againft fteel. Their compofition is irregu¬ 
larly foliaceous; in the fire they yield a blue fulphurous 
flame, and calcine into a purple powder. The natives 
ufe them in curing, or rather bleaching, leather. The 
prevailing growth of timber, and the more ufeful trees, 
are maple and fugar trees, fycamore, black and white mul¬ 
berry, fome of which are of a very large fize, black and 
white walnut, chefnut; various forts of oak, hickory, 
cherry, buck-wood, or horfe-chefnut, honey-locuft, elm, 
cucumber-tree, lynn-tree, gum-tree, iron-wood,alh, afpin, 
faffafras, crab-apple tree, papaw orcuftard-apple, a variety 
of plum-trees, nine-bark-fpice, and leather-wood bufiies. 
Both the high and low lands produce great quantities of 
various kinds of grapes, from which the fettlers fupply 
their own confumption with rich red wine. Hops grow 
fpontaneoufly. The (ugar-maple is the moft valuable tree 
for an inland country. One tree will yield on an average 
about four pounds of fugar a-year, and the labour is 
trifling. The fap is extracted in the months of February 
and March, and granulated, by the Ample operation of 
boiling, to a fugar equal in flavour and whitenefs to the 
bed: mufcovado. Springs of excellent water abound in 
every part of the territory ; and (mall as well as large 
itreams for mills and other purpofes are interfperfed ; but, 
as there is little fall in the dreams, they fail in dry fea- 
fons; and good mill-feats are fcar'ce. The fwamps may 
be eafily drained, and converted into arable and meadow 
land ; and the hills, though frequent, are gentle and 
(welling ; the foil is deep and rich, covered with a heavy 
growth of timber, no-where incapable of tillage, and 
well adapted to the production of wheat, rye, indigo, 
tobacco, &c. In this (fate, the orchard and garden fruit- 
trees thrive furprifingly; the peach-trees bear abundantly, 
and the fruit is fuperior in fize, beauty, and flavour, to 
any that is raifed in the northern dates. The produc¬ 
tions of the fields, in general, are wheat, oats, barley, 
rye, Indian-corn, hemp, flax, and cotton. The gardens 
yield all the culinary plants in perfection. Melons grow' 
to a large fize, and ripen into deliciotifnefs. Over the 
furface of the ground and in the extended forefts grows 
a natural herbage, in great abundance, on which cattle 
are found to thrive remarkably well. This country alfo 
affords ample gratification to the curious botanift in his 
refearches for new, rare, and curious, plants. 
The climate in this date is exceedingly mild and agree¬ 
able. The winter commences at the foldice, and lads 
about two months. The fnow does not lie upon the 
ground for more than three days. It feldom freezes for 
more than five or fix days fucceflively, at which time the 
furface of the dagnant waters and of the fmaller dreams 
is congealed. The winds in winter are very variable; 
and the fevered cold attends the north-weft wind. In 
January are many fine days, a pure ferene air, and clear 
funfhine, with foutherly and fouth-wefterly winds. The 
fpring is attended with rains and cloudy weather, with 
fouth and foutherly winds. In the latter end of April 
the feafon is in its flowery prime. During the fummer 
the heats increafe, tempered at night by refrefliing breezes 
up the river. There are frequent fhowers with thunder. 
The autumn is diftinguifhed by ferene and fine weather ; 
but at the autumnal equinox the rains begin, with cold 
winds from the north-eaft round to the north-weft. The 
faiubrity of the climate is equal to that of any part of the 
United States; though on fome of the low and wet grounds 
fever and ague are prevalent. The diftance of ioo miles 
north or fouth makes a great difference in the tempera¬ 
ture of the air. Near the river Sandufky the cold is much 
snore fevere, with a greater quantity of fnow, than on 
Vol. XVII. No. 1188. 
the Mufkingum ; and on the Scioto fnow hardly ever 
remains on the ground. The weather alfo. varies confi- 
derably on the eaft and weft fide of the Alleghany 
Mountains. All ftorms of thunder and lightning rile 
either with fouth-weft: or north-welt winds; but in 
Pen-nfylvania the north-weft wind brings fine and clear 
weather. 
The exports from this country confift of flour, corn, 
hemp, flax, cotton, beef, pork, fmoked hams, venifon, 
whifkey, peach-brandy, oak-ftaves, lumber, &c. raw and 
tanned hides, and peltry. Ship-building has lately com¬ 
menced, and is likely to increafe with advantage to the 
country. See Pittsburgh. 
No country was originally better flocked with wild 
game of every kind than this. Innumerable herds of 
deer and wild cattle were flieltered in the groves, and fed 
in the extenfivelow grounds that abound here. Turkeys, 
geefe, ducks, fwans, teal, pheafants, partridges, &c. were 
within a few years paft very plentiful; but, on the ap¬ 
proach of fettlers, buffaloes difappear. Geefe and fwans 
are now feldom killed ; ducks are not plentiful. Bears, 
deer, and turkeys, are now the principal game. At the 
falls of the Ohio, geefe and fwans are found in great 
plenty. The river's abound with various kinds of fifti, 
which are generally large, and of excellent quality. 
Among the curious antiquities of this country, we may 
mention its forts, which are moftly of an oblong form, 
(ituated on well chofen ground, and contiguous to water. 
They are very ancient, and it is fuppofed that they were 
conftrufted a thoufand years ago; but for what purpofe, 
and by whom, are queftions of (peculation and refearch. 
At a convenient diftance from thefe are tumuli or mounds 
of earth, fomewhat refembling the barrows of other coun¬ 
tries ; and which have been found to contain a chalky 
fubftance, fuppofed to be bones, and of the human kind. 
Other works have been difcovered ninety miles from Ma¬ 
rietta, on one of the weftern branches of the Mulkingum, 
extending near two miles, the ramparts of which are now 
in fome places more than eighteen feet in perpendicular 
height. Thefe elevated mounds, fquares, and forts, re- 
femble thofe of Mexico, and it has been fuggefted that 
they have the lame origin; and they have been afcribed 
to a people the moft ancient of which there is any account 
in that part of the world, called by Clavigero the Tolteeas . 
See the article Mexico, vol. xv. p. 279, 80. 
Other curiofities of this country, are the caves of arti¬ 
ficial conftruftion found on the bank of the Ohio ; in one 
of which, called by the Indians “ The Habitation of the 
Great Spirit,” are found infcriptions, names of perfons, 
dates, &c. Among the natural curiofities of this countrv 
we might alfo mention the Prairies, which are immenle 
plains of different forts, occafioned either by the exficcation 
of lakes or vaft moraffes, or by the abforption of the rains 
that fall upon them, and which refemble the Steppes in 
the upper parts of Ruflia and Siberia. There .are alfo 
found open cleared fpots on the fummits of hills, called 
“ Buffaloe-beats,” becaufe they are fuppofed to have been 
occafioned by the refort of thefe animals thither in fly- 
time. The “ falt-licks” are alfo among the natural cu¬ 
riofities of this country. An oil-fpring alfo has been dif¬ 
covered a few miles fouth-weft of VVoodfville, in this ftate, 
on the north-eaft branch of Duck-Creek, in lat. 3S. 39. 
It is a well, three feet over at top, forty-two feet deep ; 
the oil boils up, and runs into the creek; the oil is three 
feet deep ; underneath, the water is perfectly fait. The 
oil is extremely pure, like lperm-oil as it is called, and 
in fmell refembles Britilh oil. It was difcovered about 
the middle of June, 1818. 
At Athens, in the diftrift of Middletown, is the “ Ohio 
Univerlity,” eftablilhed by an ait parted on the 12th of 
December, 1801. This inftitution is endowed with 4.6,000 
acres of land, within which the town of Athens, on the 
Hockhocking-river, forty miles by water from the Ohio, 
is pleafantly (ituated. The corporation conlifts of the 
5 S governor 
