76 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: 
home by land. Now, if the passage from the 
Ohio to the Patowmac is opened, it cannot bo 
supposed that the people in Pittsburgh and the 
vicinity will continue thus to send the produce 
down to Orleans, from whence they cannot 
bring any thing* in return ; they will naturally 
send to the federal city, from whence they can 
draw the supplies they are in want of, and 
which is so much nearer to them, that when 
the navigation is perfected it will be possible 
to go there and back again in the same time 
that it requires merely to go down to New 
Orleans. 
But although the people of that country 
which borders upon the Ohio and its waters, 
in the vicinage of Pittsburgh, may have an iiir 
terest in trading to the federal city, yet those * 
who live towards the mouth of that river will 
find an interest equally great in trading to New 
Orleans, for the Ohio River is no less than 
eleven hundred and eighty-three miles in length. 
How far down upon the Ohio a commercial 
intercourse will be kept up with the city, will 
most probably be determined-by other cir¬ 
cumstances than that of distance alone : it may 
depend upon the demand there may he at one 
or other port for particular articles, &c. &c.; 
it may also depend upon the season ; for at re¬ 
gular periods there are floods in the Missis¬ 
sippi, and also in the Ohio, which make a 
