A Book of the United States. Various
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is an Indian appellation, signifying ‘the beautiful river.’ This epithet is not bestowed upon it for the whole of its course, but commences at the confluence of the two principal streams, at Pittsburg; above the junction it is called the Alleghany. The remotest source of the Alleghany is in the state of Pennsylvania, in north latitude forty-one degrees and forty-five minutes, and west longitude seventy-eight degrees. It is composed of two small streams. At Pittsburg, the Alleghany being joined by the Monongahela, the confluent stream receives the appellation of the Ohio. The Monongahela is formed by the confluence of two streams, both rising from the Alleghany chain, in the north-west angle of Virginia, and running parallel to each other for sixty miles in a direct line. The absolute course of the Monongahela is more than two hundred miles, but not above one hundred and thirty in a direct line from south to north. It seems a larger and deeper stream at Pittsburg than the Alleghany, which in the dry season has not above seven feet water where deepest. The waters of the Alleghany are always clear and limpid, while those of the Monongahela, on the contrary, become muddy and turbid, whenever there are a few days of successive rain in that part of the Alleghany Mountains where it rises. Each of the streams is four hundred yards wide at the conflux; and after the junction, the united stream is more enlarged in depth than in breadth.
The Ohio, formed by the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany, appears to be rather a continuation of the former than the latter, which arrives at the confluence in an oblique direction. From Pittsburg to the mouth of the Ohio is one thousand and thirty-three miles by the course of the stream. It receives a vast number of tributary streams on both sides, in its progress to the Mississippi. For the space of three hundred miles below Pittsburg, the Ohio runs between two ridges of hills, rising from three hundred to four hundred feet in height. These appear frequently undulated at their summits, but at other times seem to be perfectly level. They sometimes recede, and sometimes approach the banks of the river, and have their direction parallel to that of the Alleghany chain. These ridges gradually recede farther down the river, till they disappear from the view of those who descend the Ohio. It is not till this river has burst its passage through a transverse chain, at the rapids, near Louisville, that it rolls its waters, through a level and expanded country, as far as the Mississippi. The general appearance of the river is beautiful, placid, gentle and transparent, except in the times of high water. There are two seasons of periodical inundations; namely, winter and spring. According to some, the vernal inundations of this river commence in the latter end of March, and subside in July; and, according to others, they commence early in February, and subside in May. It must be observed, however, that this period is forwarded or retarded as the rivers thaw sooner or later, which may reconcile these apparently discordant statements.
The Ohio is then swelled to a prodigious height, varying in different places, as it is more or less expanded in breadth. It is a favorable circumstance for the country in the upper course of the Ohio, that it has very high and steep banks; having gradually hollowed out for itself a deep and comparatively narrower bed, being, like all its southern tributary streams, inclosed as it were in a groove between them, which prevents the general level of the land from being overflowed for many miles, and thereby rendered marshy and unwholesome, as in the lower Missouri, and in the lower part of the Ohio. Yet high as these banks are, the Ohio is both a dangerous and troublesome neighbor to the towns which are not sufficiently far removed from them. That part of the town of Marietta situated at the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio, though elevated forty-five feet above the ordinary level of the stream, has been twice inundated, and consequently abandoned by the inhabitants. The town of Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Great Sciota, and two hundred and eighteen miles below Marietta by water, though elevated sixty feet above the usual surface of the river, is also subjected to the same misfortune, which has materially affected the prosperity of the place. At Cincinnati, the breadth of the river is five hundred and thirty-five yards, and the banks fifty feet in perpendicular height, yet these are annually overflowed. The winter floods commence in the middle of October, and continue to the latter end of December. Sometimes, in the course of the summer, abundant rains fall among the Alleghany Mountains, by which the Ohio is suddenly raised, but such occurrences are rare. In the times of these two periodical floods, which taken together last for near half the year, ships drawing twelve feet water may sail with perfect ease from Pittsburg to New Orleans, a distance of near two thousand and two hundred miles. In these seasons the passage to the falls may be accomplished in nine or ten days, but it is generally effected in twelve days. The difficulty of navigating the Ohio during the dry season, is only confined to the upper part of its course, or between Pittsburg and Limestone, a space of four hundred and twenty-five miles by water; and this, not so much owing to the shallowness of the stream, as to its being divided by islands; for the depth of the Monongahela branch of the Ohio alone, at Pittsburg, is twelve feet. Michaux counted no less than fifty of these islands in the distance of three hundred and ninety miles; some of them only containing a few acres, and others exceeding a mile in length.
The Tennessee rises in the Alleghany Mountains, traverses East Tennessee, and almost the whole northern limit of Alabama, re-enters Tennessee, and crosses almost the whole width of it, into Kentucky, and passes into Ohio, fifty-seven miles above its junction with the Mississippi. It is near twelve hundred miles in length, and is the largest tributary of the Ohio. It has numerous branches, and is navigable for boats one thousand miles; most of the branches rise among the mountains, and are too shallow for navigation, except during the floods, which take place occasionally, at all seasons of the year, and admit flat boats to be floated down to the main stream.
The Muscle Shoals are about three hundred miles from its entrance into the Ohio. At this place the river spreads to the width of three miles, and forms a number of islands. The passage by boats is difficult and dangerous, except when the water is high.
From these shoals to the place called the Whirl or Suck, two hundred and fifty miles, the navigation all the way is excellent, to the Cumberland Mountain; where the river breaks through. This mountain is sometimes so steep, that even the Indians cannot ascend it on foot. In one place, particularly, near the summit of the mountain, there is a remarkable ledge of rocks, of about thirty miles in length, and two hundred feet high, with a perpendicular front facing the south-east, more noble and grand than any artificial fortification in the known world, and apparently equal in point of regularity. The Whirl, as it is called, is about latitude thirty-four degrees. It is considered a greater curiosity than the bursting of the river Potomac through the Blue Ridge.
The river, which above is half a mile wide, is here compressed to one hundred yards, or eighteen rods. Just at the entrance of the mountain, a large rock projects from the northern shore, in an oblique direction, which renders the channel still narrower. This causes a sudden bend, by which the waters are thrown with great force against the opposite shore. From thence they rebound about the point of the rock, and produce a whirl of eighty yards, or two hundred and forty feet in circumference. By the dexterity of the rowers, canoes drawn into this whirl have sometimes escaped without damage. In less than a mile below the whirl, the river spreads to its common width, down to Muscle Shoals; and thence runs in a regular and beautiful stream to its confluence with the Ohio.
The Wabash rises in the north-eastern part of Indiana, and flows south-westerly nearly across the state, when it turns to the south, and flows into the Ohio, forming towards its mouth the western boundary. Its length, from its mouth to its extreme source, exceeds five hundred miles. It is navigable for keel-boats, about four hundred miles, to Ouitanon, where there are rapids. From this village small boats can go within six miles of St. Mary’s river; ten of Fort Wayne; and eight of the St. Joseph’s of the Miami-of-the-lakes. Its current is gentle above Vincennes; below the town there are several rapids, but not of sufficient magnitude to prevent boats from ascending. The principal rapids are between Deche and White rivers, ten miles below Vincennes. White river and Tippecanoe river are branches of the Wabash.
The Cumberland rises in the Cumberland Mountains in Kentucky, and after a course of nearly two hundred miles in that state, passes into Tennessee, through which it makes a circuit of two hundred and fifty miles, when it re-enters Kentucky and falls into the Ohio, about fifty miles above the entrance of that river into the Mississippi. From the source of this river to its conflux with the Ohio, the distance in a direct line is three hundred miles, but by the course and windings of the stream, it is