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into Lake Erie. Between Lake Superior and its waters and Huron are the rapids of St. Mary, which will permit boats to pass, but not larger veffels. Lakes Huron and Michigan afford communication with Lake Erie by veffels of eight feet draught. That part of the trade which comes from the waters of the Miffiffippi mult pafs from them through fome portage into the waters of the lakes. The portage from the Illinois river into a water of Michigan is of one mile only. From the Wabash, Miami, Mufkingum, or Allegany, are portages into the waters of Lake Erie, of from one to fifteen miles. When the commodities are brought into, and have paffed through Lake Erie, there is between that and Ontario an interruption by the falls of Niagara, where the portage is of eight miles; and between Ontario and the Hudson's river are portages of the falls of Onondago, a little above Ofwego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood creek to the Mohawks river two miles; at the little falls of the Mohawks river half a mile, and from Schenectady to Albany fixteen miles. Befides the increase of expence occafioned by frequent change of carriage, there is an increafed risk of pillage produced by committing merchandize to a greater number of hands fucceffively. The Patomak offers itself under the following circumftances. For the trade of the lakes and their waters weftward of Lake Erie, when it fhall have entered that lake, it must coast along its fouthern fhore, on account of the number and excellence of its harbours, the northern, though shortest, having few harbours, and these unsafe. Having reached Cayahoga, to proceed to New-York it will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles, and five portages: whereas it is but four hundred and twenty-five miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the Patomak, if it turns into the Cayahoga, and paffes through that, Bigbeaver, Ohio, Yohoganey, (or Monongalia and Cheat and Patomak, and there are but two portages; the first of which between Cayahoga and Beaver may be removed by uniting the fources of these waters, which are lakes in the neighbourhood of each other, and in a champaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to Patomak will be from fifteen to forty miles, according to the trouble which shall be taken to approach the two navigations. For the trade of the Ohio, or that which fhall come into it from its own waters or the Miffiffippi, it is nearer through the Patomak to Alexandria than to New-York by five hundred and eighty miles, and it is interrupted by one portage only. There is another circumftance of difference too. The lakes themselves never freeze, but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudfon's river is itself fhut up by the ice three months in the year: whereas the channel to the Chefapeek leads directly into a warmer climate. The fouthern parts of it very. rarely freeze at all, and whenever the northern do, it is fo near the fources of the rivers, that the frequent floods to which they are there liable break up the ice immediately, fo that veffels may pass through the whole winter, fubject only to accidental and fhort delays. Add to all this, that in cafe of a war with our neighbours the Anglo-Americans or the Indians, the route to New-York becomes a frontier through almost its whole length, and all commerce through it ceafes from that moment.-But the channel to New York is already known to practife; whereas the upper waters of the Ohio and the Patomak, and the great falls of the latter, are yet to be cleared of their fixed obftructions.

Particular

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Particular defcriptions of the other rivers in the United States, are referved to be given in the geographical account of the states, through which they refpectively flow. One general obfervation refpecting the rivers will, however, be naturally introduced here, and that is, that the entrances into almost all the rivers, inlets and bays, from New-Hampshire to Georgia, are from fourh-eaft to north-west.

Bays.] The coaft of the United States is indented with numerous bays, fome of which are equal in fize to any in the known world. Beginning at the north-eafterly part of the continent, and proceeding fouth-wefterly, 7, you firft find the bay or gulf of St. Lawrence, which receives the waters of the river of the fame name. Next is Chebukto Bay, in NovaScotia, diftinguished by the loss of a French fleet in a former war between France and Great-Britain. The Bay of Fundy, between Nova-Scotia and New-England, is remarkable for its tides, which rife to the height of fifty or fixty feet, and flow fo rapidly as to overtake animals which feed upon the fhore. Penobscot, Broad and Cafco Bays, lie along the coaft of the province of Main. Maffachufett's-Bay fpreads eastward of Bofton, and is comprehended between Cape Ann on the north, and Cape Cod on the fouth. The points of the harbour are Nahant and Alderton points. Paffing by Narraganfet and other bays in the flate of RhodeIlland, you enter Long-Ifland Sound, between Montauk-point and the Main. This Sound, as it is called, is a kind of inland fea, from three to twentyfive miles broad, and about one hundred and forty miles long, extending the whole length of the island, and dividing it from Connecticut. It communicates with the ocean at both ends of Long-Ifland, and affords a very safe and convenient inland navigation.

The celebrated ftrait, called Hell-Gate, is near the weft end of this found, about eight miles eastward of New-York city, and is remarkable for its whirlpools, which make a tremendous roaring at certain times of tide. These whirlpools are occafioned by the narrownefs and crookedness of the pass, and a bed of rocks which extend quite across it; and not by the meeting of the tides from east to west, as has been conjectured, because they meet at Frogs-point, feveral miles above. A fkilful pilot may with safety conduct a fhip of any burden through this ftrait with the tide, or at ftill water with a fair wind.

Delaware Bay is fixty miles long, from the Cape to the entrance of the river Delaware at Bombay-hook; and fo wide in fome parts, as that a ship, in the middle of it, cannot be feen from the land. It opens into the Atlantic north-weft and fouth-eaft, between Cape Henlopen on the right, and Cape May on the left. Thefe Capes are eighteen miles apart.

The Chefapeek is one of the largest bays in the known world. Its entrance is between Cape Charles and Cape Henry in Virginia, twelve miles wide, and it extends two hundred and feventy miles to the northward, dividing Virginia and Maryland. It is from seven to eighteen miles broad, and generally as much as nine fathoms deep; affording many commodious harbours, and a safe and easy navigation. It receives the waters of the Sufquehannah, Patomak, Rappahannok, York and James rivers, which are all large and navigable.

Face

Face of the Country.] The tract of country belonging to the United States, is happily variegated with plains and mountains, hills and vallies. Some parts are rocky, particularly New-England, the north parts of New-York, and New.Jerfey, and a broad fpace, including the feveral ridges of the long range of mountains which run fouth-westward through Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and part of Georgia, dividing the waters which flow into the Atlantic, from those which fall into the Miffiffippi. In the parts eaft of the Allegany mountains, in the fouthern ftates, the country for several hundred miles in length, and fixty or feventy, and sometimes more, in breadth, is level, and entirely free of ftone. It has been a question agitated by the curious, whether the extenfive tract of low, flat country, which fronts the several states south of New-York, and extends back to the hills, has remained in its prefent form and fituation ever fince the flood: or whether it has been made by the particles of earth which have been washed down from the adjacent mountains, and by the accumulation of foil from the decay of vegetable fubftances; or by earth washed out of the bay of Mexico by the gulf fream, and lodged on the coaft; or by the recefs of the ocean, occafioned by a change in fome other part of the earth. Several phænomena deserve confideration in forming an opinion on this question.

1. It is a fact, well known to every person of observation who has lived in, or travelled through the fouthern ftates, that marine fhells and other fubftances which are peculiar to the fea-fhore, are almoft invariably found by digging eighteen or twenty feet below the furface of the earth. A gentleman of veracity told me, that in finking a well many miles from the fea, he found, at the depth of twenty feet, every appearance of a falt marsh, that is, marsh grass, marfh mud, and brackish water. In all this flat country until you come to the hilly land, wherever you dig a well, find the water, at a certain depth, fresh and tolerably good; but if you exceed that depth two or three feet, you come to a faltish or brackish water that is scarcely drinkable, and the earth dug up, refembles, in appearance and fmell, that which is dug up on the edges of the falt marshes.

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2. On and near the margin of the rivers are frequently found fand hills, which appear to have been drifted into ridges by the force of water. At the bottom of fome of the banks in the rivers, fifteen or twenty feet below the furface of the earth, are washed out from the folid ground, logs, branches, and leaves of trees; and the whole bank, from bottom to top, appears ftreaked with layers of logs, leaves and fand. These appearances are seen far up the rivers, from eighty to one hundred miles from the sea, where, when the rivers are low, the banks are from fifteen to twenty feet high. As you proceed down the rivers toward the fea, the banks decrease in height, but ftill are formed layers of fand, leaves and logs, fome of which are entirely found, and appear to have been fuddenly covered to a confiderable depth.

3. It has been obferved, that the rivers in the fouthern States frequently vary their channels; that the fwamps and low grounds are conftantly filling up; and that the land in many places annually infringes upon the ocean. It is an authenticated fact, that no longer ago than 1771, at Cape Lookout on the coaft of North-Carolina, in about latitude 34 50', there was an excellent harbour, capacious enough to receive an

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hundred fail of shipping at a time, in a good depth of water. entirely filled up, and is folid ground. Inftances of this kind are frequent along the coaft.

It is obfervable, likewife, that there is a gradual defcent of about eight hundred feet, by measurement, from the foot of the mountains to the fea board. This defcent continues, as is demonftrated by foundings, far into the fea.

IV. It is worthy of obfervation, that the foil on the banks of the rivers is proportionably coarfe or fine according to its diftance from the mountains. When you first leave the mountains, and for a confiderable distance, it is obfervable that the foil is coarse, with a large mixture of fand and shining heavy particles. As you proceed towards the fea, the foil is lefs coarse, and so on in proportion as you advance the foil is finer and finer, until, finally, is depofited a foil fo fine, that it confolidates into perfect clay; but a clay of a particular quality, for a great part of it has intermixed with it reddish ftreaks and veins like a fpecies of ochre, brought probably from the red lands which lie up towards the mountains. This clay, when dug up and exposed to the weather, will diffolve into a fine mould without the leaft mixture of fand or any gritty substance whatever.. Now we know that running waters, when turbid, will depofit, first, the coarseft and heavieft particles, mediately, thofe of the feveral intermediate degrees of fineness, and ultimately, those which are the most light and fubtle; and fuch in fact is the general quality of the foil on the banks of the fouthern rivers.

V. It is a well known fact, that on the banks of Savannah river, about ninety miles from the fea in a direct line, and one hundred and fifty or two hundred as the river runs, there is a very remarkable collection of oyster shells of an uncommon fize. They run in a north-east and fouthweft direction, nearly parallel with the fea-coaft, in three distinct ridges, which together occupy a space of feven miles in breadth. The ridges commence at Savannah river, and have been traced as far as fouth as the northern branches of the Altamaha river. They are found in fuch quantities, as that the indigo planters carry them away' in large boat loads, for the purpose of making lime water, to be used in the manufacture of indigo. There are thousands and thousands of tons ftill remaining. The queftion is, how came they here? It cannot be fuppofed that they were carried by land. Neither is it probable that they were conveyed in canoes, or boats, to fuch a distance from the place where oyfters are now found. The uncivilized natives, agreeably to their roving manner of living, would rather have removed to the fea fhore, than have been at such immense labour in procuring oyfters. Befides, the difficulties of conveying them. would have been infurmountable. They would not only have had a strong current in the river overcome by the Indians, who have ever had a great averfion to labour, but could they have furmounted this difficulty, oyiters, conveyed fuch a distance either by land or water in fo warm a climate, would have spoiled on the paffage, and have become ufelefs. The circumftance of thefe fhells being found in fuch quantities, at fo great a diftance from the sea, can be rationally accounted for in no other way, than by fuppofing that the sea shore was formerly near this bed of fhells, and E

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that the ocean has fince, by the operation of certain caufes not yet fully inveftigated, receded. These phænomena, it is prefumed, will authorize this conclufion, That a great part of the flat country which spreads eafterly of the Allegany mountains, had, in fome paft period, a fuperincumbent fea; or rather that the conftant accretion of foil from the various caufes before hinted at, has forced it to retire.

Mountains.] The tract of country east of Hudson's river, comprehending part of the State of New-York, the four New-England States, andVermont, is rough, hilly, and in fome parts mountainous; but the mountains are comparatively small, in few inftances more than five or fix hundred yards in height, and generally lefs. Thefe mountains will be more particularly defcribed under New-England. In all parts of the world, and particularly on this western continent, it is obfervable, that as you depart from the ocean, or from a river, the land gradually rifes; and the height of land, in common, is about equally diftant from the water on either fide. The Andes in South-America form the height of land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

That range of mountains, of which the Shining mountains are a part, begins at Mexico, and continuing northward on the caft of California, feparates the waters of thofe numerous rivers that fall into the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of California. Thence continuing their course still northward, between the fources of the Miffiffippi and the rivers that run into the South-Sea, they appear to end in about 47 or 48 degrees of north latitude; where a number of rivers rife, and empty themselves either into the South Sea, into Hudfon's Bay, or into the waters that communicate between these two seas.

The Highlands between the Province of Main and the Province of Quebec, divide the rivers which fall into the St. Lawrence north, and into the Atlantic fouth. The Green Mountains, in Vermont, divide the waters which flow easterly into Connecticut river, from those which fall wefterly into Lake Champlain and Hudfon's River.

Between the Atlantic, the Miffiffippi, and the Lakes, runs a long range of mountains, made up of a great number of ridges. Thefe mountains extend north-easterly and fouth-wefterly, nearly parallel with the fea coast, about nine hundred miles in length, and from fixty to one hundred and fifty, and two hundred miles in breadth. Mr. Evans obferves, with refpect to that part of these mountains which he travelled over, viz. in the back parts of Pennfylvania, that fcarcely one acre in ten is capable of culture. This, however, is not the cafe in all parts of this range. Numerous tracts of fine arable and grazing land intervene between the ridges. The different ridges which compofe this immenfe range of mountains, have different names in different States.

As you advance from the Atlantic, the firft ridge in Pennfylvania, Virginia, and North-Carolina, is the Blue Ridge or South Mountain; which is from one hundred and thirty, to two hundred miles from the fea. This is about four thousand feet high, measuring from its base. Between this and the North Mountain, fpreads a large fertile vale; next lies the Allegany ridge; next beyond this is the Long Ride, called the Laurel Mountains, in a fpur of which, about latitude 36°, is a fpring of water, fifty feet deep, very cold, and as blue as indigo. From these several ridges proceed

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