this art to account by taking the ladies ashore, as we floated on with
our ark, and picked up specimens while they culled shrubs and flowers.
In this way, and by lending a ready hand at the "sweeps" and at the oars
whenever there was a pinch, I made myself agreeable. The worst thing we
encountered was rain, against which our rude carpentry was but a poor
defence. We landed at everything like a town, and bought milk, and eggs,
and butter. Sometimes the Seneca Indians were passed, coming up stream
in their immensely long pine canoes. There was perpetual novelty and
freshness in this mode of wayfaring. The scenery was most enchanting.
The river ran high, with a strong spring current, and the hills
frequently rose in most picturesque cliffs.

1818. I do not recollect the time consumed in this descent. We had gone
about three hundred miles, when we reached Pittsburgh. It was the 28th
of March when we landed at this place, which I remember because it was
my birthday. And I here bid adieu to the kind and excellent proprietor
of the ark, L. Pettiborne, Esq., who refused to receive any compensation
for my passage, saying, prettily, that he did not know how they could
have got along without me.

I stopped at one of the best hotels, kept by a Mrs. McCullough, and,
after visiting the manufactories and coal mines, hired a horse, and went
up the Monongahela Valley, to explore its geology as high as
Williamsport. The rich coal and iron beds of this part of the country
interested me greatly; I was impressed with their extent, and value, and
the importance which they must eventually give to Pittsburgh. After
returning from this trip, I completed my visits to the various
workshops and foundries, and to the large glassworks of Bakewell and
of O'Hara.

I was now at the head of the Ohio River, which is formed by the junction
of the Alleghany and Monongahela. My next step was to descend this
stream; and, while in search of an ark on the borders of the
Monongahela, I fell in with a Mr. Brigham, a worthy person from
Massachusetts, who had sallied out with the same view. We took passage
together on one of these floating houses, with the arrangements of which
I had now become familiar. I was charmed with the Ohio; with its
scenery, which was every moment shifting to the eye; and with the
incidents of such a novel voyage. Off Wheeling we made fast to another
ark, from the Monongahela, in charge of Capt. Hutchinson, an intelligent
man. There w