the travellers passed various groups of
emigrants, proceeding westward: one waggon, in particular, was the
moving habitation of twenty souls.

_Zanesville_ is a thriving town, on the beautiful _river Muskingum_,
which is, at all times, navigable downward. The country around it is
hilly and pleasant; not rich, but dry, and tolerably fertile. It abounds
in coal and lime, and may, at some future period, become a grand station
for manufactures.

At _Rushville_ Mr. Birkbeck, another gentleman, and three children, sat
down to a breakfast, consisting of the following articles: coffee,
rolls, biscuits, dry toast, waffles, (a kind of soft hot cake, of German
extraction, covered with butter,) salted pickerell, (a fish from Lake
Huron,) veal-cutlets, broiled ham, gooseberry-pie, stewed currants,
preserved cranberries, butter, and cheese: and Mr. Birkbeck, for himself
and three children, and four gallons of oats, and a sufficient quantity
of hay for four horses, was charged only six shillings and ninepence
sterling.

South-west of Zanesville, instead of steep hills of yellow clay, the
country assumes a more gently undulating surface; but it is sufficiently
varied both for health and ornament, and has an absorbent, gravelly, or
sandy soil, of moderate fertility.

_Lancaster_ is on the edge of a marsh, or fen, which, at present,
should seem to be a source of disease; though its bad effects, on the
inhabitants of that town, are not by any means obvious.

The three towns, Zanesville, Lancaster, and _Chillicothe_, were founded
by a sagacious man of the name of Zane, one of the earliest of the
settlers. They are admirably placed, geographically, but with little
regard to the health of their future inhabitants. The local advantages
of Zanesville might have been equally secured, had the site of the town
been on the higher, rather than the lower bank of the Muskingum: and the
Sciota might have afforded equal facilities to the commerce of the
inhabitants of Chillicothe, had they viewed it flowing beneath them,
from those lovely eminences which adorn its opposite banks. Chillicothe
is surrounded by the most charming elevations, but is itself in a
bottom; and Lancaster is on the brink of an extensive marsh.

Seven miles north-west of Chillicothe the traveller enters on a tract of
river bottom, the first rich land, for which this state, and indeed the
whole western country, is so justly famous. It is agreeably varied in
surface, occasion