the James
was improved (1836-53), but the Kanawha was untouched. In 1874, United
States engineers presented a plan calling for an expenditure of sixty
millions, but there the matter rests. The Kanawha is navigable by
large steamers for sixty miles, up to the falls at Charleston, and
beyond almost to its source, by light craft.]

[Footnote B: Hall, in _Romance of Western History_ (1820), says that
when Washington was tendered command of the Revolutionary army, he
replied that it should rather be given to Gen. Andrew Lewis, of whose
military abilities he had a high opinion. Lewis was a captain in
the Little Meadows affair (1752), and a companion of Washington in
Braddock's defeat (1755).]

CHAPTER XII.

In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic gypsies--An
ancient tavern.

Ironton, O., Saturday, May 19th.--When we turned in, last night, it
was refreshingly cool. Heavy clouds were scurrying across the face
of the moon. By midnight, a copious rain was falling, wind-gusts were
flapping our roof, and a sudden drop in temperature rendered sadly
inadequate all the clothing we could muster into service. We slept
late, in consequence, and, after rigging a wind-break with the rubber
blankets, during breakfast huddled around the stove which had been
brought in to replace Pilgrim under the fly. When, at half-past nine,
we pushed off, our houseboat neighbors thrust their heads from the
window and waved us farewell.

A dense fog hung like a cloud over land and river. There was a stiff
north-east wind, which we avoided by seeking the Ohio shore, where
the high hills formed a break; there too, the current was swift, and
carried us down right merrily. Shattered by the wind, great banks of
fog rolled up stream, sometimes enveloping us so as to narrow our
view to a radius of a dozen rods,--again, through the rifts, giving
us momentary glimpses on the right, of rich green hills, towering dark
and steep above us, iridescent with browns, and grays, and many shades
of green; of whitewashed cabins, single or in groups, standing out
with startling distinctness from sombre backgrounds; of houseboats,
many-hued, moored to willowed banks or bolstered high upon shaly
beaches; of the opposite bottom, with its corrugated cliff of clay;
and, now and then, a slowly-puffing steamboat cautiously feeling its
way through the chilling gloom--a monster to be avoided by little
Pilgrim and her crew, for the possibility of being run