ogheny, for a distance
of sixty miles. Nevertheless, it was not until 1792 that there were
regular conveniences for carrying passengers and freight down the
Ohio; the emigrant or trader, on arrival at Pittsburg or Redstone,
had generally to wait until he could either charter a boat or have one
built for him, although sometimes he found a chance "passenger flat"
going down.[C] This difficulty in securing river transportation was
one of the reasons why the majority chose the Wilderness Road.

"The first thing that strikes a stranger from the Atlantic," says
Flint (1814), "is the singular, whimsical, and amusing spectacle of
the varieties of water-craft, of all shapes and structures." These,
Flint, who knew the river well, separates into seven classes: (1)
"Stately barges," the size of an Atlantic schooner, with "a raised and
outlandish-looking deck;" one of these required a crew of twenty-five
to work it up stream. (2) Keel-boats--long, slender, and graceful in
form, carrying from fifteen to thirty tons, easily propelled over
the shallows, and much used in low water, and in hunting trips to
Missouri, Arkansas, and the Red River country. (3) Kentucky flats
(or "broad-horns"), "a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New
England pig-stye;" these were from forty to a hundred feet in length,
fifteen feet in beam, and carried from twenty to seventy tons. Some
of these flats were not unlike the house-boats of to-day. "It is no
uncommon spectacle to see a large family, old and young, servants,
cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all kinds," all
embarked on one such bottom. (4) Covered "sleds," ferry-flats, or
Alleghany skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons. (5) Pirogues, of
from two to four tons burthen, "sometimes hollowed from one big tree,
or the trunks of two trees united, and a plank rim fitted to the upper
part." (6) Common skiffs and dug-outs. (7) "Monstrous anomalies," not
classifiable, and often whimsical in design. To these might be added
the "floating shops or stores, with a small flag out to indicate
their character," so frequently seen by Palmer (1817), and thriftily
surviving unto this day, minus the flag. And Hall (1828) speaks of a
flat-bottomed row-boat, "twelve feet long, with high sides and roof,"
carrying an aged couple down the river, they cared not where, so long
as they could find a comfortable home in the West, for their declining
and now childless years.

The first four classes h