Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/233

 cabins are distinguished from those I had hitherto seen by their chimneys of brick, instead of stone or logs. There are some good brick houses building, and some taverns and some stores, which give it a thriving appearance. There is also a fine grist and saw mill at the falls of the Muskingum at the upper end of the town. That river is about a hundred yards wide at the ferry just below the falls, which are formed by its being precipitated in a sheet, over a rock of about three feet perpendicular depth, which extends quite across, and is a fine object in the surrounding picturesque scenery. Another good object is a cliff impending over the falls, which terminates the chain of low hills behind Springfield.

I crossed the ferry to Zanesville, and dismounted at an inn where the stage generally stops. On entering I walked into a room, the door of which was open, where the first object that met my eye was the {203} corpse of a female, laid out in her shroud on a bier. There was no person in the room but another female who was seated near the corpse, and to whom I apologized for my abrupt entrance, explaining my reasons as being in advance of the stage. She answered by wishing she had some mode of preventing the stage from driving up to the house, as her sister had died that morning, and it would be inconvenient to accommodate travellers that night, on which I remounted, rode to the post office, where I found the stage delivering the mail, from whence in consequence of my information, the driver took us to Harvey's very good inn, where we found an excellent supper, clean beds, a consequential host and hostess, and the highest charges I had hitherto paid in Ohio.

Zanesville was laid out for a town six or seven years ago. It contains forty houses much scattered and does not seem to thrive so much as Springfield, which is only two or three years old, contains fifty houses, and bids fair to become of