Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/196

 high country lying near the heads of the northern tributaries of the Ohio, as having a good climate. That part of it watered by the Muskingum, the two Sciotas, and the two Miamis, possesses a downward navigation in spring, and in the latter end of autumn, but as these rivers enter the Ohio above the falls at Louisville, the upward navigation is interrupted there during the summer months. This single circumstance amounts to a weighty objection against the eastern part of the country under consideration.

The western part has two great navigable streams, the Wabash, and the Illinois. The Wabash is navigable for boats drawing three feet of water, to the distance of about 400 miles from its mouth, and in floods about 200 miles farther. Its largest tributary is White River, which is navigable to a great distance upward. It waters a fertile and delightful country, and joins the Wabash below all its rapids except one run, which forms no great obstruction to the navigation. The new seat of government is to be erected on the bank of one of the streams of White River.[100] The Illinois is esteemed one of the best navigations in western America. So early as 1773, a Mr. Kennedy sailed upward to the distance of 268 miles from its confluence with the Mississippi.[101] Sangamon river,