Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/89

 is upwards of thirty feet above the level of the rivers at low water. Part of the land adjoining to the Allegany is only about twenty feet high, and liable to occasional inundations. The Allegany here runs south-west by west, and the Monongahela nearly due west, as does the Ohio in continuation. This, together {60} with the Monongahela being broader than the Allegany, gives to the former the appearance of being the principal river, and to the latter the character of a tributary stream. The Monongahela is muddy and sluggish opposite to the town; and though about 400 yards broad there, probably furnishes much less water to the Ohio than does the Allegany, which is only about half the width, but has a brisk current. The Allegany and the Monongahela have been described as being each about the size of the Tay; but the latter river is much inferior to either in magnitude; and the comparison must have been influenced by the Tay's being the fittest river with which to compare it in Britain, and not by its actual parity with either.

Between the rivers, there is a ridge of about 300 feet high, which terminates with a gentle slope in the most inland part of the town. This is the hill that a florid exaggerator has described as a solid mass of coal. The description was unnecessary, as the coal field in which the hills of Pittsburg lie, may be considered as the most extensive that are known, although the only bed here is no more than four and a half feet thick. The strata being horizontal, and the out-burst of the coal about the middle-steep(** hyphenated word? ; (P3) it is NOT known as ONE word.) of the hill, it is not necessary to make shafts, as it is level free, and may be quarried and carried out in wheel barrows, like road-metal.

The hill on the west side of the Monongahela, is a