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14 ington, returning in winter from his mission to the French forts for Governor Dinwiddie, was compelled, on so considerable a river as the lower Allegheny, to desert his canoe and make his journey homeward on foot. For many weeks, too, many rivers were so shallow as to prohibit any navigation save for canoes. Céloron, who descended the Ohio burying the leaden plates for his Bourbon king, had a desperate time in ascending the Miami to the lakes in canoes, and Washington, even in midwinter, waded in icy waters, dragging his canoe over shoals in French creek on his return from Fort La Bœuf to Venango. The smaller streams were filled with drift and felled trees, impeding the traveler's progress. Gen. Moses Cleaveland was compelled to give up the attempt to ascend the Cuyahoga because the way was quite impassable.

The trail of the Indian, though often blocked by fallen trees and tangles of vine, ever offered a course through the heart of the continent. Like the buffalo trails they clung to high ground, mounting the hills on the long ascending ridges. Here, as was true of the routes of the earlier Indians