Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/18

8 Chickahominy has at its mouth a bar, on which is only 12 feet water at common flood tide. Veſſels paſſing that may go 8 miles up the river; thoſe of 10 feet draught may go four miles further, and thoſe of ſix tons burthen, 20 miles fur t her. Appamattox may be navigated as far as Broadways, by any veſſel which has croſſed Harriſon's bar in James' River; it keeps 8 or 10 feet water a mile or two higher up to Fiſher's bar, and 4 feet on that and upwards to Peterſburgh, where all navigation ceaſes.

James' River itſelf affords harbor for veſſels of any ſize in Hampton road, but not in ſafety through the whole winter; and there is navigable water for them as far as Mulberry iſland. A 40 gun ſhip goes to James' town, and, lightening herſelf, may paſs to Harriſon's bar, on which there is only 15 feet water. Veſſels of 250 tons may go to Warwick; thoſe of 125 go to Rocket's, a mile below Richmond; from thence is about 7 feet water to Richmond; and about the centre of the town, four feet and a half, where the navigation is interrupted by falls, which in a courſe of ſix miles, deſcend about 80 feet perpendicular: above theſe it is reſumed in canoes, and batteaux, and proſecuted ſafely and advantageouſly within 10 miles of the Blue Ridge; and even through the Blue Ridge a ton weight has been brought: and the expence would not be great, when compared with its object, to open a tolerable navigation up Jackſon's river and Carpenter's Creek, to within 25 miles of Howard's Creek of Green Briar, both of which have then water enough to float veſſels into the Great Kanhaway. In ſome future ſtate of