Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/21

Rh feet water to the mouth of the Ohio, to which place it is from one and a half to two miles wide, and thence to Kaſkaſkia from one mile to a mile and a quarter wide. Its current is ſo rapid, that it never can be ſtemmed by the force of the wind alone, acting on ſails. Any veſſel, however, navigated with oars, may come up at any time, and receive much aid from the wind. A batteau paſſes from the mouth of Ohio to the mouth of Miſſiſippi in three weeks, and is from two to three months getting up again. During its floods, which are periodical as thoſe of the Nile, the largeſt veſſels may paſs down it, if their ſteerage can be inſured. Theſe floods begin in April, and the river returns into its banks early in Auguſt. The inundation extends further on the weſtern than eaſtern ſide, covering the lands in ſome places for 50 miles from its banks. Above the mouth of the Miſſouri, it becomes much ſuch a river as the Ohio, like it clear, and gentle in its current, not quite ſo wide, the period of its floods nearly the ſame, but not riſing to ſo great a height. The ſtreets of the village at Cohoes are not more than 10 feet above the ordinary level of the water, and yet were never overflowed. Its bed deepens every year. Cohoes, in the memory of many people now living, was inſulated by every flood of the river. What was the eaſtern channel has now become a lake, 9 miles in length and one in width, into which the river at this day never flows. This river yields turtle of a peculiar kind, perch, trout, gar, pike, mullets, herrings, carp, ſpatula-fiſh of 50lb. weight, cat-fiſh of 100lb. weight, buffalo-fiſh, and ſturgeon. Aligators or crocodiles have been ſeen as high up as the Acanſas. It alſo