Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/25

Rh In common winter and ſpring tides it affords 15 feet water to Louiſville, 10 feet to Le Tarte's rapids, 40 miles above the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, and a ſufficiency at all times for light batteaux and canoes to Fort Pitt. The rapids are ill latitude 38° 8′. The inundations of this river begin about the laſt of March, and ſubſide in July. During theſe a firſt rate man of war may be carried from Louiſville to New Orleans, if the ſudden turns of the river and the ſtrength of its current will admit a ſafe ſteerage. The rapids at Louiſville deſcend about 30 feet in a length of a mile and a half. The bed of the river there is a ſolid rock, and is divided by an iſland into two branches, the ſouthern of which is about 200 yards wide, and is dry four months in the year. The bed of the northern branch is worn into channels by the conſtant courſe of the water, and attrition of the pebble ſtones carried on with that, ſo as to be paſſable for batteaux, through the greater part of the year. Yet it is thought that the ſouthern arm may be the moſt eaſily opened for conſtant navigation. The riſe of the waters in theſe rapids does not exceed 10 or 12 feet. A part of this iſland is ſo high as to have been never overflowed, and to command the ſettlement at Louiſville, which is oppoſite to it. The fort, however, is ſituated at the head of the falls. The ground on the ſouth ſide riſes very gradually. The Taniſſee, Cherokee or Hogohege River is 600 yards wide at its mouth, ¼ of a mile at the mouth of Holſton, and 200 yards at Chotee, which is 20 miles above Holſton, and 300 miles above the mouth of the Taniſſee. This river croſſes the ſouthern boundary of Virginia, 58 miles from the