Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/30

20 yards wide, and the navigation much obſtructed in dry weather by rapids and ſhoals. In its paſſage through the mountain it makes very great falls, admitting no navigation for 10 miles to the Turkey Foot. Thence to the Great Croſſing, about 20 miles, it is again navigable, except in dry ſeaſons, and at this place is 200 yards wide. The ſources of this river are divided from thoſe of the Patowmac, by the Alleghany mountain. From the falls, where it interſects the Laurel mountain, to Fort Cumberland, the head of the navigation on the Patowmac, is 40 miles of very mountainous road. Wills's Creek, at the mouth of which was Fort Cumberland, is 30 or 40 yards wide, but affords no navigation as yet. Cheat River, another conſiderable branch of the Monongahela, is 200 yards wide at its mouth, and 100 yards at the Dunkard's ſettlement, 50 miles higher. It is navigable for boats, except in dry ſeaſons. The boundary between Virginia and Pennſylvania croſſes it about 3 or 4 miles above its mouth.

The Alleghaney River, with a ſlight ſwell, affords navigation for light batteaux to Venango, at the mouth of French Creek, where it is 200 yards wide; and it is practiſed even to Le Bœuf, from whence there is a portage of 15 miles to Preſque iſle on Lake Erié.

The country watered by the Miſſiſippi and its eaſtern branches, conſtitutes five-eighths of the United States, two of which five-eighths are occupeid by the Ohio and its waters: the reſiduary ſtreams which run into the Gulph of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St. Lawrence, water the remaining three-eighths.