Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/32

22 that and Ontario an interruption by the falls of Niagara, where the portage is of 3 miles; and between Ontario, and the Hudſon's River are portages at the falls of Onondago, a little above Oſwego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood Creek to the Mohawks River two miles; as the little falls of the Mohawks River half a mile, and from Schenectady to Albany 16 miles. Beſides the increaſe of expence occaſioned by frequent changes of carriage, there is an increaſed riſk of pillage produced by committing merchandize to a greater number of hands succeſſively. The Patowmac offers itſelf under the following circumstances. For trade of the lakes and their waters weſtward of Lake Erié, when it shall have entered that lake, it muſt coaſt along its ſouthern ſhore, on account of the number and excellence of its harbours; the northern, though ſhorteſt, having few harbours, and theſe unſafe. Having reached Cayahoga, to proceed on to New-York it will have 825 miles and five portages; whereas it is but 425 miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the Patowmac, if it turns into the Cayahoga, and paſſes through that, Bigbeaver, Ohio, Yohoganey, (or Monongahela and Cheat) and Patowmac, and there are but two portages; the firſt of which between Cayahoga and Beaver may be removed by uniting the ſources of theſe waters, which are lakes in the neighbourhood of each other, and in a campaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to Patowmac will be from 15 to 40 miles, according to the trouble which ſhall be taken to approach the two navigations. For the trade of the Ohio, or that which ſhall come into it from its own waters or the Miſſiſippi, it is nearer through