Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/33

Rh the Patowmac to Alexandria, than to New-York by 580 miles, and it is interrupted by one portage only. There is another circumſtance of difference too. The lakes themſelves never freeze, but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudſon's River is itſelf ſhut up by the ice three months in the year; whereas the channel to the Cheſapeak leads directly into a warmer climate. The ſouthern parts of it very rarely freeze at all and whenever the northern do, it is ſo near the ſources of the rivers, that the frequent floods to which they are there liable, break up the ice immediately, ſo that veſſels may paſs through the whole winter, ſubject only to accidental and ſhort delays. Add to all this, that in caſe of a war with our neighbours, the Anglo-Americans or the Indians, the route to New-York becomes a frontier through almoſt its whole length, and all commerce through it ceaſes from that moment. But the channel to New-York is already known to practice; whereas the upper waters of the Ohio and the Patowmac, and the great falls of the latter are yet to be cleared of their fixed obſtructions. (A.)

 

OTICE of the beſt Sea Ports of the ſtate, and how big are the veſſels they can receive? 