and, perhaps, in some degree, by prejudice. The bottoms are wide, and their soil rich. They are often inundated by the Scioto and its numerous branches, the water leaving great quantities of logs, and other vegetable matter, to be decomposed on the surface of the ground. These facts convince us that the situation is not healthy, notwithstanding the affirmations we heard to the contrary; and we were the more fully persuaded of this, as we saw a young man pale and meagre, in consequence of an attack of the ague.
We came to a saw-mill near Paint Creek.[56] A woman asked us how we proposed to get across the run. She told us that there was neither bridge nor boat; and that the water would reach up to our middle. She told us further, that travellers commonly hire a creature (a horse) at her house. We ordered one, and her husband followed us with it. At the Creek, we discovered that the water was shallow. Some of our party, (now increased to five,) indignant at the hoax, waded the stream. The water did not reach to the knee.
Chillicothe,[57] (formerly the seat of government, in the State of Ohio, now transferred to Columbus,) is situated on an extensive high plain, in a great bend of the Scioto, which here varies from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. The town has a court-house, an academy, two places of worship, two printing offices, that publish a weekly newspaper each, a woollen manufactory, a cotton manufactory, a grist-mill wrought by steam, a brewery, a tannery, a variety of merchants' shops, several taverns, and three banks. One of the last establish-*
