this portage in the country within reach of it.
3. A point on the Ohio river most capable of combining certainty of navigation with road accommodation; embracing, in this estimate, remote points westwardly, as well as present and probable population on the north and south.
4. Best mode of diffusing benefits with least distance of road.
"In contemplating these objects, due attention was paid as well to the comparative merits of towns, establishments and settlements already made, as to the capacity of the country with the present and probable population.
"In the course of arrangement, and in its order, the first point located for the route was determined and fixed at Cumberland, a decision founded on propriety, and in some measure on necessity, from the circumstance of a high and difficult mountain, called Nobley, laying and confining the east margin of the Potomac, so as to render it impossible of access on that side without immense expense, at any point between Cumberland and where the road
