Many families and other parties were still waiting {147} here, and at other places where we had crossed the Ohio, until the rising of its waters should enable them to pass down to the west: this did not happen, I was told, in the past year until the month of December; and to all appearance it may be as late this season; during the interval these poor people are exhausting their resources, losing their time, and at last will pass down the river at a most unpleasant and dangerous season of the year, if the ice should permit, a circumstance not probable: those travellers therefore, who intend such mode of conveyance, (a very pleasant one in summer,) should not start later than May; as the waters rapidly subside after June, when it frequently happens that none but light and nearly flat-bottomed boats can get down.[49]--{148} The rivers of North America it must be acknowledged are grand, but this annual loss of water will perhaps ever be a drawback to their utility which no art can remedy. I am more than half inclined, however, to withdraw this opinion, for American enterprise is alive to the object; and two works which I saw in progress, and which by this time may be finished, give promise that much may be accomplished;--one of these is at Louisville, where a canal cut at great expense will enable vessels to avoid the Falls of the Ohio, dangerous at all times, and often impassable;[50]--another on the Schuylkil, where the aim is to deepen the water sufficiently to render it at all times navigable.[51] Weirs are carried at certain distances nearly across the river, leaving a space for a short canal with two locks to pass vessels. [Illustration: View at Fort Cumberland, Maryland] Should this plan become generally adopted on those rivers where the navigation fails annually from the loss of water, it will, among other good results, conduce essentially to the health of the climate; by preventing the stagnant pools left in hollows, and the exposure of slime and mud to the sun, now the pregnant source of disorders. Where, or when an American uses water for the purpose of washing more than his face and fingers, {149} does not appear, for no water ever goes up stairs at a tavern unless your own servants take it. Under the shed of the house, water and tin basons are placed in the morning, and each one on coming down rubs his face and hands over;--they may bathe perhaps in the rivers occasionally; if not, they are decidedly dirty people.--An English youth at our inn at Wheeling in order to wash himself a little more effectually, let his shirt down to his waistband; an attempt at cleanliness so unusual, caused a general surprise and laugh among the _yahoos_.