Travelling by land at this season is, for various reasons, economical. Families by this means avoid delay and expense at Pittsburg; they are not obliged to sell their waggons and horses at an under value there; but take them along, as a necessary stock for their farms; and they are not put to the expense of a boat, which would be ultimately sold for a mere trifle, or left to rot by the water side. Besides, their rate of travelling is now more speedy than by water. Those who go below Wheeling will have a farther advantage, as the distance from Pittsburg to that place is 38 miles shorter than by the river. The waggons and horses must also be of immediate use to those, who settle at a distance from navigable waters. It is impossible to state the distance to which horses and waggons should be carried from Pittsburg; this wholly depends on the state of the river, the quantity of goods to be transported, the price of freight, (if paying passage instead of purchasing a boat is contemplated,) the {75} price of a boat, and the certain loss on selling horses and waggons at Pittsburg. Strangers will do well to make strict inquiries, and the most careful calculations, of the expense of both modes of travelling, previous to the adoption of either of them. After examining the advantage of the different ways of travelling, it will be but an ordinary exercise of candour to state wherein I have erred myself.--I purchased a skiff, too small and too weak for my purpose, and I ought not to have undertaken the passage without taking some person along with me, who would have been continually on the outlook for stones or logs under water, and who occasionally would have steered my bark. Being obliged to sit on a low seat with my back forward, I was most unfavourably placed for observing obstacles in the way, and, on approaching rapids, I was usually in the very draught of them, before I could discern the proper channel. The weather has of late been cold during the night, and the season is so far advanced that I cannot calculate on sleeping hereafter in an open boat. To enable me to put my baggage ashore every night, I have procured smaller boxes, to supersede the use of larger ones. Travellers in this country ought not to adopt large boxes, which are the most liable to injury, from the jolting of waggons, and are comparatively unmanageable on every occasion. Eighty or a hundred pounds, are enough for each parcel. There is not the least appearance of a rise on the river. I have exchanged my pine skiff for a larger and a stronger oak one, and have determined on getting once more upon the water. During my stay here, I have had the satisfaction of living with a polite and respectable family, which has treated me with the utmost civility; {76} their integrity is beyond suspicion.--If I had entertained any doubt on that head, the very repacking of my baggage would at once have removed it.--My inventory is complete, not a single article is wanting. FOOTNOTES: