[48] For notes on the following persons and places mentioned in this chapter, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series: Yellow Creek, note 93; Kanawha River, note 101. A. Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series: Wheeling, note 15; Marietta, note 16. F. A. Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series: Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary line, note 31; Gallipolis, note 34. Harris’s _Journal_, volume iii of our series: Putnam, note 1. Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series: Georgetown, note 59; Steubenville, note 67; Wellsburg, note 67; Grave Creek, note 78.--ED. [49] As early as 1786 a few pioneers had established themselves at the mouth of Indian Short Creek; but in 1805 the town was surveyed, a public sale of lots held, and the name Warren given to it.--ED. [50] It is interesting to note that, according to the Moravian missionary John Heckewelder, the Ohio River received its name from the white caps which often made canoe-travelling temporarily impossible. When it was covered with white caps the Indians would say “Kitschi ohio-peekhaune,” which means “verily this is a deep white river.” See “Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians ... had given to Rivers, Streams, etc.,” in American Philosophical Society _Transactions_, new series, iv, pp. 369, 370. The commonly accepted derivation, that given by La Salle and the early French explorers, is that “Ohio” is an Iroquois word, meaning “beautiful river.”--ED. [51] The Cumberland National Road was completed to the Ohio (Wheeling, West Virginia) in this year (1818).--ED. [52] Being a national highway no tolls were originally levied on the Cumberland Road; this being, however, a most logical method of raising money for the necessary repairs, the road was ceded to the states through which it ran (1830-35), and the latter erected toll-gates and levied tolls.--ED. [53] See list of Americanisms, _post_, pp. 289-290; also Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series, note 96.--ED. [54] Letart’s Rapids, at a bend in the Ohio about twenty-five miles above Gallipolis, are but a slight hindrance to navigation. See Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_, pp. 113-117, for a recent description.--ED. {90} LETTER VIII Leave Portsmouth--Digression on economical Travelling--Salt-springs--Piketon--Chillicothe--Progress of a Scotch Family--Game--Forest Trees and Shrubs--Rolled pieces of Primitive Rocks dispersed over a Country of the Secondary Formation--Agricultural Implements--Antiquities--Bainbridge--Middletown--Organic Remains--Town of Limestone--Washington--Mayé Lick--Licking River--Millersburg--Paris--Notice of the Missouri and Illinois Countries--Paper Currency--Cut Coin--Remarks interspersed. _Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 29, 1818._ On the 18th current I left Portsmouth, on the north bank of the Ohio, for Chillicothe, which is situated on the Great Scioto river, forty-five miles from Portsmouth by land, and about seventy by following the meanders of the Scioto.