{15} The little village of Olean,[013] on the Alleghany river, has been for many years a point of embarkation, where great numbers of families, migrating from the northern and eastern states, have exchanged their various methods, of slow and laborious progression by land, for the more convenient one of the navigation of the Ohio. From Olean downward, the Alleghany and Ohio bear along with their currents fleets of rude arks laden with cattle, horses, household furniture, agricultural implements, and numerous families having all their possessions embarked on the same bottom, and floating onward toward that imaginary region of happiness and contentment, which, like the "town of the brave and generous spirits," the expected heaven of the aboriginal American, lies always "beyond the place where the sun goes down." This method of transportation, though sometimes speedy and convenient, is attended with uncertainty and danger. A moderate wind blowing up the river, produces such swells in some parts of the Ohio, as to endanger the safety of the ark; and these heavy unmanageable vessels are with difficulty so guided in their descent, as to avoid the _planters_, sunken logs, and other concealed obstructions to the navigation of the Ohio. We have known many instances of boats of this kind so suddenly sunk, as only to afford time for the escape of the persons on board. On the 6th we arrived at Wheeling,[014] a small town of Virginia, situate on a narrow margin along the bank of the Ohio, at the base of a high cliff of sandstone. Here the great national road from Cumberland comes in conjunction with that of Zanesville, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The town of Cumberland, from which this great national work has received the appellation of the Cumberland road, lies on the north side of the Potomac, one hundred and forty miles E. by S. from Wheeling. The road between these two points was constructed by the government {16} of the United States, at a cost of one million eight hundred thousand dollars.[015] The bridges and other works of masonry, on the western portion of this road, are built of a compact argillaceous sandstone, of a light gray or yellowish white colour, less durable than the stone used in the middle and eastern sections, which is the blue metalliferous limestone, one of the most beautiful and imperishable among the materials for building which our country affords. A few miles from Wheeling, a small but beautiful bridge, forming a part of this road, is ornamented with a statue of that distinguished statesman, Mr. Clay; erected, as we were informed, by a gentleman who resides in that neighbourhood.