I stopped at one of the best hotels, kept by a Mrs. McCullough, and, after visiting the manufactories and coal mines, hired a horse, and went up the Monongahela Valley, to explore its geology as high as Williamsport. The rich coal and iron beds of this part of the country interested me greatly; I was impressed with their extent, and value, and the importance which they must eventually give to Pittsburgh. After returning from this trip, I completed my visits to the various work-shops and foundries, and to the large glass-works of Bakewell and of O'Hara. I was now at the head of the Ohio River, which is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela. My next step was to descend this stream; and, while in search of an ark on the borders of the Monongahela, I fell in with a Mr. Brigham, a worthy person from Massachusetts, who had sallied out with the same view. We took passage together on one of these floating houses, with the arrangements of which I had now become familiar. I was charmed with the Ohio; with its scenery, which was every moment shifting to the eye; and with the incidents of such a novel voyage." _Schoolcraft's Thirty years with the Indian tribes._ "I have seen a pleasant anecdote of one of these (vessels, recorded in the Picture of Cincinnati, published at Cincinnati,) she had entered a port in the Mediterranean, and when the captain presented his papers, the examining officer read in his clearance, Pittsburg, state of Pennsylvania, 'Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,' said he, 'there is no such port; your papers must be forged; here is some deception or piracy; we shall detain your papers and ship till we see farther into this.' The American captain tried for some time, in vain, to convince him; till by the aid of the American consul and a map, he reluctantly admitted the possibility of there being such a place, from which a ship could be navigated, although two thousand miles from the ocean." _Palmer's Journal of travels in the United States, 1818._ "A company, stiled the 'Ohio steam boat company,' has lately been formed, who intend building steam boats to run between this place and the Falls of Ohio. The dimensions of the boats will be 100 feet keel and 20 feet beam. They contemplate having two running this fall or winter, 1815-6.... This line of Steam Boats, though not attached to those belonging to the Mississippi Steam Boat Company, will form a chain of conveyance from New Orleans to this place, which must result very much to the advantage and prosperity of Pittsburgh and intermediate towns." _Cramer's almanack, 1816._