The commissioners further state, that, to aid them in the extension of their route, they ran and marked a straight line from the crossing place on the Monongahela, to Wheeling, and had progressed twenty miles, with their usual and necessary lines of experiment, in ascertaining the shortest and best connection of practical grounds, when the approach of winter and the shortness of the days afforded no expectation that they could complete the location without a needless expense in the most inclement season of the year. And, presuming that the postponement of the remaining part till the ensuing spring would produce no delay in the business of making the road, they were induced to retire from it for the present. The great length of time already employed in this business, makes it proper for the commissioners to observe that, in order to connect the best grounds with that circumspection which the importance of the duties confided to them demanded, it became indispensably necessary to run lines of experiment and reference in various directions, which exceed an average of four times the distance located for the route, and that, through a country so irregularly broken, and crowded with very thick underwood in many places, the work has been found so incalculably tedious that, without an adequate idea of the difficulty, it is not easy to reconcile the delay. It is proper to mention that an imperious call from the private concerns of Commissioner Joseph Kerr, compelled him to return home on the 29th of November, which will account for the want of his signature to this report. All of which is, with due deference, submitted, this 15th day of January, 1808. ELI WILLIAMS, THOMAS MOORE. NOTE.--It will be observed that Keyser's Ridge, which is unquestionably the highest point on the road, is not mentioned by the commissioners. This is, no doubt, because, at the date of their report, the locality did not bear the name Keyser's Ridge, and was known as a peak of Negro mountain. Soon after the location of the road, one Keyser acquired the property at the ridge, and it took its name from him. It will also be observed that the measurement of heights by the commissioners was made from "a point ten feet above the surface of low water in the Potomac at Cumberland." A table of heights given in a subsequent chapter, the authority for which is not ascertainable, differs from that in the commissioners' report, but their report must be accepted as accurate from their point of measurement. The other table referred to gives the heights above the Atlantic and above Cumberland, and embraces more hills than the commissioners' report. CHAPTER VI. _Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, called upon for Information respecting the Fund Applicable to the Roads mentioned in the Ohio Admission Act--His Responses._