Three Days on the Ohio RiverAlcott, William A. (William Andrus)
History
Three Days on the Ohio River
Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Ohio River -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
I was almost sorry to leave Cincinnati, for it is, in many respects, a
beautiful place. The central or business part is not peculiarly
handsome, I admit; but the Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, and other places,
forming a semicircle, and inclosing it on all sides except on the
south-east and south, are, for the beauties of nature and art, almost
unrivaled.
CHAPTER IV.
SAILING UP THE RIVER.
As you proceed up the river, your attention is arrested, from time to
time, by small villages. These are more numerous on the Ohio side than
on that of Kentucky. Whether this is owing to the effects of slavery, or
to other reasons, I am not informed. One thing is certain--that nature
is not at fault in the construction of the country; for never in my life
have I seen a prettier variety of hills and dales than on the Kentucky
side of the Ohio River.
The water of the river was high, and the boat could stop at nearly every
considerable village. The principal places we passed, for the first
sixty miles, were Columbia, Point Pleasant, Neville, Higginsport,
Ripley, and Aberdeen, in Ohio; and Mechanicsburg, Belmont, Augusta, and
Charleston, in Kentucky.
Augusta, in Kentucky, is a considerable village, and has one or two
important schools. It has also a few antiquities. So full is the earth
of decaying human bones, that they can hardly dig a hole for a post
without finding some of them.
The water of the Ohio at this season has a turbid or milky appearance.
It is used, on board the steamboats, for all purposes, even for
drinking. To me it was disagreeable; but to some of the passengers it
was more than disagreeable to their taste, for it deranged their
stomachs. This result is probably owing to the lime it contains.
Most of the passengers were on deck during the greater part of the day,
viewing the country, which I have already told you was beautiful. The
villages, in general, had a sooty appearance, caused by coal smoke.
CHAPTER V.
MAYSVILLE.
Before night we came to Maysville, in Kentucky. This is quite a large
village, with some appearance of thrift and prosperity.
Here we stopped for two hours or more--partly to take in one hundred and
twenty head of cattle. Our number of passengers was not large--less, I
believe, than one hundred--and probably did not much more than pay
expenses, especially when they kept so extravagant a table. The fare to
Pittsburg was $7. True, there was on board a large amount of freight of
various kinds, which perhaps made up the deficiency.
But as the grave, according to Solomon, is never satisfied--never says
enough--so the men who are engaged in carrying passengers and freight
seem never satisfied as long as they can carry any more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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