Four Months in a Sneak-Box | Page 8

and one of its chief affluents, is made by the
union of the West Fork and Tygart Valley rivers, in the county of Marion, state of
Virginia, the united waters of which flow north into Pennsylvania as the Monongahela
River, and is there joined by the Cheat River, its principal tributary. The Monongahela
unites with the Alleghany to form the Ohio, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The length of
the Monongahela, without computing that of its tributaries, is about one hundred and fifty
miles; but if we include its eastern fork, the Tygart Valley River, which flows from
Randolph County, Virginia, the whole length of this tributary of the Ohio may exceed
three hundred miles. It has a width at its union with the Alleghany of nearly one-fourth of
a mile, and a depth of water sufficient for large steamboats to ascend sixty miles, to
Brownsville, Pennsylvania, while light-draught vessels can reach its head, at Fairmont,
Virginia.
The northern branch of the Ohio, known as the Alleghany River, has a length of four
hundred miles, and its source is in the county of Potter, in northern Pennsylvania. It takes
a very circuitous course through a portion of New York state, and re-enters Pennsylvania
flowing through a hilly region, and at the flourishing city of Pittsburgh mingles its waters
with its southern sister, the Monongahela.
The region traversed by the Alleghany is wild and mountainous, rich in pine forests, coal,
and petroleum oil; and the extraction from its rocky beds of the last-named article is so
enormous in quantity, that at the present time more than four million barrels of oil are
awaiting shipment in the oil districts of Pennsylvania. The smaller steamboats can ascend
the river to Olean, about two hundred and fifty miles above Pittsburgh. At Olean, the
river has a breadth of twenty rods.

In consequence of its high latitude, the clear waters of the Alleghany usually freeze over
by the 25th of December, after having transported upon its current the season's work,
from the numerous saw-mills of the great wilderness through which it flows, in the form
of rafts consisting of two hundred million feet of excellent lumber.
The Ohio River has a width of about half a mile below Pittsburgh, and this is its medial
breadth along its winding course to its mouth at Cairo; but in places it narrows to less
than twenty-five hundred feet, while it frequently widens to more than a mile. A
geographical writer says, that, "In tracing the Ohio to its source, we must regard the
Alleghany as its proper continuation. A boat may start with sufficient water within seven
miles of Lake Erie, in sight sometimes of the sails which whiten the approach to the
harbor of Buffalo, and float securely down the Conewango, or Cassadaga, to the
Alleghany, down the Alleghany to the Ohio, and thence uninterruptedly to the Gulf of
Mexico."
There are grave reasons for doubting that part of the statement which refers to a boat
starting from a point within seven miles of Lake Erie. It is to be hoped that some member
of the New York Canoe Club will explore the route mentioned, and give the results of his
investigations to the public. He would need a canoe light enough to be easily carried upon
the shoulders of one man, with the aid of the canoeist's indispensable assistant--the
canoe-yoke.
It will be seen that the Ohio with its affluents drains an immense extent of country
composed of portions of seven large states of the Union, rich in agricultural wealth, in
timber, iron, coal, petroleum, salt, clays, and building-stone. The rainfall of the Ohio
Valley is so great as to give the river a mean discharge at its mouth (according to the
report of the United States government engineers) of one hundred and fifty-eight
thousand cubic feet per second. This is the drainage of an area embracing two hundred
and fourteen thousand square miles.
The head of the Ohio River, at Pittsburgh, has an elevation of eleven hundred and fifty
feet above the sea, while in the long descent to its mouth there is a gradual fall of only
four hundred feet; hence its current, excepting during the seasons of freshets, is more
gentle and uniform than that of any other North American river of equal length. During
half the year the depth of water is sufficient to float steamboats of the largest class along
its entire length. Between the lowest stage of water, in the month of September, and the
highest, in March, there is sometimes a range of fifty feet in depth. The spring freshets in
the tributaries will cause the waters of the great river to rise twelve feet in twelve hours.
During the season of low water the current of the Ohio is so slow,