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The canal boats, the lake vessels, the steamer of seven hundred tons, with its tall masts, its wide expanded sails, with the sailor's "ye up ye o," fill the mind of the spectator, with life and energy.

GRAND RIVER,

Rises in the northwestern part of Trumbull county, and proceeds cautiously along towards the lake, turning, sometimes to the right and then again to the left hand, a distance of thirty miles, to Austinsburg in Ashtabula county, where its course being arrested in that direction, it turns abruptly off to the westwaard after its repulse at Austinsburg, and runs more rapidly twenty miles farther onward and enters lake Erie, at FAIRPORT. General Painesville, three miles from its mouth, is the largest town, on its banks. Iron ore abounds along its shores, in some places, and a furnace for its manufacture is erected, in its vicinity. Mills are erected on this river at Austinsburg, and at some other places.

Fairport, is as good a port as its name imports, and both sides of the river, at its mouth, are improving. The United States. have improved the harbor, which is constantly visited by lake vessels. It is thirty-two miles east of Cleveland.

Thus we have noticed, very briefly indeed, all the principal streams, along lake Erie, within the State of Ohio. The MAUMEE is much the largest-the longest, widest and deepest. The Cuyahoga, in size ranks next, and is the best for mills and machinery, moved by water power. It has the most mineral wealth on its banks, or near them. As to canal navigation, the Cuyahoga has the start of the Maumee, though the scene will be shifted within a few short years, when the Ohio canal, ending at Portsmouth and Cleveland, three hundred and nine miles in length, will be surpassed by the Wabash and Maumee canal, extending from Evansville, near the mouth of the Wabash, quite to lake Erie, at the entrance of the Maumee river, into the lake. The lower end of the Maumee bay, is several miles in width, and this canal mingles its waters with

those of the lake, at Manhattan. If the rivers which descend into the Ohio river, from the same summit level, where the lake rivers originate, are longer than the latter, yet, they are not so useful as mill streams. The rivers descending into the Ohio river, seem to have been intended to produce, by their sluggishness, a rich alluvial country, where grain would best come to maturity, and the lake rivers, by their great descent and constancy of volume, were designed to furnish a water power, to grind their neighbors' grain, and to manufacture the southern minerals into all the articles, that a whole great state shall eventually, and, forever need.

Here, a few remarks on the summit level of all our longer rivers, may not be improper.

LAKE ERIE is five hundred and sixty-five feet above the surface of the sea. The summit between Grand river and Mahoning is three hundred and forty-two feet above lake Erie-that is the lowest summit, and two hundred and twenty-four feet above the Ohio river at the mouth of the Mahoning.

The summit between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas in Portage county, is in a swamp, from which, streams run northerly into the St. Lawrence and southerly into the Mississippi-it is there four hundred and four feet above lake Erie and four hundred and twelve feet, above the mouth of the Muskingum, at Marietta.

The summit of Black river of lake Erie, and the Killbuck, a branch of the Muskingum, is three hundred and thirty-seven feet above the lake, and three hundred and sixty-one feet above the mouth of the Muskingum, at Marietta.

The summit between the sources of the Scioto and Sandusky rivers, is three hundred and fifty-four feet above the lake, and four hundred and fifty-five feet above low water in the Ohio river at Portsmouth.

The summit between the Maumee and Great Miami rivers is three hundred and fifty-four feet above the lake, and six hun dred feet above the mouth of the Miami river.

These are the lowest summit levels between the waters of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence in the state of Ohio. The

highest lands in the state, are along these summits and on the summits between the valleys of the largest rivers-such as the Muskingum, and the Scioto-the latter, and the Little Miami river. Jackson, Highland, Lawrence and Guernsey counties contain as highly elevated grounds as any in the state. The high grounds, on the summits near lake Erie, are swampy and wet; but, in the counties lying in the southern parts of the state, the summits are dry, mountainous, or hilly

tracts.

The swampy lands in the state, (excepting those near lake Erie, over which, the lake flows so as to drown them) are mostly underlaid, with blue clay, of such a thickness and compactness, as to prevent the water's descent below it. We except, too, the swampy grounds along the rivers, which are too low to be drained.

ALLUVIAL DEPOSITES.

Those beds of clay, sand, gravel and pebbles which constitute so large a portion of the earth's surface along all our rivers, which fall into the Ohio river, are called alluvial deposites. These substances, which have been disintegrated, by the action of the atmosphere, frost and water, have been transported subsequently by the rivers, and deposited in horizontal beds, in valleys, in the beds of streams, or in plains.

These deposites are of a comparatively recent date. Some of them have been deposited within our own memory and others are now forming, under our own observation. They are peculiarly interesting, indicating important changes in the earth's surface; and the examination of these deposites, is important to many classes of men;-to the farmer, miner and manufactTheir contents are sometimes very valuable, because they often contain beds of clay, which are useful to the brickmaker, the potter and the clothier. Besides peat, they often contain bog-iron ore, and calcareous tufa.

urer.

Besides trees, the remains of extinct animals are sometimes found in these deposites. Numerous organic remains, the

shells of the oyster, and the muscle, the teeth of sharks, and of the elephant, are sometimes found in them. A tusk of the Asiatic elephant, several feet in length, was found on Walnut creek, not many years since, by the late Thomas H. Gibson, M. D. Walnut creek is in the upper part of Pickaway county.

The teeth of the Mastodon were formerly found, along the bed of the Scioto river. A whole skeleton was found north of Lancaster, when the Lancaster laternal canal was digging, four or five years since. Another whole skeleton was found a few years since, near MASSILLON, in alluvial earth. The remains of the Asiatic elephant were discovered, while the the canal was excavating, a mile or two above Chillicothe.

But, the greatest collection of the bones of all sorts of extinct and non-extinct animals have, been found at Bigbonelick, forty miles, by water, below Cincinnati, on the Kentucky side. of the Ohio river. The licks are a few miles from Colonel Robert Piatt's house, situated at the point, where travelers should land from the steamer, if they wish to visit this interesting spot.

Of the animals, whose bones have been disinterred, at the Bigbone, are those of the mastodon, of the megalonyx, of the deer of several species, and, even of the common horse! Tons of these remains, have been dug up, and carried away, to all parts of this country, and, to Europe. A nephew of Chief Justice Marshall, we believe, owns the land-JAMES MARSHALL, Esquire.

One of the most stupendous animals of the extinct race, or rather its skeleton, was discovered several years since, in alluvial earth, below New-Orleans, near the Mississippi river.

About ten years since, its bones were brought to Columbus, and there exhibited, by their owners. This individual of an extinct species of alligator, was at least, when alive, one hundred and eighty feet in length, and its body was thirty feet in diameter! This river-god of the greatest river in the world, as a heathen would say, must have lived in the times of the mastodon, megalonyx and Asiatic elephant, of this region.

The skeleton of this ancient and venerable chelonian reptile was found in the ancient alluvion of the Mississippi, and near the mouth of that river.

Of the mastodon, thousands, doubtless of their skeletons repose, in our alluvial deposites, which will be yet discovered. They are all on what was once, the surface of the earth, and are now, from four, to thirty feet below the present surface.

The bones have been preserved in many places, by the antiseptic nature of the earthy matters which cover them.

Trees are often found imbedded a great many feet below the present surface. Such were found at the junction of the Ohio and Erie canal, with the Ohio river at Portsmouth. Several trees entire, were discovered many feet under the ground, on the surface of which, trees of the very largest growth, had grown up, since this subterranean forest had been buried. Doctor Moss is our authority for the above facts.

Man's works, such as arrow heads, are often found in our alluvial earths. Such an article—an arrow head, was found ninety feet below the surface, while digging a well for the Hon. Jacob Burnet, at Cincinnati. That well was dug on the high plain, where the upper portion of the city stands. That plain is diluvial, not alluvial. The upper level of Cincinnati belongs to the same age, and to the same catastrophe of our globe, that the sandstone of our hilly region does. The current which moved the sand along in it, being checked in its course, by the hills on the Kentucky side of the river, deposited its load here, creating a spot, for one of the most beautiful cities of the west, to stand upon, where the citizens could be high, dry and healthful-forever.

MINERAL SPRINGS.

THE YELLOW SPRINGS.

Nine miles north of Xenia, and the same distance south of Springfield, on the stage road from Columbus to Cincinnati, possess strong medicinal qualities. The water is a chalybeate,

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