river is a stream of light as well as of water, which feasts the
eye with a delight inconceivable to the inhabitants of open
countries."

In direct contradiction to this longing for society was the
passion which the first generation of pioneers had for the
wilderness. When the population of one settlement became too
thick, they were seized by an irresistible impulse to "follow the
migration," as the expression went. The easy independence of the
first hunter-agriculturalist was upset by the advance of
immigration. His range was curtailed, his freedom limited. His
very breath seems to have become difficult. So he sold out at a
phenomenal profit, put out his fire, shouldered his gun, called
his dog, and set off again in search of the solitude he craved.

Severe winter weather overtook Baily as he descended the Ohio
River, until below Grave Creek floating ice wrecked his boat and
drove him ashore. Here in the primeval forest, far from "Merrie
England," Baily spent the Christmas of 1796 in building a new
flatboat. This task completed, he resumed his journey. Passing
Marietta, where the bad condition of the winter roads prevented a
visit to a famous Indian mound, he reached Limestone. In due time
he sighted Columbia, the metropolis of the Miami country.
According to Baily, the sale of European goods in this part of
the Ohio Valley netted the importers a hundred per cent. Prices
varied with the ease of navigation. When ice blocked the Ohio the
price of flour went up until it was eight dollars a barrel;
whiskey was a dollar a gallon; potatoes, a dollar a bushel; and
bacon, twelve cents a pound. At these prices, the total produce
which went by Fort Massac in the early months of 1800 would have