tempers, and some action in the matter is anxiously looked for by all
interested parties.

I gave a parting look at my little craft snugly ensconced upon the top
of a pile of barrels, and smiled as I turned away, thinking how
precious she had already become to me, and philosophizing upon the
strange genus, man, who could so readily twine his affections about an
inanimate object. Upon consideration, it did not seem so strange a
thing, however, for did not this boat represent the work of brains and
hands for a generation past? Was it not the result of the study and
hard-earned experiences of many men for many years? Men whose humble
lives had been spent along the rough coast in daily struggles with the
storms of ocean and of life? Many of them now slept in obscure graves,
some in the deep sea, others under the tender, green turf; but here
was the concentration of their ideas, the ultimatum of their labors,
and I inwardly resolved, that, since to me was given the enjoyment, to
them should be the honor, and that it should be through no fault of
her captain if the Centennial Republic did not before many months
reach her far-distant point of destination, twenty-six hundred miles
away, on the white strands of the Gulf of Mexico.

CHAPTER II.

SOURCES OF THE OHIO RIVER

DESCRIPTION OF THE MONONGAHELA AND ALLEGHANY RIVERS.-- THE OHIO
RIVER.-- EXPLORATION OF CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.-- NAMES GIVEN BY ANCIENT
CARTOGRAPHERS TO THE OHIO.-- ROUTES OF THE ABORIGINES FROM THE GREAT
LAKES TO THE OHIO RIVER.