- ately below the town there is a rapid current, not much
ruffled by the breeze, but a long stretch of deeper water beyond it is rolling with waves.[50] Where the waves and the stream meet, white breakers are formed. Wishing to avoid these as much as possible, I took a young man of the neighbourhood with me, and availed myself of his local knowledge.
Wheeling is a considerable town on the left bank of the river, ninety-six miles from Pittsburg. It is expected that the new road from Baltimore to this place will be completed in the course of a year.[51] This being a national highway, on which no tolls are to be levied, and the shortest connection between a sea-port and the Ohio, a great increase of trade is consequently anticipated.[52] Hereafter, Baltimore will be the most proper landing place for Europeans who would settle in western America. At present the carriage of goods from Baltimore to Wheeling is cheaper than from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. From this it is evident, that the new route is already the shortest and the cheapest.
About four and a half miles below Wheeling, I was sur-*
