Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 9).djvu/199

This page has been validated.
NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO
193

of this character of obstructions." The snags and logs of generations had been almost untouched by the government—"left to the uncertain and unpaid-for attention of private individuals." The plan now (1866) to rid the valley entirely of these great impediments to navigation marks a new era in the history of the Ohio. It was found, upon examination, that in the six hundred odd miles between Pittsburg and Louisville there were seventy-five separate points where there were snags, forty-nine "logs and loggy places," twenty-eight wrecks and seventy-two "sunken boats &c." Between Louisville and Cairo there were some sixty additional obstructions of similar nature—a total of two hundred and eighty-five obstruction points. A schedule of these obstructions, between Pittsburg and Wheeling for instance, will be found interesting. The asterisks refer to obstructions in or near the channel at comparatively low water: