Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/29

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NOTES ON VIRGINIA.
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The Little Kanhaway is 150 yards wide at the mouth. It yields a navigation of 10 miles only. Perhaps its northern branch, called Junius's Creek, which interlocks with the weſtern of Mononguhela, may one day admit a ſhorter paſſage from the latter into the Ohio.

The Muſkingum is 280 yards wide at its mouth, and 200 yards at the lower Indian towns, 150 miles upwards. It is navigable for ſmall batteaux to within one mile of a navigable part of Cayahoga River, which runs into Lake Erié.

At Fort Pitt the River Ohio loſes its name, branching into the Monongahela and Allghaney.

The Monongahela is 400 yards wide at its mouth. From thence is 12 or 15 miles to the mouth of Yohoganey, where it is 300 yards wide. Thence to Redſtone by water is 50 miles, by land 30. Then to the mouth of Cheat River by water 40 miles, by land 28, the width continuing at 300 yards, and the navigation good for boats. Thence the width is about 200 yards to the Weſtern Fork, 50 miles higher, and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids, which however with a ſwell of two or three feet become very paſſable for boats. It then admits light boats, except in dry ſeaſons, 65 miles further to the head of Tygart's Valley, preſenting only ſome ſmall rapids and falls of one or two feet perpendicular, and leſſening in its width to 20 yards. The Weſtern Fork is navigable in the winter 10 or 15 miles towards the northern of the Little Kanhaway, and will admit a good waggon road to it. The Yohoganey is the principal branch of this river. It paſſes through the Laurel mountain, about 30 miles from its mouth; is ſo far from 300 to 150