Early in the year 1785, the legislatures of Virginia and Maryland paffed acts to encourage opening the navigation of this river. It was estimated that the expense of the works would amount to fifty thoufand pounds fterling, and ten years were allowed for their completion; but the prefident and directors of the incorporated company have fince supposed that forty-five thousand pounds would be adequate to the operation, and that it would be accomplished in a fhorter period than was ftipulated. Their calculations are founded on the progrefs already made, and the fummary mode established for enforcing the collection of the dividends, as the money may become neceffary. annum. As foon as the proprietors fhall begin to receive toll, they will doubtless find an ample compenfation for their pecuniary advances. By an estimate made many years ago, it was calculated that the amount in the commencement would be at the rate of eleven thoufand eight hundred and feventy-five pounds, Virginia currency, per The toll must every year become more productive; as the quantity of articles for exportation will be augmented in a rapid ratio, with the increase of population and the extenfion of fettlements. In the mean time the effect will be immediately feen in the agriculture of the interior country; for the multitude of horses now employed in carrying produce to market, will then be used altogether for the purposes of tillage. But in order to form juft conceptions of the utility of this inland navigation, it would be requifite to notice the long rivers which empty into the Potomack, and even to take a furvey of the geographical pofition of the western waters, The Shenandoah, which empties just above the Blue mountains, may, according to report, be made navigable, at a trifling expenfe, more than one hundred and fifty miles from its confluence with the Potomack; and will receive and bear the produce of the richest part of the State. Commiffioners have been appointed to form a plan, and to estimate the expense of opening the channel of this river, if on examination it should be found practicable. The South Branch, ftill higher, is navigable in its actual condition nearly or quite ope hundred miles, through exceedingly fertile lands. Between thefe on the Virginia fide are several smaller rivers, that may with cafe be improved, fo as to afford a paffage for boats. On the Maryland fide are the Monocafy, Antietam, and Conegocheague, fome of which pafs pafs through the State of Maryland, and have their fources in Pennfylvania. From fort Cumberland, or Wills' creek, one or two good waggon roads may be had, where the diftance is from thirty-five to forty miles, to the Yonghiogany, a large and navigable branch of the Monongahela, which last forms a junction with the Allegany at fort Pitt. But by paffing farther up the Potomack than fort Cumberland, which may very eafily be done, a portage by a good waggon road to Cheat river, another large branch of the Monongahela, can be obtained through a space which fome fay is twenty, others twenty-two, others twenty-five, and none more than thirty miles. When arrived at either of thefe western waters, the navigation through that immenfe region is opened by a thoufand directions, and to the lakes in feveral places by portages of less than ten miles; and by one portage, it is afferted, of not more than a single mile. Notwithstanding it was fneeringly faid by some foreigners, at the beginning of this undertaking, that the Americans were fond of engaging in fplendid projects which they could never accomplish, yet it is hoped the fuccefs of this first effay towards improving their inland navigation, will refcue them from the reproach intended to have been fixed upon their national character, by the unmerited imputation. The Great Kanhawa is a river of confiderable note for the fertility of its land, and ftill more, as leading towards the head waters of James river. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether its great and numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expense to which it will require ages to render its inhabitants equal. The great obftacles begin at what are called the Great Falls, ninety miles above the mouth, below which are only five or fix rapids, and these passable, with fome difficulty, even at low water. From the falls to the mouth of Green Briar is one hundred miles, and thence to the lead mines one hundred and twenty. It is two hundred and eighty yards wide at its mouth. The Little Kanhawa is one hundred and fifty yards wide at the mouth. It yields a navigation of ten miles only. Perhaps its por thern branch, called Junius's creek, which interlocks with the western waters of Monongahela, may one day admit a fhorter paffage from the latter into the Ohio. Befides the rivers we have now mentioned, there are many others of leís note, nevertheless the State does not abound with good fish; fturgeon, fhad fand herring are the most plenty; perch, sheepslead, drum, rock fish, and trout, are common; befides these, they have oysters, crabs, fhrimps, &c. in abundance. The fprings in this State are almost innumerable. In Augufta there is a remarkable cafcade, it bears the name of the Falling Spring. It is a water of James river, where it is called Jackson's river, rising in the warm fpring mountains about twenty miles fouth-weft of the warm fpring, and flowing into that valley. About three quarters of a mile from its fource it falls over a rock two hundred feet into the valley below. The sheet of water is broken in its breadth by the rock in two or three places, but not at all in its height. Between the fheet and rock, at the bottom, you may walk acrofs dry. This cataract will bear no comparison with that of Niagara, as to the quantity of water compofing it, the sheet being only twelve for fifteen eet wide above, and fomewhat more spread below; but it is half as high again. SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, &c. The foil below the mountains feems to have acquired a character for goodness which it by no means deferves. Though not rich, it is well fuited to the growth of tobacco and Indian corn, and parts of it for wheat. Good crops of cotton, flax and hemp are also raised; and in fome counties they have plenty of cyder, and exquisite brandy, diftilled from peaches, which grow in great abundance upon the numerous rivers of the Chesapeak.. The planters, before the war, paid their principal attention to the culture of tobacco, of which there used to be exported, generally, fifty-five thousand hogfheads a year. Since the revolution they are turning their attention more to the cultivation of wheat, Indian corn, barley, flax and hemp. It is expected that this State w add the article of rice to the lift of exports; as it is fuppofed a large body of swamp, in the easternmost counties, is capable of producing it. Horned or neat cattle are bred in great numbers in the western counties of Virginia, as well as the States fouth of it, where they have an extenfive range, and mild winters, without any permanent fnows. They run at large, are not housed, and multiply very fast. "In the lower parts of the State a disease prevails among the neat cattle which proves fatal to all that are not bred there. The oxen from the more northern States, which were employed at the fiege of York-town, in October 1781, almost all died, fometimes forty of them in a night, and often fuddenly dropped down dead in the roads. It is faid that the feeds of this difeafe were brought from the Havannah to South Carolina or Georgia in fome hides, and that the difeafe has made a progress northward to Virginia. Lord Dunmore imported fome cattle from Rhode-Island, and kept them confined in a small pasture, near his feat, where no cattle had been for fome years, and where they could not intermix with other cattle, and yet they foon died." They will give one Horse-racing has The gentlemen of this State being fond of pleasure, have taken much pains to raise a good breed of horses, and have fucceeded in it beyond any of the other States in the Union. thousand pounds fterling for a good feed horse. had a great tendency to encourage the breeding of good horses, as it affords an opportunity of putting them to the trial of their speed. They are more elegant, and will perform more service than the horses of the northern States. With respect to fubterraneous productions, Virginia is the most pregnant with minerals and foffils of any State in the Union. Mr. Jefferson mentions a lump of gold ore of about four pounds weight found near the falls of Rappahannock river, which yielded seventeen penny-weights of gold, of extraordinary ductility; but no other indication of gold has been difcovered in its neighbourhood. On the great Kanhawa, opposite to the mouth of Cripple creek, and alfo about twenty-five miles from the fouthern boundary of the State, in the county of Montgomery, are mines of lead. The metal is mixed, fometimes with earth, and fometimes with rock, which requires the force of gunpowder to open it; and is accompanied with a portion of filver, but too small to be worth feparation under any process hitherto attempted there. The proportion yielded is from fifty to eighty pounds of pure lead from an hundred pounds of wafhed ore. The most common is that of fixty to the hundred pounds. The veins are fometimes moft flattering; at others they disappear fuddenly and totally. They enter the fide of the hill, and proceed horizontally. Two of them have been wrought by the pub lic kic. Thefe would employ about fifty labourers to advantage. Thirty men, who have at the fame time raised their own corn, have produced fixty tons of lead in the year; but the general quantity is from twenty to twenty-five tons. The prefent furnace is a mile from the ore bank, and on the opposite fide of the river. The ore is first waggoned to the river, a quarter of a mile, then laden on board of canoes and carried across the river, which is there about two hundred yards wide, and then again taken into waggons and carried to the furnace. This mode was originally adopted, that they might avail themselves of a good fituation on a creek, for a pounding mill; but it would be easy to have the furnace and pounding mill on the fame fide of the river, which would yield water, without any dam, by a canal of about half a mile in length. From the furnace the lead is transported one hundred and thirty miles along a good road, leading through the peaks of Otter to Lynch's ferry, or Winston's, on James river, from whence it is carried by water about the fame distance to Weftham. This land carriage may be greatly fhortened, by delivering the lead on James river, above the Blue Ridge, from whence a ton weight has been brought in two canoes. The great Kanhawa has confiderable falls in the neighbourhood of the mines. About feven miles below are three falls, of three or four feet perpendicular each; and three miles above is a rapid of three miles continuance, which has been compared in its descent to the great fall of James river; yet it is the opinion, that they may be laid open for ufeful navigation, so as to reduce very much the portage between the Kanhawa and James river. A valuable lead mine is faid to have been discovered in Cumberland, below the mouth of Red river. The greatest, however, known in the western country are on the Miffiffippi, extending from the mouth of Rock river an hundred and fifty miles upwards. These are not wrought, the lead ufed in that country being from the banks on the Spanish fide of the Miffiffippi, oppofite to Kaskaskia. A mine of copper was opened in the county of Amherst, on the north fide of James river, and another in the oppofite county, on the fouth fide. However, either from bad management or the poverty of the veins, they were discontinued. There are feveral iron mines in this State; a few years ago there were fix worked; two furnaces made about one hundred and fifty tons of bar iron each; four others |