AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE,

OF A THOUSAND MILES IN A

SKIFF, FROM REDSTONE TO

CAIRO

BY

REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

AFLOAT ON THE OHIO

CHAPTER I.

On the Monongahela—The over-mountain path—Redstone Old Fort—The Youghiogheny—Braddock's defeat.

CHAPTER II.

First day on the Ohio—At Logstown.

CHAPTER III.

Shingis Old Town—The dynamiter—Yellow Creek.

CHAPTER IV.

An industrial region—Steubenville—Mingo Bottom—In a steel mill—Indian character.

CHAPTER V.

Houseboat life—Decadence of steamboat traffic—Wheeling, and Wheeling Creek.

CHAPTER VI.

The Big Grave—Washington, and Round Bottom—A lazy man's Paradise—Captina Creek—George Rogers Clark at Fish Creek—Southern types.

CHAPTER VII.

In Dixie—Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom—The Long Reach—Photographing crackers—Visitors in camp.

CHAPTER VIII.

Life ashore and afloat—Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock of the West"—The Little Kanawha—The story of Blennerhassett's Island.

CHAPTER IX.

Poor whites—First library in the West—An hour at Hockingport—A hermit fisher.

CHAPTER X.

Cliff-dwellers on Long Bottom—Pomeroy Bend—Letart's Island and Rapids—Game in the early day—Rainy weather—In a "cracker" home.

CHAPTER XI.

Battle of Point Pleasant—The story of Gallipolis—Rosebud—Huntington—The genesis of a house-boater.

CHAPTER XII.

In a fog—The Big Sandy—Rainy weather—Operatic gypsies—An ancient tavern.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Scioto, and the Shawanese—A night at Rome—Limestone—Keels, flats, and boatmen of the olden time.

CHAPTER XIV.

Produce boats—A dead town—On the Great Bend—Grant's birthplace—The Little Miami—The genesis of Cincinnati.

CHAPTER XV.

The story of North Bend—The "shakes"—Driftwood—Rabbit Hash—A side-trip To Big Bone Lick.

CHAPTER XVI.

New Switzerland—An old-time river pilot—Houseboat life, on the lower reaches—A philosopher in rags—Wooded solitudes—Arrival at Louisville.

CHAPTER XVII.

Storied Louisville—Red Indians and white—A night on Sand Island—New Albany—Riverside hermits—The river falling—A deserted village—An ideal camp.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Village life—A traveling photographer—On a country road—Studies in color—Again among colliers—In sweet content—A ferry romance.

CHAPTER XIX.

Fishermen's tales—Skiff nomenclature—Green River—Evansville—Henderson—Audubon and Rafinesque—Floating trade—The Wabash.

CHAPTER XX.

Shawneetown—Farm-houses on stilts—Cave-in-Rock—An island night.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Cumberland and the Tennessee—Stately Solitudes—Old Fort Massac—Dead towns in Egypt—The last camp—Cairo.

APPENDIX A.

Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement.

APPENDIX B.

Selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio.

INDEX.