portance, and certainty of future grandeur, deserves a minute description. There are, besides, the villages of Columbia, Reading, Newtown, Montgomery, Springfield, Colerain, Harrison, Crosby, and Cleves.

Cincinnati, at present the largest town in the state of Ohio, is situated on the north bank of the Ohio river, twenty-two miles above the mouth of the Great Miami, in 39° 6' N. lat. and 7° 20′ W. long. Its distance (by land) from Pittsburgh is 300 miles, from Baltimore 400, Lexington 85, Chilicothe 93, Louisville 105, and New Orleans (by water) 1666. The site of the town is elevated from 70 to 120 feet above low water mark, and is never overflowed; the streets are sixty-six feet wide, crossing each other at right angles, and the greater part of the houses being of brick, make a very handsome appearance. This flourishing town was laid out about thirty years ago; in July, 1815, the number of public buildings and dwellinghouses was 1,100, and the population estimated at 6,000. In June, 1817, the buildings had augmented to 1,300, and the inhabitants to 8,000; and by the Scioto Gazette it appears, that in April, 1819, the population had been returned at upwards of 10,000! The astonishing progress of this place is an abridgment of the history of improvement in the western country.

The public buildings are spacious and elegant; several denominations of Christians have splendid houses for public worship; the most remarkable are those possessed by the baptists, presbyterians, methodists, and quakers. But the building in Cincinnati that most deserves the attention of strangers, and which on review must excite the best feelings of human nature, is the Lancaster school-house. This edifice consists of two wings, one of which is appropriated to boys, the other to girls. In less than two weeks after the school was opened, upwards of 400 children were admitted, several of them belonging to some of the most respectable families in the town; the building will accommodate 1,100 scholars. To the honour of the inhabitants of Cincinnati, upwards of 12,000 dollars were subscribed by them towards defraying the expenses of this benevolent undertaking. Amongst the many objects that must arrest the attention and claim the admiration of the traveller, there is none that can deserve his regard more than this praise-worthy institution. Virtue, science, and the principles of social life, are now taught, where thirty years since stood a forest; or if the human form or habitation made their appearance, it was the species in its rudest state of savage life. Here are also three brick mar

ket-houses, in which are exposed, four days in the week, every necessary, and many luxuries of life. Provisions are from ten to fifteen per cent. cheaper than at Pittsburgh; the following were the rates of the market (English money) in the last week of May, 1819: beef, 24d. to 3 d. per lb.; pork, 24d.; bacon, 5d. to 7d.; butter, 9d. to 16d.; cheese, 61d. to 10d.; sugar (maple) 9d.; venison hams, each, 15d. to 27d.; potatoes, per bushel, 16d. to 27d.; fowls, per dozen, 5s. 6d. to 98.; eggs, ditto, 4d. to 8d.; flour, per barrel of 1961b. 22s. 6d. ; apples, ditto, 58. 11⁄2d.; oats, per bushel, 13 d.; hay, per ton, 45s. ; coals, 6d. to 8d. per bushel: whisky, per gallon, 3s. 4 d. House rent for a mechanic is about sixty dollars; but the most of them soon get houses of their own. Women servants are paid 20s. 3d. to 29s. 3d., and men ditto, 63s. to 72s. per month, besides their board and lodging. Mechanics' board and lodging per week, 13s. 6d. to 18s. The wages of a me. chanic, in all trades, vary from 368. to 40s. 6d. per week. Tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, and saddlers, are the best trades; next tinmen, bakers, and hatters; printers are third-rate; and for weavers no employment. Wearing apparel is here very expensive: a superfine blue cloth coat will cost, £2 18s. 6d. to £3 78. 6d. a yard; making a coat 278.; hats, 31s. 6d. to 458.; shoes, 13s. 6d. to 15s. 9d. a pair; Wellington boots, 368. to 40s. 6d. ; Hessian ditto, 498. 6d. to 54s.-The general average of the rent of a good house, well situated for business, is from £90 to £130 per annum: taxes almost nothing.

An enormous stone building is erected on the bank of the Ohio as a steam manufactory, which cost 120,000 dollars; it is nine stories high, in all 110 feet, and intended for making flour and oil, and also for a fulling mill. The machinery is driven by an engine of seventy horse power, and when in complete operation will grind 700 barrels of flour weekly. A steam saw-mill is also erected, and a large building has been raised by the Cincinnati manufacturing company, for the execution of their operations. Besides the cotton and woollen manufactory, which carries 3,300 spindles for cotton and 400 for woollen, there are four cotton spinning establishments, which contain together about 1,500 spindles. In the winter of 1815, a woollen manufactory commenced, which produces sixty yards of broad cloth per day; and wool-carding and cloth-dressing are performed in several places. There are also two extensive rope-walks, two glass-houses, which produce window glass, hollow ware, and white flint glass,

a sugar refinery, and two or three breweries, which in the year 1816, consumed 40,000 bushels of barley. A foundery for iron castings has lately been established, and a white and red lead manufactory that produces six tons weekly. There are three banks in Cincinnati, and two printing-offices, each of which publishes a weekly newspaper nearly equal in number, viz. 1,500 copies: several respectable books have been printed. The Cincinnati university is a mere nominal institution; at present it languishes in embryo. The public library contains upwards of 8,000 volumes, among which are many valuable works. The "School of Literature and the Arts," is principally composed of young men, and promises to become the nurse of genius and taste.

The exports of Cincinnati consist of flour, corn, beef, pork, butter, lard, bacon, peach brandy, beer and porter, pot and pearl ashes, cheese, soap and candles, hats, hemp, ropes, saddles, rifles, cherry-tree and black ash boards, staves and scantlings, cabinet furniture, chairs, &c. East Indian and European goods are imported from Baltimore and Philadelphia, by the way of Pittsburgh. Lead is procured from St. Louis, and rum, sugar, molasses, and dry goods, are received in steam-boats and keels from New Orleans. Salt is easily obtained from the Kenhaway saltworks, and coal (of which vast quantities are consumed) is brought down the Ohio from Pittsburgh and Wheeling, in flat-bottomed boats. In short, Cincinnati shares with Pittsburgh the commerce of the whole valley of Ohio; the former is to the Mississippi what the latter is to Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. If any calculation could be hazarded upon the progress of either, it might perhaps be justifiable to predict, that for a great length of time, these two prosperous towns will bear very nearly the same relation to each other that they do at present.

The price of town lots in Cincinnati is high; those in Main, First, and Second streets sell for more than 200 dollars a foot, measuring on the front line. Those possessing less local advantages are sold from 50 to 10 dollars; out-lots and lands adjoining the town, bring from 500 to 1,000 dollars an acre. Farms above and below the creeks, and beyond the range of hills on the north, sell for 50, 80, and 100 dollars an acre, according to quality and proximity to the town. Vast remains of ancient fortifications, embankments, stone walls, earthen mounds, the latter containing rude stone coffins filled with human bones, have been discovered within the precincts of this town; and many curious articles dug up, composed of

jasper, rock crystal, cannel-coal, copper, sculptural representations on different substances, &c. &c.; altogether tending to prove that this country was formerly inhabited by a race of men very different from the present American Indians.

BUTLER COUNTY lies north of Hamilton, south of Preble, east of the state of Indiana, and west of Warren county, and is about 24 miles square. It is watered by the Great Miami, and also by several handsome creeks, such as Dryfork, running into Whitewater; Indian creek, Four-mile creek, Seven-mile creek, Elk, and Dick's creek, running into the Great Miami. The soil of two-thirds of this county is fertile; but there are tracts of poor land to the south-east and north-west.

Hamilton, the seat of justice, is situated twenty-five miles north-east of Cincinnati, on the east bank of the Miami. Its site is elevated and beautiful: it has about seventy-five buildings, principally of wood; a post-office, and a printing-office issuing a weekly newspaper, entitled, the "Miami Intelligencer." In 1816, there were 2,877 male inhabitants, over twenty-one years of age in this county

Oxford, stands near the northern confines of the county, has few houses, but in time will probably become a respectable town, as a college is to be established in it, according to the provisions of a law passed in 1810. This seminary is endowed with an entire township of land, which has been chiefly leased to settlers; the leases extend to ninety-nine years, renewable for ever.

PREBLE COUNTY is bounded on the south by Butler, east by Montgomery, north by Darke, and west by Indiana. It is twenty-four miles long and eighteen wide, and is watered by the head branches of Four and Seven-mile creeks, Franklin creek, Bushy fork, Twin creek, and small branches of the north fork of White water, all affording excellent mill seats. The surface of this county is pretty level, soil rich and highly productive; timber, poplar, ash, black walnut of great size, and some oak. This county contains some valuable tracts of unsold United States land.

Eaton, is the chief town; it is situated near the site of old Fort St. Clair, on a beautiful plain, inclined to the south, and watered by Seven-mile creek. It has about thirty-five houses, stone jail, and a post-office; and is distant from Cincinnati about sixty miles, in a northern direction.

DARKE COUNTY is bounded on the south by Preble, east

by Miami county, north by Indian lands, and east by Indiana, being thirty miles long and twenty-four wide, and is watered by Panther, Greenville and Still-water creeks, and by the river Mississinway; surface level, soil rich, but wet in places: barrens and priaries abound in the north-western parts, timber, principally oak; but walnut, sugar maple, buckeye, &c. are common on the bottoms, and large tracts of vacant land, belonging to the United States. The sites of old forts Jefferson, Recovery, and Greenville, are in this county: the last has been fixed on as the county seat; at present it is only a village of cabins, but the population is rapidly augmenting.

MIAMI COUNTY, has Montgomery south, Champaign east, Indian lands north, and Darke on the west. It is about thirty miles in length, and twenty broad; and is abundantly watered by the Great Miami, which divides it from north to south; by the South-west, or Still-water branch, Panther and Greenville creeks; Loramie's creek, and Fawn, Lost, and Honey creeks; the surface is level, soil moist and rich.

Troy, the seat of justice for Miami county, stands on the west side of the Great Miami, twenty miles above Dayton, and seventy-two north of Cincinnati. It has a post-office and a public library. The site of this town is a handsome plain, which, however, terminates in swamps, about one mile from the rear of the town.

Piqua-town, is a post-town, situated on the west bank of the Miami river of Ohio, in the county of Miami; and although not the seat of justice, is by far the place of the greatest notoriety and importance within the county. This is owing to the beauty of its situation, being the site of the old town of the Shawanoese Indians, who named it after one of their principal tribes, viz. the Piqua tribe. The falls of the river at the town, afford many sites for water-works. The Shawanoese were routed and driven from this place, about the year 1780, by the Kentuckians. It is seventy-seven miles north from Cincinnati, and about eighty miles west from Columbus, the permanent seat of government for the state. The country around Piqua is settled by emigrants, chiefly from Pennsylvania, NewJersey, and Kentucky; they are an industrious, moral, and religious people; and many of them possessed of considerable wealth. Religious denominations are methodists, presbyterians, seceders, baptists, and new-lights. The country is healthy and fruitful, abounding with springs of the purest water. The lands generally of the first quality. All the unsold lands belong to the United States, and