n secured in goal
until the return of his master, who had been on a journey with a string
of slaves, to the State of Arkansas: he was about to be sold to pay
expenses, when his master saw the advertisement and claimed him. As may
be supposed, a strong feeling exists on the opposite shores of the river
as to slavery and freedom. The Abolitionists used to assist the slaves
to escape, and send them off to Canada; even now many do escape; but
this has been rendered more difficult by a system which has latterly
been put in practice by a set of miscreants living on the free side of
the river. These would go to the slave states opposite, and persuade
the negroes to run away, promising to conceal them until they could send
them off to Canada; for a free state is bound to give up a slave when
claimed. Instead of sending them away, they would wait until the reward
was offered by the masters for the apprehension of the slaves, and then
return them, receiving their infamous guerdon. The slaves, aware of
this practice, now seldom attempt to escape.

Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky; the country about is very
rich, and every thing vegetable springs up with a luxuriance which is
surprising. It is situated at the falls of the Ohio, which are only
navigable during the freshets; there is no river in America which has
such a rise and fall as the Ohio, sometimes rising to sixty feet in the
spring; but this is very rare, the general average being about forty
feet. The French named it La Belle Riviere: it is a very grand stream,
running through hills covered with fine timber and underwood; but a very
small portion is as yet cleared by the settlers. At the time that I was
at Louisville the water was lower than it had been remembered for years,
and you could walk for miles over the bed of the river, a calcareous
deposite full of interesting fossils; but the mineralogist and geologist
have as much to perform in America as the agriculturist.

Arrived at Cincinnati. How rapid has been the advance of this western
country. In 1803, deer-skin at the value of forty cents per pound, were
a legal tender; and if offered instead of money could not be refused--
even by a lawyer. Not fifty years ago, the woods which towered where
Cincinnati is now built, resounded only to the cry of the wild animals
of the forest, or the rifle of the Shawnee Indian; now Cincinnati
contains a population of 40,000 inhabitants. It is a beautiful, well
b