ith white or purple amethystine crystals. I
decided that there were places where oil might be found, though there was
certainly no indication of it. I believe that my conjecture subsequently
proved to be true, and that Indiana has shown herself to be a wise virgin
not without oil.

On the afternoon of the next day, riding with my guide, I found that I
had left my blanket at a house miles behind. I offered the man a large
price to return and bring it, which he did. While waiting by the wood,
in a dismal drizzle, I saw a log cabin and went to it for shelter. Its
only inmate was a young woman, who, seeing me coming, hastily locked the
door and rushed into the neighbouring woods. When the guide returned I
expressed some astonishment at the flight; _he_ did not. With a very
grave expression he asked me, "Don't the gals in _your_ part of the
country allays break for the woods when they see _you_ a-coming?"
"Certainly not," I replied. To which he made answer, "Thank God, our
gals here hev got better morrils than yourn."

We returned to St. Louis. There I was shown the immensely long tomb of
Porter the Kentucky giant. This man was nine feet in height! I had seen
him alive long before in Philadelphia. I made several interesting
acquaintances in St. Louis, the Athens of the West. But I must hurry on.

I went to Cincinnati, where I found orders to wait for Mr. Lea. A
syndicate had been formed in Providence, Rhode Island, which had
purchased a great property in Cannelton, West Virginia. This consisted
of a mountain in which there was an immense deposit of cannel coal.
Cannelton was very near the town of Charleston, which is at the junction
of the Kanawha (a tributary of the Ohio) and Elk rivers.

I waited a week at the hotel in Cincinnati for Mr. Lea. It was a weary
week, for I had no acquaintances and made none. Never in my life before
did I see so many Sardines, or Philistines of the dullest stamp as at
that hotel. But at last Mr. Lea came with a party of ladies and
gentlemen. A small steamboat was secured, and we went up the Ohio. The
voyage was agreeable and not without some incidents. There was a freshet
in the river, and one night, taking a short cut over a cornfield, the
steamboat stuck fast--like Eve--in an apple-tree.

One day one of the party asked me what was the greatest aggregate deposit
of coal known in England. I could not answer. A few hours after we
stopped at a town in Kentucky. There I