Va., at the mouth of the Little Kanawha (183
miles). In the full glare of the scorching sun, Parkersburg looks
harsh and dry. But it is well built, and, as seen from the river,
apparently prosperous. The Ohio is here crossed by the once famous
million-dollar bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio railway. The wharf is
at the junction of the two streams, but chiefly on the shore of the
unattractive Little Kanawha, which is spanned by several bridges, and
abounds in steamers and houseboats moored to the land. Clark and Jones
did not think well of Little Kanawha lands, yet there were several
families on the river as early as 1763, and Trent, Croghan, and other
Fort Pitt fur-traders had posts here. There were only half-a-dozen
houses in 1800, and Parkersburg itself was not laid out until ten
years later.

Blennerhassett's Island lies two miles below--a broad, dark mass of
forest, at the head joined by a dam to the West Virginia shore, from
which it is separated by a slender channel. Blennerhassett's is some
three and a half miles long; of its five hundred acres, four hundred
are under cultivation in three separate tenant farms. We landed at the
upper end, where Blennerhassett had his wharf, facing the Ohio shore,
and found that we were trespassing upon "The Blennerhassett Pleasure
Grounds." A seedy-looking man, who represented himself to be the
proprietor, promptly accosted us and levied a "landing fee" of ten
cents per head, which included the right to remain over night. A
little questioning developed the fact that thirty acres at the head
of the island belong to this man, who rents the ground to a market
gardener,--together with the comfortable farmhouse which occupies
the site of Blennerhassett's mansion,--but reserves to himself the
privilege of levying toll on visitors. He declared to me that fifteen
thousand people came to the island each summer, generally in large
railway and steamboat excursions, which gives him an easily-acquired
income sufficient for his needs. It is a pity that so famous a place
is not a public park.

The touching story of the Blennerhassetts is one of the best known in
Western annals. Rich in culture and worldly possessions, but wildly
impracticable, Harman Blennerhassett and his beautiful wife came to
America in 1798. Buying this lovely island in the Ohio, six hundred
miles west of tidewater, they built a large mansion, which they
furnished luxuriously, adorning it with fine pictures and statuary.