is at
this stage of the water a sloping, stony beach, some ten to twenty
yards in width, from which ascends the sharp steep, for the most part
heavily tree-clad--maples, birches, elms and oaks of goodly girth, the
latter as yet in but half-leaf. On the "bottom side" of the river, the
alluvial terrace presents a sheer wall of clay rising from eight to a
dozen feet above the beach, which is often thick-grown with willows,
whose roots hold the soil from becoming too easy a prey to the
encroaching current. Sycamores now begin to appear in the bottoms,
although of less size than we shall meet below. Sometimes the little
towns we see occupy a narrow and more or less rocky bench upon the
hill side of the stream, but settlement is chiefly found upon the
bottoms.

Shippingsport (32 miles), on the left bank, where we stopped this noon
for eggs, butter, and fresh water, is on a narrow hill bench--a dry,
woe-begone hamlet, side-tracked from the path of the world's progress.
While I was on shore, negotiating with the sleepy storekeeper, Pilgrim
and her crew waited alongside the flatboat which serves as the town
ferry. There they were visited by a breezy, red-faced young man, in a
blue flannel shirt and a black slouch hat, who was soon enough at his
ease to lie flat upon the ferry gunwale, his cheeks supported by his
hands, and talk to W---- and the Doctor as if they were old friends.
He was a dealer in nitroglycerin cartridges, he said, and pointed to a
long, rakish-looking skiff hard by, which bore a red flag at its
prow. "Ye see that? Thet there red flag? Well, thet's the law on us
glyser_een_ fellers--over five hundred poun's, two flags; un'er five
hundred, one flag. I've two hundred and fifty, I have. I tell yer th'
steamboats steer clear o' me, an' don' yer fergit it, neither; they
jist give me a wide berth, they do, yew bet! 'n' th' railroads, they
don' carry no glyser_een_ cartridge, they don't--all uv it by skiff,
like yer see me goin'."

These cartridges, he explained, are dropped into oil or gas wells
whose owners are desirous of accelerating the flow. The cartridge, in
exploding, enlarges the hole, and often the output of the well is at
once increased by several hundred per cent. The young fellow had the
air of a self-confident rustic, with little experience in the world.
Indeed, it seemed from his elated manner as if this might be his
first trip from home, and the blowing of oil wells an incidental
speculation. The B