al pattern, with fan-shaped
windows above the doors, Grecian pillars flanking the front porch, and
wearing the air of comfortable respectability.

Beautiful islands lend variety to the scene, some of them mere
willowed "tow-heads" largely submerged in times of flood, while others
are of a permanent character, often occupied by farms. We have with us
a copy of Cuming's _Western Pilot_ (Cincinnati, 1834), which is still
a practicable guide for the Ohio, as the river's shore lines are not
subject to so rapid changes as those of the Mississippi; but many of
the islands in Cuming's are not now to be found, having been swept
away in floods, and we encounter few new ones. It is clear that the
islands are not so numerous as sixty years ago. The present works of
the United States Corps of Engineers tend to permanency in the
_status quo_; doubtless the government map of 1881 will remain an
authoritative chart for a half century or more to come.

W----'s enthusiasm for botany frequently takes us ashore. Landing at
the foot of some eroded steep which, with ragged charm, rises sharply
from the gravelly beach, we fasten Pilgrim's painter to a stone, and
go scrambling over the hillside in search of flowers, bearing in mind
the Boy's constant plea, to "Get only one of a kind," and leave the
rest for seed; for other travelers may come this way, and 'tis a sin
indeed to exterminate a botanical rarity. But we find no rarities
to-day--only solomon's seal, trillium, wild ginger, cranebill,
jack-in-the-pulpit, wild columbine. Poison ivy is on every hand, in
these tangled woods, with ferns of many varieties--chiefly maidenhair,
walking leaf, and bladder. The view from projecting rocks, in these
lofty places, is ever inspiring; the country spread out below us, as
in a relief map; the great glistening river winding through its hilly
trough; a rumpled country for a few miles on either side, gradually
trending into broad plains, checkered with fields on which farmsteads
and rustic villages are the chessmen.

At one o'clock we were at Steubenville, Ohio (67 miles), where
the broad stoned wharf leads sharply up to the smart, well-built,
substantial town of some sixteen thousand inhabitants. W---- and I had
some shopping to do there, while the Doctor and the Boy remained down
at the inevitable wharf-boat, and gossiped with the philosophical
agent, who bemoaned the decadence of steamboat traffic in general, and
the rapidly falling stage of water i