were quickly mounted for a raid through this new land.

Crossing the long bridge over the Monongahela, a muddy, turbid-looking
river, we commenced the ascent of Coal Hill, so called from the great
quantities of this material it supplies; along its base lies a range of
busy manufactories, and the roar of the steam-engine resounds on all
sides. Here, too, is a growing town, called Birmingham; but it must
overleap the mountain, or, following the galleries by which the miners
have already penetrated to its centre, become a subterranean city,
before it can hope to rival even a suburb of its gigantic sponsor.

We had much difficulty in scaling the hill; the track was knee-deep in
heavy mud, and in trying to follow a narrow ledge, by which we
calculated to avoid this impediment for a hundred yards, I----'s horse
made a false step, and fairly rolled down a precipitous descent of some
fifty feet into the road beneath, to the infinite amusement of a group
of miners, who had probably been "guessing" that such a termination to
our scramble was likely: they now swore that a better Racker[11] down
hill they had never seen. I----d had thrown himself adroitly out of his
seat on the upper side of the ledge the very instant of the brute's
slip, and, being unhurt, soon caught the astonished nag, which remained
quietly looking about by the bottom of the precipice, half buried in an
avalanche of shingle and small coal he had loosened in his course.

Once on the summit of this coal-hill, the plan of the growing city of
manufacture lay displayed as on a chart beneath our feet, together with
a great extent of country, and the course and character of the two fine
rivers which, combined at this spot, take henceforward the name and
style of the Ohio, or River of Beauty.

The course of the muddy Monongahela is north-west; and, from about
north-east, the clear, lively Alleghany comes bounding into it,
breasting its turbid waters, and bearing their heavy mass back by its
brisk charge close against the western bank, whence, side by side, they
take their downward course, but each preserving its distinctive
character and colour for a considerable distance; divided by a pretty
verdant island, about a couple of miles below their junction, they each
embrace a moiety of it, renewing their churlish fellowship once more
when this obstacle is passed.

The town stands upon a small alluvial delta, of a triangular form, at
the exact point of union between th