ample
space for a city as large as Pekin; with two ports, one on the
Alleghany, the other on the Ohio. I here traced the course of the canal
to the aqueduct on which it crosses the river. Two fine steamers, with
their galleried decks tier over tier, were stemming the current, each
looking like the old wood-cut of Noah's Ark,--houses built upon rafts,
of three stories high, with balconies running round them, the whole
being covered by inclined roofs. Many of the picturesque-looking keels
found here were also working up for the quays; and the waters just
before the busy town presented a strange contrast to the view either up
or down the rivers, where all was tranquil and solitary as when the
light _pirogue_ of the adventurous _voyageur_ first timidly skimmed
along by their rich shores, sending the startled deer to the mountain
and drawing the watchful savage down.

How to get back was now a consideration without retracing my steps, to
do which I had neither the instinct nor the inclination. I pushed for a
near wood, from which I perceived smoke stealthily curling over the tree
tops; and, after a long threading of the thicket, stumbled upon a little
colony of charcoal-burners, the blackest and the merriest devils I ever
met: they might have been Iroquois, or negroes, from their colour; but
the first reply I got to my hail rendered any inquiry as to country
unnecessary.

"Hola! my friend," shouted I at the top of my voice, as a tall,
half-naked being stalked out of one of the huts, from which I was
separated by a deep ravine; "pray step this way for one moment."

The man did as I desired, without a word; a couple of attendant imps
hanging on to the strings of his knees.

"I'm sorry to trouble you," I added, as he drew within easy
speaking-distance; "but the fact is, I have lost my road, and fear to
lose my dinner."

"I'faith, thin, sir, if you'll tell me where-abouts you lost the road
I'll find you the dinner, and go and look for the road while you're
atein' it: with the blessing o' God, it will be the first road I seen
since I've bin this side o' Pittsburg, to say the laste."

"Maybe you've seen a fine aisy-goin' road betune Cork and Cove?" I
replied, in the same accent.

"Maybe I hav'nt," grinned the pleased charcoal-burner, laughing from ear
to ear. "Och murder! you're the devil, sure! wasn't it the last ten
miles I ever toed of Irish ground? Long life to you, sir! wait till I
call the wife. Molly ashtore, come