OHIO RIVER (ante). It is probably incorrect to name the Ohio river as the largest affluent of the Mississippi next to the Missouri. as the Arkansas river lays claim to that position both length and the volume of its.waters; The distance from where the Ohio begins Ly the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela at Pittsburg to its mouth is 975 ; but the entire length of the river should include the whole length of the Alleghany, the longest of its river sources, which is not less than 300 In. more. The river was discovered by- the cavalier de la Salle in the fall and winter of 1609-70. He had for several years before been gathering information coucerniug it from the Iroquois who visited his seignory at La Chine above Montreal, and finally reached its source by the way of Niagara and up Cattaraugus creek; from which his Indian guide is supposed to Shave led him to French creek, one of the w. sources of the Alleghany, and only 14 tn. from lake Erie. It is supposed that his canoes were carried from Cattaraugus creek over to French creek, though it is that the portage may have been made from the upper waters of the Genesee river. With canoes launched in autumn on the stream of the Alleghany the discovery of the Ohio followed naturally, and was arrested only by the falls where Louisville now stands. There La Salle turned back, still undecided whether the stream emptied into the gulf of Mexico or into the Pacific ocean, but inclining to the latter opinion. It must have been from the time of this voyage that the river acquired the title of La belle H.-rare—the beautiful river, which it was subsequently called by the French. The source of the Alleghany is in the center of Potter co., Penn., the middle of the n. tier of counties, where the table-lands receive the rainfalls which hesitate which way to flow—whether to join the waters of the St. Lawrence, or to seek the valley that leads them to the gulf of Mexico. See ALLEGILANY RIVER. The junction of the Monon gahela at Pittsburg forms the Ohio. These rivers, rising one n. and the other s. in the Alle ghany range, meet in the heart of wooded hills like those through which they have flowed, and the Ohio for 500 m. of its course below, plows its way through a valley deepening and widetiing as it goes till the rounded hills along this part merge into the rolling prairies of southern Indiana and Illinois, and disappear in the lowlands below the junction of the Wabash. Its entire val ley has been eroded by the action of the water,and though everywhere beautiful in a state of nature, is nowhere picturesque or wild. The geologic formations along its entire line are nearly level and little disturbed by auy violent convulsion. The area of its drainage is 214,000 sq.m.; embracing a small part of the state of N. Y., one
third of Pennsylvania, two-thirds of Ohio, all of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennes see, small portions of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, two-thirds of Indiana, and the s.e. part of Illinois. In this area are included the great valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, which join the Ohio only near its mouth. The shores through much of the upper half of the river present a series of plateaus and broken bluffs that indicate successive wearings below the plane of its former flow, and exhibit a broad valley from 5 to 10 in. in width between its bounding hills. The immediate shores at ordinary stages of the water are cut through alluvium generally, with the marks of recent wearing of water and caving of banks. From Pittsburg to Portsmouth the adja cent hills are mined for coal or iron in many places, and the loading of both into barges in the river is done to an unusual extent by those who own both mines and boats and market their own productions. The s.e. part of Ohio as well as w. of Pennsylvania is a landscape spotted with the smoke of furnaces for the manufacture of iron. Among the abrupt hills below Pittsburg the river is only 1000 ft. wide at low water, and 1200 at high water. It widens gradually below and its high stages frequently cover a vast extent of bottom lauds. The range between its high and low stages of water is very great, 60 ft. being the greatest difference, and 45 ft. the mean difference. The navigation, below Louisville is good for large steamers at all seasons, and is usually maintained for most of the summer up to Wheeling, and in good stages of water Imp to Pittsburg; hut is often too low in summer to permit the "down river boats" to make their trips up to Cincin nati. For rafting and for coal and iron barges it is good at all seasons. At Louisville are the only rapids. These fall 27' ft. in 21 m., and are passed by means of a ship canal with locks for the largest river steamers, and affording an abundant water-power. The immense passenger travel formerly by river sieamers has largely been transferred to the railways. The rate of the current varies from one to three m. an hour, depending on the volume. The rivers which flow to the Ohio from the n. are the Alleghany, Muskingum, Hocking, Sciota, Big and Little Miamis, and the Wabash; from the S. the Monongahela, Little Kanawha, Great Kanawha, Sandy, Licking, Kentucky, Green, Cumberland, and Ten nesse,?. The principal cities and towns upon its banks are Pittsburg, Wheeling, Eliza bethtown, Marrietta, Parkersburg, Pomeroy, Gallipolis, Ironton, Portsmouth, Cincinnati, Covington, Newport., Laurenceburg, Louisville, New Albany, Leavenworth, Evansville, Paducah, and Cairo at its mouth where it joins the Mississippi.