On the evening of the second day we overtook a trading boat belonging to Messrs. INDKenzie and For syth, of the North West Fur company, which had left Fort Dearborn a day or two before our embarkation. She was laden with merchandise for the Indian trade on the Mississippi or Missouri, in burden perhaps fifty tons, navigated by eight oars ; we continued in company with her the greater part of the voyage to St. Louis.
On the fourth day, having run perhaps seventy miles, we reached the junction of the Theakiki with Fox river, the first considerable stream which puts in from the right, and the two united form the Illinois, in breadth one hundred and fifty, or two hundred yards. The next day brought us to the mouth of Kickapoo river, a considerable stream from the left, called the Vermil lion. Soon after passing the last river, we came to the Rapids, the greatest obstacle to the navigation of the Illinois.
Our little craft being crowded with soldiers, by the advice of the pilot, some of our men took the land, and others went on board the large boat, myself and three others, besides the pilot, continuing in the pirogue. The liver is here narrow ; its bed and sides consist of ir regular broken rocks, the current rapid, but no where, I think, so rapid as to arrest the ascent of a light boat, im pelled by a strong force. Both the boats passed without accident, and at the foot of the rapids we waited for the party on land, who started early in the day, and joined us about dark.' " Here concludes the account which this gentleman was so obliging as to afford, and which, allowing the in accuracies of memory, and optic measurement, may serve to give us a good general idea of this interesting and important communication between the waters of the north-east and the south-west. The Illinois, it is well known, is one of thc most navigable of our western rivers. Nothing more seems necessary to render this communication useful to commerce, than to deepen the passage from the Chicago to the Theakiki—the rapids of the Illinois would not, probably, need to be locked. Where a boat of 50 tons, unwieldy, and carried alone by the current, could pass in safety, the stream would be navigable for a steam-boat of much larger burden. Tbus easy would it be, in conjunction with the Grand Canal, to open a chain of internal communication of between 2 and 3000 miles in length." The two following lists of land and water stages from New:York to St. Louis, by the Ohio and Illinois routes,
will exhibit the relative distances at a single glance : It will be at once seen, by an inspection of this table, that the difference in distance, by the two routes, is trifling ; and, all things considered, no great diversity exists naturally in the facility offered, or impediments opposed to mercantile transportation ; but with the Grand Canal from Albany to Buffalo, the advantages are obviously in favour of the northern route.
Canal communication between Lake Michigan and Illinois river, must speedily follow the advance of popula tion into that section of country.
A number of rivers of considerable magnitude enter the eastern and south-eastern shore of :Michigan, by the channels of which a considerable commerce must be carried on, as settlement and wealth increase. Of these the St. Joseph heads, with the Maumee falling into the head of Lake Erie, and with Wabash flowing into Ohio. The intermediate country has not, however, been sur veyed with sufficient accuracy, to permit us to determine how far nature has prepared the way to enable man to complete the entire navigable communication from anv one water to any or the others.
The Maumee is a river deserving very particular no tice, in a survey of the inland navigation of the United States. This river has its sources on the table land, be tween Lakes Michigan and Erie and the Ohio river, in terlocking its branches with those of Miami, Wabash, Illinois, and St. Joseph. On this extensive flat table land the streams are sluggish, and only gain current by reaching a more inclined descent. Such a construction of country is, in an etninent manner, calculated to facili tate the formation of canal and lock navigation.
Maumee is formed by three branches ; the St. Jo seph's, interlocking with the sources of the river of the same name flowing into Lake IMichigan ; the St. Mary's, the sources of which rise with those of the Wabash, and Miami, flowing into Ohio ; and the Auglaize, heading with thc Miami. From the earliest settlement of Ca nada, thc peculiar structure of the intervening country, between the heads of the foregoing rivers, struck every traveller; and at the present moment, when the Indian title to the soil is extinguished, and an active civilized population must rapidly arise upon its surface, the abun dant natural resources for inland commerce will be called into active operation.