rapids, there was an encampment of Onondaga Indians; some of their canoes were composed of Elm Bark.

Two or three miles farther we passed a rapid, called the Horse-Shoe Rapid. The Oswego River is about twenty-four miles long. The fall from Three-River Point to Oswego, is about 112 feet. It contains a great many rapids, which I shall specify. Considering that it is constituted by the Oneida and Seneca Rivers, which proceed from the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, the Canandaigua, the Oswego, and the Skeneatelas Lakes, it is surprising that it is not larger. It is about the width of the Mohawk, and appears like that river reversed. The river scenery is delightful. The large and luxuriant trees on its banks form an agreeable shade, and indicate great fertility.

After proceeding seven miles, we breakfasted at a fine cool brook on the north side, and at the foot of HorseShoe Rapid. Our breakfast consisted of common bread, Oswego bread and biscuit, coffee and tea, without milk, butter, perch, salmon, and Oswego bass; fried pork, ham, boiled pork and Bologna sausages, old and new cheese, wood-duck, teal and dipper. Some of these, luxuries as they may appear on paper, were procured by our guns and fishing tackle, on our descent. We saw plenty of wild ducks, some wild pigeons and partridges, some of which we shot. We were also successful in trolling for fish. The crane, the fish-hawk, the king-fisher, and the bald-eagle, we saw, but no bitterns on the descending river. At this place we tasted the wild cucumber, the root of which is white and pleasant, with a spicy, pleasant taste. Why it is called the cucumber is not easy to imagine, as there is no point of resemblance.

In a smart shower we arrived at the celebrated Falls of Oswego, twelve miles from Three-River Point, and twelve miles from Oswego. There is a carrying place of a mile here, the upper and lower landing being that distance apart. At both landings there were about 15,000 barrels of salt, containing five bushels each, and each bushel weighing fifty-six pounds. It is supposed that the same quantity has been already carried down, making altogether 30,000 barrels. The carriage at this place is one shilling for each barrel. Loaded boats cannot with safety descend the Falls, but light boats may, notwithstanding the descent is twelve feet, and the roaring of the troubled waves among great rocks is really terrific. Pilots conduct the boats over for one dollar each; and being perfectly acquainted with the Falls, no accidents are known to happen, although the least miss step would dash the vessels to atoms. The Falls are composed of high rocks, apparently granite. The ascent by boat is impracticable.

On the south side of the river is Hannibal, in Onondaga, and on the north side, Fredericksburgh, in Oneida County. The State has reserved forty acres at the Falls, on the north side, which Joshua Forman has leased for eighteen years, and has erected a saw and grist-mill, by which he has blocked up the ancient carrying-place, that did not exceed one hundred yards. He is the proprietor of the adjacent land, on both sides of the river. There are a few houses at the carrying-place, and an excellent quarry of free-stone, between the two landings. A little below the Upper Falls, a ravine, the ancient bed of a creek, appears, which falls in just below the Lower. Here a canal might be easily cut round the Falls.

We left our squadron above the Upper Falls, and hired

a boat to conduct us to Oswego, from the lower landing. The wind was adverse, and the weather showery, but the descent was so favorable that we progressed with great rapidity. The river downwards is full of rapids, which I shall notice, and the banks precipitous and rocky. We dined at L. Van Volkenburgh's tavern, two miles on our way, and on the north side. This situation is very pleasant; two islands opposite the house. On our way we saw fragments of the rafts before-mentioned, at different places all along the river.

A strong rapid, eight miles from Oswego, is called by the boatmen Braddock's Rift, by a misnomer. It ought to be denominated Bradstreet's. At the foot of this rapid, there is an island of ten acres, called Bradstreet's island, where, our pilot told us, he was defeated by the Indians, who attacked him from each side of the river. The island is in the center, and the river narrow. contradictory to history.

Here tradition is

The commerce in

We passed a number of salt-boats. salt is great between Oswego and the Falls. As we approached the former place the country bore marks of cultivation; the banks became more elevated, the current increased in force, and the rapids in number. About seven miles from Oswego we encountered a rapid called Smooth Rock Rapid. Six and a-half miles, the Devil's Horn; six miles, the Six-Mile Rift; then the Little Smooth Rock Rapid, the Devil's Warping Bars; four miles, the Devil's Horse Race; and one mile from Oswego, the Oswego Rift, a violent rapid, nearly as bad as the Oswego Falls, having a fall of at least five feet.

We arrived at Oswego at seven P. M., and put up at a tolerable tavern, kept by E. Parsons, called Colonel. He

was second in command in Shay's insurrection, and formerly kept an inn in Manlius-Square. He was once selected as foreman of the Grand Jury of Onondaga County. He appears to be a civil man of moderate intellect; determined, however, to be in opposition to government, he is now an ardent Federalist. He gives two hundred dollars rent for an indifferent house. Another innkeeper gives three hundred for a house not much superior; and this little place contains already three taverns.

It

July 17th. Oswego is a place celebrated in our colonial history as one of the great depôts of the fur trade. was strenuously contended for by the French and English, in their American wars. During the Revolutionary contest it was occupied by the British, who held it in defiance of the treaty of peace, until it was delivered up under Jay's treaty. As an important post, commanding the communication between the lakes and the waters that communicate with the Hudson, it must ever claim the attention of Government.

It is situated on the south side of the Oswego River, near its entrace into Lake Ontario, in latitude 43° 27′ 52", as ascertained by the Surveyor-General, in 1797, with great exactness, when he laid out a town here. The State reserved No. 1, in the military township of Hannibal, as public property. The streets are laid out one hundred feet wide, and their course is determined astronomically, north-west and south-east, 22° 12', and northeast and southwest, 67° 48'. Those running parallel with the river are denominated First, Second, Third, &c., and the streets intersecting them are called after the signs of the Zodiac.

The blocks are 396 feet long, and 200 feet wide. It is contemplated by the plan, to have a fish-market, and a

common market on the river. Ground is reserved for a public square of fourteen acres, for an Academy, a Prison, Court-house, and Cemetery.

The houses are not built on this plan, and are huddled together in a confused manner. There are at present fourteen houses, six log-houses, six warehouses, and five stores, and five wharves, covered with barrels of salt, at which were four square-rigged vessels. A Post-office, Custom-house, three physicians; no Church, or lawyer.

The salt trade seems to be the chief business of this place. There was a brig on the stocks. There belong here eleven vessels, from eighty-two to fifteen tons, the whole tonnage amounting to 413. To Genesee River, one of twenty-two tons; to Niagara, two-one of fifty, and one of eighty-five, making 135 tons; to Oswegatchie, two, of fifty tons each; to Kingston, in Upper Canada, eight, from ninety to twenty-eight tons; and to York, two, of forty tons each, all engaged in the Lake trade.

In 1807, 17,078 barrels of salt were shipped from this place. In 1808, upwards of 19,000, and 3,000 were not carried away for want of vessels. In 1809, 28,840 barrels were sent directly to Canada, and this year it will exceed 30,000. Salt now sells at Kingston, at $4 50 per barrel, and at Pittsburgh at from $8 50 to $9.

costs $2 50 in cash; and

By a law of the State

A barrel of salt at Oswego at Salina $2, probably $1 50. salt cannot be sold by the State lessees for more than 62 cents per bushel.

The conveyance of a barrel of salt from Salina to the Upper Falls of Oswego is, in time of good water, two shillings-in low water, three shillings. The same price is asked from the Lower Falls to Oswego.