_(IN A LETTER FROM A CORRESPONDENT AT CINCINNATI.)_
This town is far superior to our late place of sojourn, Pittsburgh,
being spacious and clean, with handsome houses and wood for fuel.
Pittsburgh, on the contrary, is dirty and confined, abounding in iron
works burning coal, which gives forth a denser smoke than English
coal. The houses in this place, when we visited it in 1818, were
mostly of wood; these have been in general removed on wheels drawn
by oxen and horses, and placed in the suburbs, whence they are now
removing once more. Here are four markets well supplied with the
necessaries, and even the luxuries, of life, including almost
everything you can think of, and many things which you have never
thought of. Apple butter, for instance, is one of the latter, and is
made by stewing apples in new cider, after it has been boiled down to
one-third of its bulk. It is sold at 6-1/4 cts. per quart, and is
very delicious. The fruits of this country are abundant: apples are
excellent, and in profusion; peaches are plentiful in most seasons,
but sometimes totally fail; grapes grow wild and _tame_, i.e.
cultivated or imported; cherries are not very good, and dearer than at
Pittsburgh; pears, strawberries, and raspberries are not so choice as
with you; quinces are plentiful and fine; wild plums perfume the whole
house, like jessamine or mignionette, and are excellent for pies and
tarts. The persimon is a fruit to which you are a stranger; it may be
ranked with the plums, but has four stones, and is not fit to eat till
bitten by the frost, when its austere and astringent taste disappears,
and it becomes nearly transparent, and as rich and sweet as Guava
jelly. The May-apple, or Mandrake, a wild fruit, is a favourite with
our young folks; it grows on a single-steemed plant, usually one foot
high, and is about the size of a plum, but with seeds, and in taste
resembling a highly flavoured pear. The custard-apple, or paw-paw, is
my favourite, and my boys go with me into the woods to gather them
when ripe. In the summer, water melons, musk melons, nutmeg melons,
and Cantaloupes may be seen in large heaps in the market, or in carts
or wagons, at 6-1/4 to 25 and 50 cts. each, some weighing 40 lbs.
Egg-plants, which you have seen as curiosities, are here brought to
market; some of them of purple colour, are as large as a child's
carpet-ball: they are sliced and fried in butter, and I am told
have the flavour of fried oysters. Cucumbers are unfortunately
superabundant, and the free use of them induces a variety of diseases
which are attributed to the climate. Squashes, cimolins, and cushas,
are gourds which are mashed up with butter like turnips; pumpkins
of this country are very sweet, and make delicious pies, or rather
cheesecakes; cranberries are brought from a distance, and pine-apples
are not very expensive, being brought up the river from Bermuda.
Among the natural curiosities of the country, are the Stone Mountain
in Carolina, which may rank in antiquity with Stonehenge. It is
remarkable for a circular wall of stone of great thickness, probably
built by a people distinct from the present race of Indians, who are
quite incapable of erecting any building except a wigwam, or a pile of
loose stones over a grave. Next is the Kentucky Cavern, or as it is
called, on account of its magnitude, the Mammoth Cave. I have an
account before me of its being explored by a party in 1826, who
penetrated into this gloomy, though spacious, hollow for _fifteen
miles_, and were prevented from proceeding from extreme fatigue; they
found the names of persons written at the farthest part. There are
numbers of rooms as they are called, which are yet unexplored. In one
of these, a few miles from the entrance, there was discovered many
years since, a female figure sitting with a mat wrapped round her
shoulders; she was quite dried to a mummy, and has for many years been
exhibited in a caravan, through the United States.
The river Ohio is here a quarter of a mile wide, and, as there is no
bridge, the traffic into Kentucky is accommodated with steam ferry
boats. Newport and Covington opposite, are pretty objects to look
at from this side, but will not bear a nearer inspection. _Big Bone
Lick_, where abundance of Mammoth bones have been discovered, is not
far hence. Mr. Bullock of the London Museum is here, and has at the
Lick discovered many rare specimens of bones, amongst which is a
mammoth's head, with evidence of its having been furnished with a
trunk, and of course having been an elephant of immense size. He has
also found hoofs of horses with their bones in a fossil state, proving
that the horse has been indigenous. The horses in this town being
a mixture from those of South America, where they are wild--are of
various colours. Some are brown and white, like pointer dogs, others
are spotted like Danish dogs, and some with curled hair. I saw one
which was white as far us the fore-quarter, and the rest sorel.
An eye-witness has just related to me the following, which lately
occured in New Harmony:
A snake about two feet long, was seen to enter the hole
inhabited by a crawfish,[2] from which he soon retreated,
followed by the rightful tenant, who stopped in defensive
attitude at the mouth of his habitation, raising his claws in
defiance. The snake turned quickly round, and seized the head of
the crawfish, as if to swallow him; but the crawfish soon put an
end to the conflict by clasping the snake's neck with his claws,
and severing the head completely from his body. This may appear
marvellous; but Audubon tells a story of a rattle-snake chasing
and over-taking a squirrel, which folks in America doubt.
[2] Is not this a species of land-crab?--ED. M.
* * * * *