In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic gypsies--An
ancient tavern.
Ironton, O., Saturday, May 19th.--When we turned in, last night, it
was refreshingly cool. Heavy clouds were scurrying across the face
of the moon. By midnight, a copious rain was falling, wind-gusts were
flapping our roof, and a sudden drop in temperature rendered sadly
inadequate all the clothing we could muster into service. We slept
late, in consequence, and, after rigging a wind-break with the rubber
blankets, during breakfast huddled around the stove which had been
brought in to replace Pilgrim under the fly. When, at half-past nine,
we pushed off, our houseboat neighbors thrust their heads from the
window and waved us farewell.
A dense fog hung like a cloud over land and river. There was a stiff
north-east wind, which we avoided by seeking the Ohio shore, where
the high hills formed a break; there too, the current was swift, and
carried us down right merrily. Shattered by the wind, great banks of
fog rolled up stream, sometimes enveloping us so as to narrow our
view to a radius of a dozen rods,--again, through the rifts, giving
us momentary glimpses on the right, of rich green hills, towering dark
and steep above us, iridescent with browns, and grays, and many shades
of green; of whitewashed cabins, single or in groups, standing out
with startling distinctness from sombre backgrounds; of houseboats,
many-hued, moored to willowed banks or bolstered high upon shaly
beaches; of the opposite bottom, with its corrugated cliff of clay;
and, now and then, a slowly-puffing steamboat cautiously feeling its
way through the chilling gloom--a monster to be avoided by little
Pilgrim and her crew, for the possibility of being run down in a fog
is not pleasant to contemplate. On board one of these steamers was a
sorry company--apparently a Sunday-school excursion. Children in gala
dress huddled in swarms on the lee of the great smoke-stacks, and in
imagination we heard their teeth chatter as they glided by us and in
another moment were engulfed in the mist.
We catch sight for a moment, through a cloud crevasse, of Ceredo, the
last town in West Virginia--a small saw-milling community stuck upon
the edge of the clay cliff, with the broad level bottom stretching out
behind like a prairie. A giant railway bridge here spans the Ohio--a
weird, impressive thing, as we sweep under it in the swirling current,
and crane our necks to see the great stone piers lose themselves in
the cloud. But the Big Sandy River (315 miles), which divides West
Virginia and Kentucky, was wholly lost to view. In an opening a few
moments later, however, we had a glimpse of the dark line of her
valley, below which the hills again descend to the Ohio's bank.
Catlettsburg, the first Kentucky town, is at the junction, and extends
along the foot of the ridge for a mile or two, apparently not over
two blocks wide, with a few outlying shanties on the shoulders of the
uplands. Washington was surveying here, on the Big Sandy, in 1770, and
entered for one John Fry 2,084 acres round the site of Louisa, a dozen
miles up the river; this was the first survey made in Kentucky--but
a few months later than Boone's first advent as a hunter on the
"dark and bloody ground," and five years before the first permanent
settlement in the State. Washington deserves to be remembered as a
Kentucky pioneer.
We have not only steamers to avoid,--they appear to be unusually
numerous about here,--but snags as well. With care, the whereabouts of
a steamer can be distinguished as it steals upon us, from the superior
whiteness of its column of "exhaust," penetrating the bank of dark
gray fog; and occasionally the echoes are awakened by the burly roar
of its whistle, which, in times like this, acts as a fog-horn. But the
snag is an insidious enemy, not revealing itself until we are within
a rod or two, and then there is a quick cry of warning from the
stern sheets--"Hard a-port!" or "Starboard, quick!" and only a strong
side-pull, aided by W----'s paddle, sends us free from the jagged,
branching mass which might readily have swamped poor Pilgrim had she
taken it at full tilt.
At Ashland, Ky. (320 miles), we stopped for supplies. There are six
thousand inhabitants here, with some good buildings and a fine, broad,
stone wharf, but it is rather a dingy place. The steamer "Bonanza" had
just landed. On the double row of flaggings leading up to the summit
of the bank, were two ant-like processions of Kentucky folk--one,
leisurely climbing townward with their bags and bundles, the other
hurrying down with theirs to the boat, which was ringing its bell,
blowing off steam, and in other ways creating an uproar which seemed
to turn the heads of the negro roustabouts and draymen, who bustled
around with a great chatter and much false motion. The railway may be
doing the bulk of the business, but it does it unostentatiously; the
steamboat makes far more disturbance in the world, and is a finer
spectacle. Dozens of boys are lounging at the wharf foot, watching the
lively scene with fascinated eyes, probably every one of them stoutly
possessed of an ambition akin to that of my young friend in the
Cheshire Bottom.
A rain-storm broke the fog--a cold, raw, miserable rain. No clothing
we could don appeared to suffice against the chill; and so at last we
pitched camp upon the Ohio shore, three miles above the Ironton wharf
(325 miles). It is a muddy, dreary nest up here, among the dripping
willows. Just behind us on the slope, is the inclined track of the
Norfolk & Western railway-transfer, down which trains are slid to
a huge slip, and thence ferried over the river into Kentucky; above
that, on a narrow terrace, is an ordinary railway line; and still
higher, up a slippery clay bank, lies the cottage-strewn bottom which
stretches on into Ironton (13,000 inhabitants).
We were a sorry-looking party, at lunch this noon, hovering over the
smoking stove which was set in the tent door, with a wind-screen in
front, and moist bedding hung all about in the vain hope of drying it
in the feeble heat. And sorrier still, through the long afternoon, as,
each encased in a sleeping-bag, we sat upon our cots circling around
the stove, W---- reading to us between chattering teeth from Barrie's
_When a Man's Single_. 'Tis good Scottish weather we're having; but
somehow our thoughts could not rest on Thrums, and we were, for the
nonce, a wee bit miserable.
Dinner degenerated into a smoky bite, and then at dusk there was a
council of war. The air hangs thick with moisture, our possessions are
in various stages from damp to sopping wet, and efforts at drying over
the little stove are futile under such conditions. It was demonstrated
that there was not bed-clothing enough, in such an emergency as this;
indeed, an inspection of that which was merely damp, revealed the fact
that but one person could be made comfortable to-night. Our bachelor
Doctor volunteered to be that one. So we bade him God-speed, and
with toilet bag in hand I led my little family up a tortuous path, so
slippery in the rain that we were obliged in our muddy climb to cling
to grass-clumps and bushes. And thus, wet and bedraggled, did we sally
forth upon the Ironton Bottom, seeking shelter for the night.
Fortunately we had not far to seek. A kindly family took us in,
despite our gruesome aspect and our unlikely story--for what manner
of folk are we, that go trapesing about in a skiff, in such weather
as this, coming from nobody knows where and camping o' nights in the
muddy river bottoms? Instead of sending us on, in the drenching rain,
to a hotel, three miles down the road, or offering us a ticket on the
Associated Charities, these blessed people open their hearts and their
beds to us, without question, and what more can weary pilgrims pray
for?
* * * * *
Sciotoville, O., Sunday, May 20th.--After breakfast, and settling our
modest score, we rejoined the Doctor, and at ten o'clock pulled out
again; being bidden good-bye at the landing, by the children of our
hostess, who had sent us by them a bottle of fresh milk as a parting
gift.
It had rained almost continuously, throughout the night. To-day we
have a dark gray sky, with fickle winds. A charming color study, all
along our path; the reds and grays and yellows of the high clay-banks
which edge the reciprocating bottoms, the browns and yellows of
hillside fields, the deep greens of forest verdure, the vivid white
of bankside cabins, and, in the background of each new vista, bold
headlands veiled in blue. W---- and the Boy are in the stern sheets,
wrapped in blankets, for there is a smart chill in the air, and we at
the oars pull lively for warmth. In our twisting course, sometimes
we have a favoring breeze, and the Doctor rears the sail; but it is a
brief delight, for the next turn brings the wind in our teeth, and we
set to the blades with renewed energy. In the main, we make good time.
The sugar-loaf hills, with their castellated escarpments, go marching
by with stately sweep.
Greenup Court House (334 miles) is a bright little Kentucky
county-seat, well-built at the feet of thickly-forested uplands. At
the lower end of the village, the Little Sandy enters through a wooded
dale, which near the mouth opens into a broad meadow. Not many miles
below, is a high sloping beach, picturesquely bestrewn with gigantic
boulders which have in ages past rolled down from the hill-tops above.
Here, among the rocks, we again set up a rude screen from the still
piercing wind; and, each wrapped in a gay blanket, lunch as operatic
gypsies might, in a romantic glen, enjoying mightily our steaming
chocolate, and the warmth of our friendly stove--for dessert, taking
a merry scamper for flowers, over the ragged ascent from whence the
boulders came. Everywhere about is the trumpet creeper, but not yet
in bloom. The Indian turnip is in blossom here, and so the smaller
Solomon's seal, yellow spikes of toad-flax, blue and pink phlox,
glossy May apple; high up on the hillside, the fire pink and
wintergreen; and, down by the sandy shore, great beds of blue wild
lupin, and occasionally stately spikes of the familiar moth mullein.
With the temperature falling rapidly, and a drizzling rain taking the
starch out of our enthusiasm, we early sought a camping ground. For
miles along here, springs ooze from the base of the high clay bank
walling in the wide and rocky Ohio beach, and dry spots are few and
far between. We found one, however, a half mile above Little Scioto
River (346 miles),[A] with drift-wood enough to furnish us for years,
and the beach thick-strewn with fossils of a considerable variety of
small bivalves, which latter greatly delighted the Doctor and the Boy,
who have brought enough specimens to the tent door to stock a college
museum.
Dinner over, the crew hauled Pilgrim under cover, and within prepared
for her sailing-master a cosy bed, with the entire ship's stock of
sleeping-bags and blankets. W----, the Boy, and I then started off
to find quarters in Sciotoville (1,000 inhabitants), which lies just
below the river's mouth, here a dozen rods wide. Scrambling up the
slimy bank, through a maze of thorn trees, brambles, and sycamore
scrubs, we gained the fertile bottom above, all luscious with tall
grasses bespangled with wild red roses and the showy pentstemon. The
country road leading into the village is some distance inland, but at
last we found it just beyond a patch of Indian corn waist high, and
followed it, through a covered bridge, and down to a little hotel at
the lower end of town.
A quaint, old-fashioned house, the Sciotoville tavern, with an inner
gallery looking out into a small garden of peaches, apples, pears,
plums, and grapes--a famous grape country this, by the way. In our
room, opening from the gallery, is an antique high-post bedstead;
everywhere about are similar relics of an early day. In keeping
with the air of serene old age, which pervades the hostelry, is the
white-haired landlady herself. In well-starched apron, white cap, and
gold-rimmed glasses, she benignly sits rocking by the office stove,
her feet on the fender, reading Wallace's _Prince of India_; and
looking, for all the world, as if she had just stepped out of some old
portrait of--well, of a tavern-keeping Martha Washington.
[Footnote A: Two miles up the Little Scioto, Pine Creek enters.
Perhaps a mile and a half up this creek was, in 1771, a Mingo town
called Horse Head Bottom, which cuts some figure in border history as
a nest of Indian marauders.]