a home where they pleased, lingered here, apparently well satisfied with their surroundings.  We are, indeed, the children of habit, and singularly adaptable.  It is, perhaps, best that it should be so, but I thought, as I brushed off the thin layer of soot with which the Wheeling cloud of enterprise had discolored the pure white deck of my little craft, that if this was civilization and enterprise, I should rather take a little less of those two commodities and a little more of cleanliness and quiet.

At Wheeling I left the last of the ice-drifts, but now observed a new feature on the river’s surface.  It was a floating coat of oil from the petroleum regions, and it followed me many a mile down the stream.

The river being now free from ice, numerous crafts passed me, and among them many steam-boats with their immense stern-wheels beating the water, being so constructed for shallow streams.  They were ascending the current, and pushing their “tows” of two, four, and six long, wide coal-barges fastened in pairs in front of them.  How the pilots of these stern-wheel freighters managed to guide these heavily loaded barges against the treacherous current was a mystery to me.

It suddenly grew dark, and wishing to be secure from molestation by steamboats, I ran into a narrow creek, with high, muddy banks, which were so steep and so slippery that my boat slid into the water as fast as I could haul her on to the shore.  This difficulty was overcome by digging with my oar a bed for her to rest in, and she soon settled into the damp ooze, where she quietly remained until morning.

[Coal-oil stove.]

During this part of my journey particularly, the need of a small coal-oil stove was felt, as the usual custom of making a camp-fire could not be followed for many days on the upper Ohio River.  The rains had wet the fire-wood, which in a settled and cultivated country is found only in small quantities on the banks of the stream.  The driftwood thrown up by the river was almost saturated with water, and the damp, wild trees of the swamp afforded only green wood.

In a less settled country, or where there is an old forest growth, as along the lower Ohio and upon the banks of the Mississippi, fallen trees, with resinous, dry hearts, can be found; and even during a heavy fall of rain a skilful use of the axe will bring out these ancient interiors to cheer the voyager’s heart by affording him excellent fuel for his camp-fire.

The recently perfected coal-oil stove does not give out disagreeable odors when the petroleum used is refined, like that known in the market as Pratt’s Astral Oil.  This brand of oil does not contain naphtha, the existence of which in the partially refined oils is the cause of so many dangerous explosions of kerosene lamps.