Coal and iron abound in the neighbourhood; they are as handy, in reality, as the Egyptian geese are in the legend, where they are stated to fly about ready roasted, crying, “Come and eat me!” Perhaps, then, you will ask, why is the town not larger, and the business not more active?  The answer is simple.  The price of labour is so high, that they cannot compote with the parent rival; and the ad valorem duty on iron, though it may bring in a revenue to the government, is no protection to the home trade.  What changes emigration from the Old World may eventually produce, time alone can decide; but it requires no prophetic vision to foresee that the undeveloped mineral riches of this continent must some day be worked with telling effect upon England’s trade.  I must not deceive you into a belief that the Ohio is always navigable.  So far from that being the case, I understand that, for weeks and months even, it is constantly fordable.  As late as the 23rd of November, the large passage-boats were unable to make regular passages, owing to their so frequently getting aground; and the consequence was, that we were doomed to prosecute our journey to Cincinnati by railroad, to my infinite—­but, as my friend said, not inexpressible—­regret.

Noon found us at the station, taking the last bite of fresh air before we entered the travelling oven.  Fortunately, the weather was rather finer than it had been, and more windows were open.  There is something solemn and grand in traversing, with the speed of the wind, miles and miles of the desolate forest.  Sometimes you pass a whole hour without any—­the slightest—­sign of animal life:  not a bird, nor a beast, nor a being.  The hissing train rattles along; the trumpet-tongued whistle—­or rather horn—­booms far away in the breeze, and finds no echo; the giant monarchs of the forest line the road on either side, like a guard of Titans, their nodding heads inquiring, as it were curiously, why their ranks were thinned, and what strange meteor is that which, with clatter and roar, rushes past, disturbing their peaceful solitude.  Patience my noble friends; patience, I say.  A few short years more, and many of you, like your deceased brethren, will bend your proud heads level with the dust, and those giant limbs, which now kiss the summer sun and dare the winter’s blast, will feed that insatiate meteor’s stomach, or crackle beneath some adventurous pioneer’s soup-kettle.  But, never mind; like good soldiers in a good cause, you will sacrifice yourselves for the public good; and possibly some of you may be carved into figures of honour, and dance triumphantly on the surge’s crest in the advance post of glory on a dashing clipper’s bows, girt with a band on which is inscribed, in letters of gold, the imperishable name of Washington or Franklin.