Monongahela River

“ At the place where the English crossed the Monongahela river, there are about two acres of bottom land, bounded by the river on the east, and by a ledge of high cliffs on the west. Through these cliffs there is a considerable ravine, formed by the flowing of a small rivulet––On the summit, a wide prospect opens to the west, of a country whose base is level, but surface uneven. On this summit lay the French and Indians concealed by the prairie grass and timber, and from this situation, in almost perfect security, they fired down upon Braddock’s men. ”

“ The waters of the Monongahela River, [Pg 76] in those days as in these, were very muddy, and had it not been for the magnificent trees which abundantly lined the firm banks, the stream could not have been termed very beautiful. ”

“ Many of the remarkable sculptured rocks have been used for building purposes or are lying below the surface of the Monongahela River, even at low tide, the river being higher now at all seasons by reason of the slack-water improvements than it was forty years ago. ”

“ The reason why this bridge was not originally constructed by the government, as well as a bridge over the Monongahela river, are better known to the department than I am able to conjecture.
I have to observe that a company is now constructing a substantial bridge over the Monongahela river, across from Bridgeport, thereby making the bridge over Dunlap’s creek an important link in the road; and that a bridge, to ensure the purpose of a common highway, would not be suitable for the only connecting point between two important and increasing towns. ”

“ It is possible that a systematic search would bring to light many other such northern forms, as well as throw much light upon the slight changes that have taken place in species since the Glacial epoch, because there can be little doubt that these plants were embedded in their present matrix during the Ice age The particular locality in which the plants occur is near the head waters of two little streams which rise against each other, and then flowing north, empty into the Monongahela, their mouths being two and one- half miles apart. ”

“ The writer has often called the attention of geologists to a remarkable old gap in the divide which now separates the Ohio and Monongahela waters, at the head of the latter stream, just west of Salem, on the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern R. R., thirty-six miles west from Grafton. It is a valley 300 to 400 feet wide, filled with clay deposits, and separating Ten Mile creek, on the Monongahela side, from Middle Island creek waters of the Ohio drainage. ”

“ Whether Water street extended to low or high water mark, can be of no importance in the present controversy. If its southern boundary be limited by high water mark, it is clear that the proprietors parted with all their right. It is admitted by both parties, that the river Monongahela, being a navigable stream, belongs to the public; and a free use of it may be rightfully claimed by the public, whatever may be the extent of its volume of water. If Water street be bounded by the river on the south, it is only limited by the public right. ”

“ As no mention whatever is made of the Monongahela, and as no plate was buried here, either Céloron's party did not see it, or, believing it took its rise in Pennsylvania and was already settled by the English, they tacitly omitted to claim it for their king. The first supposition is absurd; the formation of the country is particularly significant and would attract the attention of the most unobserving; the meeting of the river tides, the difference in the color of the waters—everything would attract the attention of the voyageur. ”

“ All the Indians regarded the two as really the same river, of which the Monongahela was a tributary. The first white men exploring this region were the French, who came down from the lakes and Canada, when they spread through the entire Mississippi Valley. In 1753, however, Washington with a surveying party was sent out by Virginia and carefully examined the site of Pittsburg, advising, on his return, that a fort should be built there to check the advance of the French, and the next year this was done. ”

“ They are exactly similar in both States. At the same time, and at the joint and equal expense of the two governments, the sum of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars and two thirds is voted for opening and keeping in repair a road from the highest practicable navigation of this river to that of the River Cheat, or Monongahela, as commissioners, who are appointed to survey and lay out the same, shall find most convenient and beneficial to the western settlers. ”

“ The Monongahela is 400 yards wide at its mouth. From thence is 12 or 15 miles to the mouth of Yohoganey, where it is 300 yards wide. Thence to Redstone by water is 50 miles, by land 30. Then to the mouth of Cheat river by water 40 miles, by land 28, the width continuing at 300 yards, and the navigation good for boats. Thence the width is about 200 yards to the western fork, 50 miles higher, and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids, which however with a swell of two or three feet become very passable for boats. ”

“ The sun was setting behind the rim of the river basin, when we reached the broad mouth of the Youghiogheny (pr. Yock-i-o-gai'-ny) , which is implanted with a cluster of iron-mill towns, of which McKeesport is the center. So far as we could see down the Monongahela, the air was thick with the smoke of glowing chimneys, and the pulsating whang of steel-making plants and [pg 14] rolling-mills made the air tremble. ”

“ The citizens of Pittsburgh gathered upon the banks of the Monongahela to witness the inception of the enterprise which was to change the whole destiny of the West. One can imagine the criticisms flung at the departing steamer as she left her moorings and boldly faced her fate. As the curious craft was borne along the current of the river, the Indians attempted to approach her, bent upon hostile attempts, and once a party of them pursued the boat in hot chase, but their endurance was not equal to that of steam. ”

“ Weston, Clarksburg, Grafton, Monongah, Fairmont, Palatine, Montana, Morgantown, Point Marion, Geneva, Greensboro, Rice's Landing, Fredericktown, Brownsville, Belle Vernon, Charleroi, Monongahela, Elizabeth, McKeesport, Braddock, Homestead, all have their upper and more level portions situated on the ancient floor of the pre-glacial valley. It is this wide and almost level area of deposits, stretching from Braddock to the Monongahela, across to the Allegheny river via Homestead, and East Liberty, which forms the principal site of Pittsburg itself, as well as Allegheny, beyond. ”

“ Fairmont and Palatine at the junction of the Tygart's valley and West Fork rivers, 26 miles above Morgantown, are situated on the wide plain excavated by the pre-glacial river, and as might be expected, the old rock floor is covered to a great depth with terrace deposits, consisting of sand, rounded boulders, etc., from the Tygart's valley, and pottery clays from the West Fork river. ”

“ Its mean rate of flow is 3 miles an hour, and its mean fall is about .70 of a foot to the mile. The Allegheny and Monongahela are regarded as having equal claims as the source of the river, though the Allegheny is longer, with 123 miles of navigation. The Allegheny rises on the plateau of northern Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains, drains Lake Chautauqua in New York, and descends through a series of narrow valleys to its junction with the Monongahela. ”

“ In the case of The Monongahela Navigation Company v. Coons, the defendant had erected his mill under a license given by an act of the legislature (in 1803) to riparian owners to erect dams of a particular structure, 'provided they did not impede the navigation,' &c. The Monongahela Navigation Company, in pursuance of a charter granted them by the State, had erected a dam in the Monongahela, which flowed back the water on the plaintiff's mill, in the Youghiogany, and greatly injured it. ”

“ Graham on his map of survey in 1709, and Mohunk is a modern pronunciation. The boundary description of the tract, as translated by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, from the Dutch deed (N. Y. Land Papers, 15) , reads: "Beginning at the high hill called Moggonck, then southeast to Juffrouw's Hook in the Long Reach, on the Great River (called in Indian Magaat Ramis) , thence north to the island called Raphoos, lying in the Kromme Elbow at the commencement of the Long Reach, thence west to the high hill to a place [called] Warachaes and Tawarataque, along the high hill to Moggonck." ”

“ The general course of the Bogan changes at Mudà from N.W. to north, the former being nearly in the direction of the general declination of the country, the latter rather across it, of which the overflowings of the parallel river Macquarie into Duck Creek, and other channels to the westward, seemed to afford sufficient proofs. Where the declination is least, the water is most likely to remain in ponds in the channel of the river after floods, the water of which can neither flow with so much velocity, nor bear down any of the obstructions by which ponds are formed. ”

“ To the west the rolling surface of Monmouthshire, luxuriant in verdure and opulent in colouring, is cloven by the valley of the Monnow, which well-nourished and rapid stream meets the Wye at Monmouth.
Rising at the head of the outermost eastern gorge of the Black Mountains, the Monnow runs a course from its source to its mouth of unremitting loveliness. Met at the base of the mountains by the Honddu, coming fresh from the sacred pastures of mountain-girdled Llanthony, the united streams are still further reinforced at Pontrilas{58} by the waters of the Golden Valley. ”

“ The rivers of the narrow mountainous peninsulas form many rapids and cataracts; as the Tondano, draining the lake of the same name to the north-west coast of Minahassa at Menado; the Rano-i-Apo, flowing over the plateau of Mongondo to the Gulf of Amurang; the Poigar, issuing from a little-known lake of that plateau; the Lombagin, traversing narrow cañons; and the river of Boni, which has its outfall in the plain of Gorontalo, near the mouth of the Bolango or Tapa, the latter connected by a canal with the Lake of Limbotto. ”

“ The Monongahela is then the next object to the right of Boyd’s hill. It is four hundred and fifty yards wide, and is seen to the N. E. in a vista of about two miles, when it takes a sudden bend to the eastward, and disappears behind the hills, at the extremity {229} of this vista, at the Two mile run, Mr. Anthony Beelen, a respectable merchant, has a neat ornamented cottage, opposite the bend, on the left bank, which commands a view of the reach above, as well as of that below to the town. ”

“ This old outlet is now known as Red Rock Pass, and it forms an easy route for the Oregon Short Line from Salt Lake City to the plains of southern Idaho. The old river-bed is marked by marshes and fertile farms.
With an outlet established, Lake Bonneville could rise no higher, and its waves began the formation of a well-defined terrace or beach, just as waves are sure to do along every shore. The level of the water could not remain permanently at the same height, for the rocks at the outlet were being worn away by the large volume of water which flowed over them. ”

“ The latter are traversed longitudinally by three great rivers, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red River of Nachitoches; the savannahs of Araura, Calabozo, and Pao are crossed in a transverse direction only by the tributary streams of the Orinoco, the most westerly of which (the Cari, the Pao, the Acaru, and the Manapire) have very little water in the season of drought. ”

“ There is good anchoring in sixteen fathoms’ water, not above a mile from the shore. There is no high land near the shore on all this coast, but there are high mountains up the country. Munnonhaugher is a river which they call Manzerroy, in which is fourteen or fifteen fathoms’ water. It flows east and west twelve feet right up and down on spring tides: you go up the river six or seven leagues to the usual place where they traffic. A little to the southward of this is another river, called Luna, to which a ship comes from Arabia once a year. ”

“ It is a wonderful relief from the desert road to arrive at the River San Francisco, and see stretched for miles the beautiful green expanse of Dombe Grande. The river is perfectly dry for one half of the year, and is then a broad band of pure, dazzling, white sand, but the land near it is extremely fertile, and very [Pg 197] large quantities of mandioca and beans are grown. The mandioca is made into “farinha” or meal, and thousands of bushels are sent by road to Benguella, or to Cuio Bay for shipment. ”

“ Examining the affidavits and other evidence introduced in this case, it is clear to us that the Rio Grande is not navigable within the limits of the territory of New Mexico. The mere fact that logs, poles, and rafts are floated down a stream occasionally and in times of high water does not make it a navigable river. ”

“ It is hardly possible to restrain within reasonable limits the expression of surprise at the fact that Loanda, with its thousands of inhabitants, [Pg 16] should be still destitute of a good supply of drinking water, when there is a river of splendid water only nine miles off, whence it receives an insignificant and totally inadequate supply brought in casks only, carried by a few rotten barges and canoes that are often prevented from leaving or entering the river for days together, on account of the surf at the bar. ”