The Ohio and Monongahela rivers form the delta on which it is built, and on the bosom of the former the fruits of its labour are borne down to New Orleans, _via_ the Mississippi--a distance of two thousand and twenty-five miles exactly.

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.