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At the mouth of the Big Sandy, the dividing line between Virginia and Kentucky, the
Ohio makes its extreme southern bend, and approaches nearer to the climate of the cane,
(arundinaria macrosperma,) than at any other point between Pittsburg and Cincinnati.
At this period it grew in considerable quantities near the falls, 30 miles from the mouth,
and had been visited in 1804 by Thomas Alcock, of Marietta, for the purpose of collecting
its stems to manufacture weavers' reeds. It was the highest point, near the Ohio,
where this valuable plant was known to grow, and has long since been destroyed by the
domestic cattle of the inhabitants. In Tennessee and Kentucky it furnished the winter
food for their cattle and horses many years after their settlement. The head waters of
the Sandy and Guyandotte interlock with those of the Clinch and the Holston, amid the
spurs of the Cumberland mountains. In their passage to the Ohio, they traverse the
most wild and picturesque region to be found in western Virginia; abounding in immense
hills of sand rocks, cut into deep ravines by the water-courses, containing caverns
of various sizes and extent. At this period it was the most famous hunting-ground for
bears in all the country. In the years 1805-6 and 7, eight thousand skins were collected
by the hunters from the district traversed by these rivers and a few adjacent
streams. It was the paradise of bears; affording their most favorite food in exhaustless
abundance. The bear is not strictly a carnivorous animal, but, like the hog, feeds
chiefly on vegetable food. On the ridges were whole forests of chestnuts, and the hillsides
were covered with oaks, on whose fruits they luxuriated and fattened, until their
glossy hides afforded the finest peltry imaginable. The war in Europe created a great
demand for their skins, to decorate the soldiers of the hostile armies; and good ones
yielded to the hunters four and five dollars each.

Since that day the attention of the sojourners of this wild region has been turned to
the collection of the roots of the ginseng. This beautiful plant grows with great luxuriance,
and in the most wonderful abundance, in the rich virgin soil of the hill and mountain
sides. For more than thirty years the forests have afforded a constant supply of
many thousand pounds annually, to the traders stationed at remote points along the water-courses.
No part of America furnishes a more stately growth of forest trees, embracing
all the species of the climate. The lofty Liriodendron attains the height of
eighty and a hundred feet without a limb, having a shaft of from four to six feet in
diameter. The white and yellow oak are its rivals in size. The magnolia acuminata
towers aloft to an altitude uncommon in any other region; while its more humble relatives,
the tripetala and mycrophilla, flourish in great beauty by its side. It may be considered
the storehouse for building future cities, when the prolific pines of the Alleghany
River are exhausted. In addition to all these vegetable riches, the hills are full of fine
beds of bituminous coal, and argillaceous iron ores.