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M. 161. ch. x. F. Evans

197

The capacity of Eden, for offering a field for such talents as those of Mr. Mark Tapley?, was very much diminished during the late war; for being at the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi? (the Ohio itself not far above this point is joined by more large streams) it became a very important military station. But it was necessary to create a site for a town, for the locality itself supplied nothing of the kind. This was done by raising a levee, forty feet high, & then, behind this, making streets in the form of embankments at right angles to the levee, there streets again being intersected by other embankments parallel to the levee. The whole space that was reclaimed was thus divided by these embankments into hollow squares, each of which is intended for a block of buildings. At present very few of these blocks have been raised, but the streets, that is the embankments, with in some instances, planked unclear at their sides, are finished. If the water sd ever rise up through the ground, or the storm-wakes flow into the cellars & underground parts of the houses, it will be necessary to pump it out, for there can be no drainage in such a place. So in America, where no difficulties are recognized, are towns built in Swamps.

One cannot help speculating on what will be the amount of inducement required for getting people to try to live, & carry on business at this city in the Swamp, for the fact that the traffic of the valleys of the Ohio & Mississippi join, & diverge here will ensure its becoming rich & populous. And what will be the manners and