Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-10-21
A DAY ON ROCK CREEK.

/ WAsHISGToS, OCTOBER, lS4S.
II was delightful auumna morning, and had called up
on friend (who, like myself is lover of Nature) and pro-
posed that we should spend day in the woods wheeupon
he whsed for his handsome greyhound and with sketch
books in hand, departed We turned our faces towards
Rock Cre which rises in the central portion Of Montgomery
county, and, after running distance Of fifteen miles,
finally emptes into the Potomac between Washington and
Georgetown. And now, before going one step further
wish TO inform my readers that it my intention give
complete description of this charming stream to accom-
psh that task faithfully would be necessary for to write
thousand poems and paint least thousand pctues every
one OF which should be purpose only to record the
more prominent impressions which have been le upon my
mind by the excursion to which allude.
We struck the creek jus, without the limits Of the city, and
the first object that attracted attention DEcArUR
tomb This memorial of departed naval hero occupies the
summit OF picturesque hill and is shaded from the by
brotherhood of handsome oak 1t is built of bricks,
(Which are painted whe and resembles in shape small
Grecian temple without its columns, and is without any in
scrpon The remains Of the Commodore originally de-
posted here but his ashes have subsequently been removed
Philadelphia and deposited in his family vault. The land
upon which this tomb located called Kaorama and be-
longs to estate originally owned by JOEL BARLow which
fact is alone sufficient give it reputation but II is
what interesting to know that upon this spot of
earth that RoDERT Fulton first tried his experiments while
studying out the science Of navigation This was at
the time when BAnLow and FULToS the most init
mate terms Of friendship and Kaloama FULToSs prin
cpa home gentleman residing in Georgetown informs
that he remember the when old wooden shed
standing in the vicinity Of Rock Creek, where Fulton
tried many of his experiments and am also informed that
the paor walls of Kaoama ornamented with fres
paintings executed by FULToS at the request of his friend
Barlow Subsequently to that period, and while yet
Der of BARLows family FuLToS kept accounbook in
which he recorded al his business transactions, and that
ous and valuable relic Of the departed engineer the
possession of citizen of Washington, by whose poeness
privileged to crafty my antiquarian readers with brief
description of the accountboo in question. II of the size
of ordinary mercantile cashbook, and, although only half
filled with wiring, it contains record of business
tons accrung during the years IL, ,-3
and a. 10 have been kept with little regard to
thod but nevertheless contains great variety of items which
quite valuable in historical point of view On fyiea
for example, we have the following record
"lsl3 The dry-dock finished the steamboat works in
Jersey City the 18th October On tha. day. at O'clock
the original North River steamboat entered for the first me
and believe the first vessel that has been in dry dock
the United States"
With regard to the Of the "original North River
steamboat" am not certain, but the same leaf with the
above find the following memorandum
Car Of Neptune-length of her bottom l57 fee; do
deck III feet inches width OF the bottom % feet
do. on deck 26 feet"
With a view Of showing the proftabeness of the steam
boating business in the olden times append the following