The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-07-23

RIVER NEws.-The river is falling
very rapi dly, having dropped four fee
in the twenty-four hours ending nv
O'Clock last evening.
The Pittsburgh aud Parkersourl
packet Belle, running in conjunction
with the Petrolia, passed down nigh
before last, and the Petrolia goes III
this morning.
The marks here show fifteen feet anf
falling rapidly. At Pittsburgh they
have eleven feet and falling. Business
very dull.
The Maggie Hays will take the place
of the Ohio No. 4 in the Marietta trade
when low water compels the latter to
lay up.
THE officers of the Annie Laurie re,
port that large barn, filled with new
acain, tobacco, &c, on the bank OF the
Kaaawha river, twenty-five miles below
Charleston, was struck by lightning
Sunday, and completely destroyed by
fire. One hogshead of tobacco was all
that was saved of its contents, and that
was brought down to Cincinnati by the
Laurie.
The Secretary of War has made the
following allotments from the appro-
priations for improving rivers and har-
bors, approved on the 10th of last April:
Rock Island rapids S135, 900; Des Moines
rapids, $4,000; and the sand-bars at
the mouth of the Mississippi get s45.-
900.
The General Buell. on Tuesday towed
the Travis Wright, Captain Feeders
new Red river packet, from Madison to
Louisville, where she will receive her
machinery. The Travis Wright is
stern-wheel boat, 130 feet long, 81 feet
beam and Al feet hold.
The Little Rock Republican of the 18th
contains the following paragraph:
"There is one remarkable fact connect
ed with our river trade which perhaps
may have been forgotten-that while
packets reached our port from Cincin-
natl once each month last summer, none
has arrived here this season for two
months past, nor likely for the next
three"
The first steamboat in the West was
built at Pittsburgh, in 1911, and called
"New Orleans" and intended to ply be-
tween Natchez and the city whose name
it bore. 1t reached NstcheE at the close
of the first week in January, 1ol2.
Many things combined to make 1911 the
annus nirabiliS of the west. The waters
of the principal rivers overtlowed their
banks; unprecedented sickness follow
ed; countless squirrels left the North,
and pressed forward, by tens OF thou
sands, in deep and sober phalanx, to
the South; the splendid comet OF the
year long continued to shed its twilight
over the forests; the whole valley OF
tho Mississippi, from the Missouri to
the Gulf, was shaken to its centre by
earthquakes. 1t was at this epoch, in
which so many natural phenomena
were combined, that the first steamboat
descended the great rivers.
The st. Louis Democrat says:
Captain Alb. Shaw recently arrived
from Wheeling, and has dwelt since
with his mother in this city. He has
been down to see his steamer, the big
stern-wheelsr Arkansas, since her ar
rival here, Saturday night, from Do.
phan's Rapids, and has not made up his
mind yet as to what trade she will en-
ter, nor can he clearly discern any trade
that is likely to be remunerative at the
present time. Like several other steam
ers, the Arkansas was unable to "make
the rifle" TO Fort Benton this season,
and her owners have no reason to boast
of large profits. Captain A. c. McCon-
nell, clerk of the Arkansas, went on to
Benton to see his freight delivered, and
to collect the bills. When all that is
attended to, he will return to st. Louis
q sadder if not q Weather man.