and thence to the great West, north and south. 5th, the York River road, now near completion-a great desideratum to the lovers of fish and oysters, and the salt-water bath.

Petersburg commenced the first great railway enterprise in Virginia, by constructing her road to the Roanoke, whence it now connects interminably with the south and west. 2d, the Southside to Lynchburg, thence by the Virginia and Tennessee road it has a continued line to New Orleans, the lakes and everywhere. 3d, the Petersburg and Norfolk road, from which latter place the traveller may go by land or water to both extremities north or south. Alexandria is extending, and Fredericksburg is commencing her roads. There are many other projects which will die in the bud or be slow to expand.

After two such dry chapters, I advise the reader to take a drink, if he is awake. If he is a stockholder, I fear he has not enjoyed the perusal of either.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE BRIDGES AND MANCHESTER.

MAYO's bridge, at the Richmond end, and as far as the toll-house on the island, was, I am told, originally constructed of large logs, raft-like, spiked to the rocks, with a rough floor laid on the logs, and from the island to the Chesterfield side, a bridge of boats was thrown.

The log system was soon abandoned, (I wish the log-rolling system was,) as each freshet threatened, or effected its demolition; but the boats floated a number of years, and were very popular with anglers.

What with one change or another, with the destruction or decay of one portion, while another was being repaired or renewed, the bridge was in the hands of workmen through two generations, and the work was completed when the third came in possession. On one occasion, when the floor of the bridge had been taken up for repair, and the large sleepers remained, the keeper of the tollgate on the island was aroused one dark night, and to his astonishment, found not only a man but

"For God's sake, asked.

also a horse waiting to pass. how did you get here?" he "By the bridge, to be sure; how else should I?" replied Isham Randolph. "No other man could have done it," said the toll-taker; "the floor is taken up." 66 'Well," said Mr. R., "floor or no floor, I rode here, and now I'll pay my toll." "Pass on, Mr. Randolph; I wont take toll from a man who rides. where.there is no bridge." A wonderful instance of courage and steadiness on the part of the horse; as to the rider, he was fearless also, and a man of great muscular strength and power of endurance. He would occasionally take a walk from Eastern Virginia to West Tennessee, and he bore arms under Jackson in some of his Indian fights-being a man after his own heart.

Mayo's bridge had a formidable competitor in "Coutts's Ferry," a more ancient establishment, the proprietor of which long resisted the grant to Mayo for the erection of a bridge, on the ground that it would be a violation of his rights. Finding opposition useless, he at length withdrew it, saying: "Let him build the bridge, if he can, but he will be ruined first."

Col. Mayo was indefatigable in his efforts, but lacked the means to erect a permanent work, and moreover the science of bridge-building was not then understood or not acted on. A writer in the Southern Literary Messenger, who seems to know,

states that Col. Mayo was frequently arrested and placed within the prison bounds from inability to meet his engagements; his expenditures on other objects than his bridge absorbed so large a portion of his means.

The ferry landing was on "the Sandy Bar, at the end of Eighteenth street, and the ferry was kept up for many years after the bridge was constructed; indeed, it could not have been dispensed with, as the bridge was very often impassable-besides which, the charge of six and a quarter cents for each person, horse, and wheel, was so heavy, that by accepting a lower rate of toll the ferry attracted much of the travel.

At that period, the resort of shad and herrings to James river was much greater than now. Coutts had a fishery as well as a ferry, and he once crossed the river without the aid of either boat or bridge in real Triton style.

A large sturgeon caught in the seine, and hauled to the water's edge, was on the point of returning to it, when Coutts made a simultaneous leap with his captive, alighted on his back, and fixed his hands in the gills. Off they went together. The fish could not stay under water, nor could he dismount his rider, who piloted his nose towards the opposite shore. A speedy and successful voyage they made. Had Coutts been a Barnum he would have kept his sturgeon in training, and added

others, so as to have formed a team; harnessed them to a car of Neptune, and rode the waves triumphant.

When Coutts was on his death bed, he received a message from an old crony who was ill also, requesting Coutts to wait a few days and they would go together. The reply was, "When Patrick Coutts is ready, he waits for no man." It became a proverb.

The progress of shad and herrings up the river has been so much intercepted by the numerous floating and other seines lower down or by some other cause, that few comparatively pass up the falls. Formerly, during the fishing season, the rocks in the falls were alive with fishermen casting their nets in the sluices, and catching the finest shad-such as had strength to stem the torrent of several miles continuance. It was a beautiful sight in May, when the vegetation on the islands had assumed its delicate green, and the flowers, shrubs and trees were in bloom, to see each rock tenanted by a fisherman.

On one occasion this scene was awfully changed. It was a beautiful May morning, and there were an unusual number of fishermen on the rocks in every part of the river above Mayo's Bridge. Suddenly, without the slightest previous indication or warning, the river rose so rapidly that all had to run for their lives. Swimming was in a very few