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Show 1759· V I R G I N I A. The honourable colonel Byrd has a fmall place called Belv~- d h·u at the lower end of thefe falls, as romantic ere, upon a I · d and elegant as any thing I have ever feen. It ~s fituate. ver! high, and commands a fine profpeC: of the nver, wh1ch 1~ half a mile broad, forming cataraCts m the manner above de r. 'b d . there are feverallittle ifiands fcattered carelefsly about, I.Cn e ' . h '11 very roc k y, and covered with trees ; and two or t ree Vl ages in view at a [mall difl:ance. Over all thefe you difcover a pro-digious extent of wildernefs, and the river winding majell:ically along through the mid!l: of it. . York river, for about forty miles, to a place called Weft Pomt, is confined in one channel about two miles broad : it flows in a very direCt courfe, making but one angle, and that an inconfiderable one, during the whole way. At Weft Point it forks, and divides itfelf into two branches; the fouthward called Pamunky; the northward Mattapony : each of thefe branches, including the windinas and meanders of the river, is navigable feventy or b eighty miles, and a confiderable way of this fpace for large fhips. The Rappahannoc is navigable to the falls, which are a mile above Frederidburg, and about I I 0 from the bay. Veffels of large burden may come up to this place; and fmall craft and canoes may be carried up much higher. The Potowmac is one of the fine!l: rivers in North America : it is ten miles broad at the mouth, navigable above 200 miles, to Alexandria, for men of war, and, allowing for a few carrying places, for canoes above 200 farther, to the very branches of the Ohio. Colonel Boquet, a Swifs gentleman in the Royal Americans, came down this autumn from Fort Cumberland* to Shenando with very little difficulty; from hence to the great ·:~~< From Fort Cumberland to Shenando is above 100 miles; from Shenando ,to the great falls about 6o ; and from the great falls to Alexandria about 17 or J8. falls, " I It Ci I ~ I 1\. falls, r h~ve. been told, a navigation may eafily be effected. So that_ th1s nver feems to promife to be of as great confequence as any 1n North America. In all thefe rivers the tide flows as far as the falls, and at Alexandria it rifes between two and three feet. They difcharge themfelves into Chefapeak Bay, one of the finefl:: in the world, . which runs a great way up the country into Maryland ; IS from ten to twenty miles broad; navigable near a hundred le::1gues for veifels of a1mol1: any burden; and receives into its bofom at Jeafl: twenty great rivers. Thefe waters are fiored with incredible quantities of filh, fuch as fheeps-heads, rock-filh, drums, white pearch, herrings, oyfi.ers, crabs, and feveral other forts. Sturgeon and £had are in fuc~ prodigious numbers, that one day, within the fpace of two miles only, fome gentlemen in canoes caught above 6oo of the former with hooks, which they let down to the bottom, and drew up at a venture when they perceived them to rub again!l: a fi{h ; and of the latter above sooo have been caught at one fingle haul of the feine. In the mountains there are very rich veins of ore; fome mines having been already opened which turn to great account; particularly Spotfwood's iron mine upon the Rappahannoc, out of which they melt annually above fix hundred ton : and one of copper upon the Roanoke, belonging to colonel Cbifwell. This lafl: mentioned gentleman is alfo going to try for lead upon fome hunting grounds belonging to the Jndialls, towards New River, and the Green Briar; where, it is faid, there is fine ore, and in great plenty, lying above ground. Some coal mines have alto been opened upon James River near the falls, which are likely to anfwer very well. The foretl.s abound with plenty of game of vanous kinds; hares, turkies, pheafants, woodcocks, and partridges, are Ill C the |