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Show V I R G I N I A. loggs filled up with earth: the foldiers attempted to furround it with a dry ditch; but the rock was fo extreme!~ ha~·d and impenetrable, that they were obliged to defit1:. I: IS !hll un fini{ hed; and, I fear, going to ruin; for the afiembly, who feldom look a great way before them, after having expended about gooo 1. currency upon it, cannot be prevailed upon ~o give another thoufand towards finilhing it, becauf~ we are 111 po1fe£Eon of Pidburg; and: as they .fuppofe, qUite fecure .on that account: yet it is certa1n, that, In cafe of another Indiafl war on this fide, which is by no means improbable, confidering our general treatment of that people, it would be of the utmoil: advantaae and fecurity. There is a 0 peculiarity in the water at Winchefi:er, owing-, I was told, to the foil's being of a limy quality, which is frequently produB:ive of fevere gripings, efpecially in !hangers; but it is generally fuppofed, on the other hand, to be a fpecific again£l: fome other difeafes. During my fiay at this place, I was almofl: induced to make a tour for a fortnight to the fouthward, in Augufia county, for the fake of feeing fome natural curiofities; which, the officers affured me, were extremely well worth viGting: but as the Cherokees had been fcalping in thofe parts only a few days before; and as I feared, at the fame time, that it would detain me too long, and that I a1ould lofe my pa.irage to England, I judged it prudent to-decline it. Tbe curiofities they. mentioned to me, were chiefly thefe : I. About f.orty miles well ward of Augufia court-houfe, a . beautiful cafcade, burfting out of the fide of a rock; and, afl. ter rllnning fome difiance through a meadow, r.ulhing down a precipice 1 50 feet perpendicular.. 2. To the fouthward of this about twenty miles, two curious hot fprings, one tailing like alum, the other like the walhings of a gun. 3· A.mofi. W I N C H E S T E R. 3· A mofi extraordinary cave. 4· A medicinal fpring, fpeci fic in venereal cafeE. A folJier in the Virginian regiment, w hofe cafe was almofi defperate, by drinking and bathing in thefe waters, was, after a few days, in~irely cured. This fact was a{rerted very firongly by fame officers, who h ad been pofied there: b ut colonel Wa£hington, of whom I enquired more particularly concerning it, informed me that he had r.1ev er heard of it; that he was not indeed at the place where it is faid to have happened, but that h aving the command of the regiment at that time, he fhould probably have been informed of it. What credit therefore is to be given to it, the reader mufi judge for himfelf. 5· Sixty miles fouthward of Augu11a court-houfe, a natural arch, or bridge, joining two high mountains, with a confiderable river running underneath. 6. A river called Loft river, from its finking under a mountain, and never appearing again. 7· A fpring of a fulphureous nature, an infallible cure for particular cutaneous difordr.rs. 8. Sixteen miles north-eafl: of Winchefier, a natural cave or well, into which, at times, a perfon may go down to the depth of I oo or 150 yards ; and at other times, the water rifes up to the top, and overflows plentifully. This is called the ebbing and flowing wel1, and is fituated in a plain, flat country, not contiguous to any mountain or running water. 9· A few miles from hence, fix or feven curious caves communicating with each other. A day or two before I left Wincheller, I difcovered that I had been robbed by my fervant: he confeffed the fact, and pleaded fo little in jufiification of hirnfelf, that I was obliged to difmifs· him. This di{heiTed me very much, for it was impoffible to hire a fervant in thefe parts, or even any one to F 2 go • 3S |