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Show l ~:l TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: The Blue Ri( gc is thickly cowered with large tree to the very fummit; {orne of the mountains arc rDgged and extremely llony, others arc 1 ,0t Co, and on thefc lafl the foil is found to be rich and fertile. It is o11ly it1 rarticular places that this ridge of ll10Ullt:J.ins can be crofr d, aiJd at fome of the gap. the afccnt is flecp ancl ditlicult; but at the place wh ·rc I cr fled it, which was near the P eak of Otter, on the funth fide, inllcad of one great mountain to pais over, as mig 1t be imagin d fr m an infpeCtion of the map, there is a fucccllion of final! bills, rifing impcrcc..ptibly one above the other} fo that you g~t upon the top of the ridge before you :~re aware of it. The Peaks of Otter are the high fl. mountains in th Blue Ridge, and, moafurcd from their bales, arc fuppofcd to be more lofty than any others in North America. 1~c ording to Mr. Jefferfon, whoft.: authority has been quot d nearly by every perfon that has written on the fubjctl: fincc tl e publication f hi Notcs on Virginia, the principal p ak is about four thouf~tnd fi et in perpcndi ular height; but it mufi be obferved, that Mr. Jeffcrfon does not fay tl1at he meafurcd the height himfelf; on the contrary, he acknowledges that the height of the mountains in America bas never yet been afcertain d with any degree of exactnefs; it is only from certain data, from which he fays a tolerable conjecture may be formed, th~t he fuppofcs this to be the height of the loftiefl: p ak. I ofitivcly to a!Tert that this peak is not fo high, without having meafurcd it in any manner, would be a!Jfurd; as I did not m~.-;lfure it, I do not thcrefora pretend t contradict 1Vlr. Jcfferfon; I h, ve only to h'ly, that the moll: elevated of the peaks of Otter appca ·ed to me but a very infignificant mountain in comparifon With Snowden, in Waks; and every pcrfon that I converfl:d with that had fc n both, and I converfrrl ith many, made the fame remark. Now the hi(rh it peak of Snowuen is found by triangular admeafurement to be no mor~.- than thr e thoufand f1vc hundred and fixty-eight feet high, reckoning f om the qu:ty at Carnarv n. None of the ther moun tams in the Blu, Rid l')'c are fuppofed, from the fame data, to be more than lwo tiwufand fe-.t in perpendicular height, Beyond GERMAN I N fi A B I T A N T S. l'2J Beyond the Blue Ridge, after croffing by thi route ncar the Peak of ?tter, I met with but very few fcttkmcnts till I drew ncar to Finc:.tfllc, 111 Dottetourt County. This town fbnds abont twenty miks diO:ant from the mountain, and about fifteen fonth of f'luv,tnna River. It was only begun a~>Out. the year I 790, yet it already contains fixty hou fcs, :1r d i · ~10ft ~·aprdly rncrcafing. The improvement of the adjacent country has ~rkcv11fe. been very rapid, and land now bears nearly the fame price that 1t do~s m _the ncjghbourhoocl of York and Lancall:er, in Pcnnfylvania. The mhalHtants confift princip,t1ly of Germans, who have exten led their fett_lcments from Penniylvania along the whole of that rich track of land '"':hrch runs through the upper part of Maryl.tnd, and from thence bchmd the Dille Mountains to the moll: fouthern parts of Virginia. Thcfe people, as I before mentioned, keep very much together, and arc never to be found but where the land is rcmarkaLJy go"li It · fi 1 1 . , • u " • IS mgu ar, t 1at although they .form three fourths of the inhabitants on the wefrern fide of the 13h~c Rtdg~, yet not one of them is to be met with on the call:ern fide, I~<:twJ thO:andmg that l.and is to be purch;1fed in the neighbourhood of the South-well: Mount:uns for one fourth of what is paid for it in Bottc~ omt County .. They have many times, I am told, croifcd the Blue R1drrc. t_o exanune the land} but the red foil which they found there was dtflercnt from what they had been accuftomcd t aJ d tl · · • . ' , ' 1 Je lDJllrY 1t \~as cxpofed to ~ror~ the mountain torrent always ap;1earcd to them an. m.f upcra. ble obJcC'bon to icttling in th'a t pat· t o f t J e country. The. dJfferencc 111ciecd between the LOuntry on the caftern and 011 the wdlcrn fide of the Blue Ridge, in Bott ·tonrt County is afl011·a · 1 · · , 1 11ng, w 1en 1t JS confiden:cl that both arc under tltc fa11e latitLJde a11d tl t } · d''r • , 1::1. t Hs wcrencc JS perceptible within the J 10rt clifl: nee of thirty miles. . On the callcrn .fide of the ridge colton grows c. tremcly well, and ·11 wmtcr the fi10w 1carcely cv r remains more than a day or two upun tlJ t ground. On the other fide cotton never comes to pcrfecl:ion, the w·in.tcrs a1e fcvcrc, and the fidJs cover d with fi1ow for w ck: togctl ct . In every fMm yard ;au .(; c Ocir•hs or iledgcs, carria es ufcd to run tpon tlw 1i1ow. Wherever tl1cie carriJgcs arc met with, it may b. iakl:n for gmnt(;(l thn the winter blls in hat p.trt of th~ country for a R 2 confiderablc |