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Show TRAVELS TIIROUGH THE UNITED STATES: quchannah, which may be traced above the town, winding amidfi the hi-lls [i )r a grc<Lt num er of mile . 'L he c u11t ry beyond the moun tains i extremely rough, and but \" t:ry thinly ft:ttlccl, of courfe Hill much wooded. T he people, at the Ccw ho tfcs fcattered through it, appeared to live m uch better than the inhabitant of any other part of the St.1tes which I before paffc d through. At every houfe where we fl:oppcd we found abundance of good bread, butter, tea, coffee, chocolate, and venifon; and indeed we fared fumptuouily here, in compaFiion to what we had done for many weeks prcccdinb. The woods in many part5 of this country conlified almofi wholly of hemlock trees, whi h are of the pine fpecies, and grow only on poor ground. Many of them were of an unufually large fize, and their tops fo clofdy matted together, that after having entered into the depth of the wood you could fee th~ fky in but v ry few places. The bruiliwood under th fe trees, different from what I ever faw clfewhere, confifl: ed for the moil: part of the oleander and of the kalmia laurel, whofc deep green ferved to render the gloom of the woods fiill more fo- 1emn ; indeed th y feemed completely to anfwer the defcription given by the poets of the f1cred groves; and it were impoflible to enter them without being firuck with awe. About twenty miles before you come to Bethlehem, in going thither from Wilkeiliarrc, you crofs the ridge of Blue Mountains at what is called the Wind Gap; how it received that name I never could learn. This gap is nearly a mile wide, and it exhibits a tremendouily wild and rugged fcene. The road does not run at the bottom of the gap, but along the edge of the fouth mountain, about two thirds of the way up. Above you on the right, nothing is to .be feen but broken rocks and trees, and on the left you look down a fl:eep precipice. The rocks at the bottom of the precipice have every appearance, it is [aid (for we did not defcend into it) of having been wafhed by water for ages; and from hence it has been conjeCtured that this mufl: have been the original channel of the River Ddaware, which now paffcs through the ridge, at a place about fifteen miles to the north wefi. Whether this were the cafe or • |
