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Show PUMBAR'S CREEK- RED CHIMNEY FORK. 79 which we did for about four miles, and bivouacked for the night. We continued down this yalley until the middle of the following day, when, instead of the broad open appearance which it had at first presented, it soon began to contract, until it formed a caftan, with sides so steep that it was scarcely passable for . mules. A blind Indian- trail wound along the hillside, at an elevation of several hundred feet above the stream, into which a single false step of our mules would instantly have precipitated us. It required no small exertion of nerve to look down from this dizzy height into the yawning gulf beneath. After following the cafion some ten miles, we came to a broad valley coming into it from the left, which the guide declared headed in the ridge from which we had descended yesterday, and to the eastward of the route we had taken. As all prospect* of a road by the yalley of Pumbar's Creek was now out of the question, I determined to follow iip this yalley and ascertain whether a route could not be obtained in that direction. Thja was accordingly done, and we found it to be as the guide had stated. This branch of Pumbar's Creek, which we called Red Chimney Fork, from the remarkable resemblance of one of the projections of the cliffs to that object, we found to have a very moderate descent from the ridge to its mouth, with plenty of room for a road, requiring but little labour to render it a good one. The timber is small and consists of oak, blackjack, aspen, wild- cherry, service- berry, and box- elder of large size. In many places it is quite abundant. On Pumbar's Creek, the hills were composed of strata of marble and metamorphic sandstone, inclined at an angle of 80° to the north- east. Lower down, the horizontal strata were found lying by the side of these inclined rocks. On Red Chimney Fork, the strata were nearly horizontal, consisting principally of layers of red sandstone conglomerate, formed from metamorphic rocks with calcareous cement, and white sandstone with layers of conglomerate interposed. Near its junction with Pumbar's Creek, strata of slaty shales occurred, cropping out at an angle of 70°. Below the Red Chimney Fork, the valley of Pumbar's Creek opens sufficiently to allow the passage of a road through the bottom ; but, as its course was leading us from our intended direction, we availed ourselves of a ravine, which, a mile below, comes into it from the north- west, and followed this up to its head, thus attaining the height of the general level of the country. The ascent is quite regular, but the road would have to be made all |