From Carlisle to the Dhio

Coming from Nazareth we had the Blue or Kittatiny Mountain always in sight except for a little while near Reading. It seemed always as if the road was leading straight to the mountain, and one never got nearer; the reason being that in these parts the range makes a bend to the west without altering its chief course from northeast to southwest. Towards Carlisle the ridge does not lie so unbroken as before, but shows more and deeper cuts, and falls away more precipitously to the South. At any point where there is an outlook over a tract of this range, the view is indeed august, of its high and seemingly straight wall extending away. From Carlisle to Shippensburg it is 21 miles through tiresome woods, still over the same dry limestone soil and between the North, or Kittatiny, and the South Mountain. At M'Gregan's, 14 miles from Carlisle I saw for the first time a variation in the marble and limestone hitherto observed by me. The house was built of a very beautiful grey and livercolored marble, of a hard and fine grain. The quarry was not far off. Since I had before seen everywhere nothing but rough, grey limestone and marble, I had been very much inclined to believe that several persons were right whom I had heard say that America stands far behind the old world in the variety and the beauty of coloring of its marble. Those observations were grounded merely on the species occuring in the nether regions, among which, to be sure, there is little variety.

As yet, too little is known of the fossils of the new world to warrant any invidious statements.—Marl, building-stone, and iron-ore are found in this region; but we saw very few and insignificant block-houses and plantations.

Shippensburg has a good number of houses, but mostly of wood. There are really two distinct places. each standing on the side of a little hill. We paid here uncommonly dear for very sorry entertainment. From here the great road to the frontiers of Virginia and Carolina keeps on along the valley between the North and South Mountain; but our road now lay to the right towards the mountain itself, and from now on began to grow worse, for miles together full of loose limestone rocks. Wild turkeys we had hitherto seen only here and there, and singly, in the remoter parts; but today we came upon sundry large flocks. They were running on the road in the woods, and with the utmost speed got into the bush; a few were roosting on trees. They are distinguished from the tame sort only in being more uniformly black, brown, or dirty white; for the rest they are quite like them and belong to the same species. Here and there the statement is made that they mix and breed with the tame sort, but this is also denied. Their flesh is well-tasting, and they are found of good weights.

Seven miles from Shippensburg a well was digging where a new house was going up. The first 15 feet there was the common yellow sandy clay; then 20 ft. through limestone rock; the limestone growing darker, verging on black, farther down, and showing holes and nests of clear white spath-crystals which in the air soon softened and grew darker. At 35 ft. no water had been found.

The man here owned 300 acres of land in part ploughable. A few years ago he bought it at 5 Pd. Pensylv. Current the acre, and paid for it in papermoney at a time when this was worth about 50 for one in hard dollars; so that the small estate cost him only 60 Pds. hard money. He was one of the few who were wise enough during the war to exchange their papermoney for land at the right time. In order to get free of the linen-money, high prices were offered for land, and thus many land-owners, willing to put faith in the solemn promises of the Congress, were tempted to let go their holdings, in the expectation of putting out the paper capital at usury, for they flattered themselves they would be able to exchange it very soon for like amounts in silver. But unfortunately all these speculators found themselves vastly deceived in the result.On his 300 acres this man pays 12 Pd. Pensylv. Current, and praises it as good land.

Just in this region both the North and the South Mountain appear all at once very high, steep, and crested, but the latter soon falls away and seems to disappear. The road to Fort Loudon now proceeds over hills alternately of yellow flint-stone and rough, black, broken, slaty soil through the whole of Hamilton Township; and no more limestone is to be seen on these hills. It is said that on digging down gravel is reached after 10-15 ft. of this sort of slate. Most of the foot-hills seemed to be of this structure. Limestone very probably lies beneath, for the other road. through Chambers-town to Loudon is through limestone the whole way, and it appears again on descending the other side of these hills towards Fort Loudon. This almost forgotten and certainly ruined fort was

built for protection against the Indians during the war before the last. Now nothing is there but a few miserable cabins. For the site of the fort a wide opening was chosen, several miles broad, which occurs here in the wall of the Blue Mountain or its continuation. Keeping on by a narrow road cut out of the great woods and, as the case was today with cloudy weather besides, one finds himself suddenly, (and apparently without having climbed any especial ascent) in the rear of the mountain which shortly before had lain in front; for the road which hitherto has run southwest turns gradually through the gap and continues north and northwest around sundry high and noble elevations. Among them Bernard's Knob is the steepest and highest, of a truncated crest. Every 1-2 miles a sorry block-house is seen in the woods, until (a few miles from Fort Loudon) the somewhat better house of a Mr. Harris is reached. It was late, and it was raining; the wife had first to be consulted, she agreed, and we were taken in; having set behind us 27 miles from Shippensburg.

Our agreeable host was a native Englishman and, for such a mountain country, well to-do. Besides his farming and cattle-raising he makes a trade of tanning; pays out nothing for bark and little for hides, but sells his leather as dear as that brought from elsewhere. For tanning he prefers especially the bark of the chesnut-oak, because it gives the leather a higher and clearer color than the bark of other oaks. Besides, this bark is distinguished for a particularly pleasant odor, which it imparts to the water. The bark of the black-oak makes good leather also, but gives it an ugly dark color. Most of the country-people in America

know how to tan and themselves prepare, in little pits, the greatest part of the leather they need. They have even learned from the Indians an easy and rapid method of making leather from the skins of both wild and domestic animals. They call it Hirn-garmachen, i. e. brain-tanning. The skins are scraped; the brain of the animal, perhaps a bear, is broiled with the fat, and then the soup is thinned with water; the skins are several times rubbed smartly with this brew, and afterwards smoked. It is not a very cleanly process, but the leather is supple, good for all manner of use, and durable. Our host had also set up a saw-mill, and makes a profit on the boards, getting the logs for the mere trouble of taking them. For these remote forests are at this time almost nobody's property. With all the rest of the unsurveyed, unsold, or unleased land, they were formerly held by the Penn family; but now belong to the state of Pensylvania which has not the time to worry over such a trifle as a few thousand tree-trunks. The former proprietors were glad if anybody in the more unsettled parts cut off the wood and made use of it, because it was then the easier to bring in people and sell them the land at a good price.— However, these desolate-seeming woods are not altogether without inhabitants. They are about in spots, where one hardly expects to find them, at the foot of hills and by brooks. There is even a plantation on the top of a high mountain to the right of us. Not until after the war before the last did people begin to settle here and spread about.

The basis of these mountains is a quartz-grained rock, from which good mill-stones are taken. Rough grind-stones are also found, but not many.

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