PENSYLVANIA 5 



seemed to be made up for the most part of a brown 

 iron-mould, or of an earth similar to this. In one of 

 the valleys there was limestone. But this whole region, 

 far around, cannot boast of any particularly fertile soil ; 

 but little grain is raised, and there is a lack of meadows, 

 the narrow low-grounds along the Schuylkill excepted, 

 which is the sole good land of the region. But the 

 country is so much the more productive in iron-ore, 

 which has been the occasion of setting up a good many 

 forges and furnaces. The forests are everywhere thin 

 and of young growth ; for what with the lack of a 

 systematic forest-economy here, the many iron-works 

 could not but ravage the woods, and to their own hurt. 

 The better land is used for farming, and the worse, 

 where timber is left standing, produces a slow and 

 poor growth. Moreover the game which at one time 

 was very plentiful in this region has in great part been 

 frightened off, and there is little to be seen except a 

 few pheasants {Tetrao Umbellus & Cupido L.), par- 

 tridges (Tetrao virginianus L.), squirrels, and hares. 

 Everybody having full liberty to shoot, as much as he 

 can or cares to, the larger game is extirpated in the 

 farmed and settled parts, and has taken a last refuge in 

 the wild mountain country. The people who live in 

 and among these hills seem not to be the most pros- 

 perous and their dwellings are not the best. But they 

 are not forgotten in the tax-levies ; an ordinary house, 

 e. g., with ioo acres of land, paid this year 20 Pd. 

 Pensylv. Current. The owner, a German, would there- 

 fore rather live somewhere else, but he expressed a 

 singular dislike for the famed Kentucky country on 

 the Ohio, + whither several of his friends were trying 

 to persuade him to withdraw. He had heard that in 



