8 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



but is very productive ; 3000 pounds of ore are said to 

 yield 2000 pounds of iron. Beneath and above the iron- 

 stone there is a bed of grey, soft, clayey earth which is 

 called by the workmen soapstone. The work is carried 

 on as mentioned above. That is to say, they dig here 

 or there deep and wide, open pits, and when these grow 

 inconvenient on account of depth, water, or other cir- 

 cumstances, they begin new ones. A mile from these 

 Holes we found Jones' Tavern, on the main road to 

 Lancaster. The Welsh Mountains here fall in with 

 sundry other ranges, and between there begins, or ends, 

 a considerable limestone valley,* which extends from 

 here, past Lancaster, York &c, to the Potowmack. In 

 these hills rise the Conestoga, French, and Brandy- 

 wine creeks, which flow in quite different directions. 

 Jones' Tavern stands in a corner of Berks county, 

 where this bounds on Chester county. The land-sur- 

 veyors, when they were making the boundaries of these 

 two counties some time ago, overlooked a tract of land 

 of perhaps 300 acres, which lies between the two and 

 now belongs to neither. The owner of this land does 

 not fail to take advantage of the oversight, and pays 

 no taxes, (nor did he during the war), it being un- 

 certain which county should tax him. Among these 

 mountains, especially towards Reading, there are many 

 other iron-mines, furnaces, and forges. On the road 

 hither from Philadelphia we saw hardly any living 

 creature, except a few crows, several wood-peckers 

 (Picus villosus, principalis &c. L.), a sitta, the snow- 



*I mean by this a valley or hollow between mountain- 

 ranges of other rock-species, the valley itself filled with lime- 

 stone beds. Vid. Mineralog. Beytrdge &c. 



