20 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



winds, strong currents, or ice, travellers are often de- 

 layed many days, and this would have been our case 

 had we come a day later. The whole road from Lan- 

 caster hither, and farther on to York, is over hilly 

 limestone land, or rather, through a broad, uneven 

 limestone valley formed, on the right, by the chain of 

 the South Mountain and its branches, of which the 

 Codorus Mountain is not the most inconsiderable, and 

 on the left, by the continuation of the Welsh Mount- 

 ains. The country is everywhere well settled and 

 farmed, indeed the county of Lancaster is generally 

 regarded as the most fertile in Pensylvania, yielding 

 20 and 30-fold. But at this season of the year the land 

 did not appear at its best. Twelve miles this side the 

 Susquehannah lies 



York in Pensylvania ; a small town, regularly 

 planned, of perhaps 300 houses, and five several houses 

 of worship. The place was settled only 40 years ago, 

 and here also the Court-house stands at the middle, 

 where the main streets cross. The Codorus, a small 

 stream not navigable, runs through the town. The 

 inhabitants are very largely Germans. What they need 

 of foreign, particularly the indispensable West Indian 

 goods, such as rum, sugar, mollasses, coffee &c, they 

 fetch from Baltimore in Maryland ; not because that 

 city is nearer to them or offers a better market for their 

 flour, grain, and cattle, but on account of the disagree- 

 able and uncertain ferriage over the Susquehannah. 

 All manner of craftsmen and artificers are to be found 

 in this and other similar country-towns ; especially, it 

 appears, are many wall and standing-clocks made here, 

 at least, in most of the houses along the road I saw 

 very well designed works, with the rubric of this place. 



