VIRGINIA 85 



Similar phenomena are to be remarked also on the 

 high banks and in the sundry deep ravines of the 

 York river, the Indian name for which is the Pa- 

 munka. Here the walls perpendicularly cut, from the 

 river 30-40 ft. high, are more than half made up of 

 broken, crushed shells mixed with sand and clay; in 

 which however there are distinct horizontal layers, at 

 times of a redder color, at times yellower, and showing 

 most plainly at the foot of the banks. Of these layers 

 some are rather hard, and may be broken off as stones ; 

 and it is not the lowermost, weighted down by the rest, 

 that are the hardest, but rather those in the middle, 

 lying above material looser and softer, and thus the 

 greater compactness must be due to the presence of 

 other constituents. 



The little place, Yorktown, of which the name has 

 been immortalized by the remarkable siege, lies in part 

 close by the river, or between the river and the deep 

 shell-banks I spoke of, but mostly (and the better 

 part) on the high river-bank itself. There is a pleas- 

 ant prospect over the river to Gloucester, and of a con- 

 siderable part of Chesapeak Bay. The inhabitants 

 had not yet recovered from the disquiets of the war, 

 and many had not returned to their homes. Traces of 

 the devastation were still evervwhere visible, and sev- 

 eral families were living at the time in the ruins of 

 buildings that had been shot to pieces. The ships sunk 

 in the river for the protection of the garrison were 

 still in .their places, and it is thought not worth while 

 to be at the trouble of raising them, for there is every 

 reason to believe that after two years they will be 

 found so eaten by the worms, (which do much damage 

 in these waters), as to be no longer usable. 



