134 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



houses and a mill, named for the first settler, Stoffel 

 Wagner's, and after we had driven through more lone- 

 some woods and between more high hills, and had 

 crossed Saucon creek, there opened up a splendid 

 valley, its mellow, fat soil presenting everywhere a 

 cheerful prospect ; and soon after we came to the quiet, 

 but magnificent Leheigh. The last hills between 

 Quaker-town and this valley have the same name as 

 the river, that is, are called the Leheigh * hills ; so far 

 as I could see they do not form one connected chain, 

 but are broken ridges and heights, quite separate or 

 meeting by their jutties, and in appearance ranged in 

 sharp lines from East to West, but really they fall in 

 with the other hills and are part of a broken chain run- 

 ning northeast to southwest. The surface of the higher 

 hills was partly of the blueish stone mentioned and 

 partly of a sort of laminated gneiss. But in the valley 

 there appeared a grey limestone, quite without petri- 

 factions. A mile perhaps across the valley, and one 

 reaches the banks of the Leheigh, which with a magical 

 beauty show united every charm of a delectable 

 region. Almost all the finest North American shrubs 

 and trees push forward to lend the scene heightened 

 grace, their branches flung far over the river and 

 shadows cast the calamus, the rhododendron, cepha- 

 lanthus, sassafras, azalea, tulip-tree, magnolia, and 

 many others which we desire consumedly as guests in 

 our gardens. The Leheigh river is not more than 100 

 yards wide, a soft, clear, pure stream flowing over a 

 rocky bottom. Soon we caught sight of Bethlehem 

 lying near, the first view of which, from its situation 



* Leheigh is commonly pronounced Lecho [ ?] 



