FROM PHILADELPHIA 187 



road we had come as the only, passable one through 

 this comfortless region, and about sunset reached 

 White-oak Run. The last eight miles we had to go 

 a-foot, for there was now thick darkness among the 

 high, close-standing trees, obscuring the friendly light 

 of the moon which shone clear, but not for us, and it 

 would have been neck-breaking work to keep on horse- 

 back. We could find our way only by knocking from 

 time to time into the trees and stumps on both sides, 

 and thus being put back into the narrow path. The 

 dull light from the many rotting trunks was pleasant 

 to be sure but of no use. Finally we had 2 or 3 times 

 to wade through the circuitous Pokonoke Creek, and 

 at nine o'clock arrived at Sebitz's house, tired and 

 wet. It is indeed thoroughly tiresome to drag along 

 throughout a whole day in such a wilderness where, 

 besides the plants growing just by the way there is 

 very little to entertain. The restricted outlook is al- 

 ways the same ; after the highest summits of the 

 mountains are past, there is nothing more to delight 

 the eye except, in the deepest valleys, the environment 

 of trees. On this return journey I counted ten differ- 

 ent ranges of hills and mountains which have to be 

 crossed between Wyoming and Sebitz's.* 



These particularly distinct chains of mountains and 

 hills are all parallel and extend northeast to southwest. 

 Their divisions are reckoned merely by the larger 

 brooks and streams running through them ; for all 

 together they may be aptly regarded as one mountain, 

 of which the several ridges are set apart by these 



* Vid. Beytrage zur mineralogischen Kcnntniss des ostlichen 

 Theils von Nordamerika, p. 118 &c. 



