194 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



so-called ' Big Spring,' which breaks out of the earth 

 in a vein large as a man's leg and within the first 

 hundred rods of its course sets three mills going. It 

 appears that in this hilly and dry country the water is 

 assembled at only a few places, gushing out thence in 

 greater volume and force. This range of hills is too 

 low to furnish such supplies of water, but running as 

 they do with the Blue Mountains it may be supposed 

 that the few (and therefore more considerable) springs 

 of the Dry Land come from the mountains, and are 

 here raised through subterranean canals, as by an el- 

 bowed pipe. 



Ten miles from Allen-town is Maguntchy, a village 

 of few houses ; its name is Indian. Not far off is 

 Cedar Creek which also rises in a very large spring. 

 The Leheigh hills are now to the left and pretty near ; 

 they appear to make a continuous parallel course with 

 the Blue Mountains, which are constantly in sight at 

 a distance of 8-10-12 miles running uniformly; where- 

 as the summits of the Leheigh hills are more cut into 

 and of a wave formation. The land hereabouts is 

 fairly good ; fields and meadows of a fertile appear- 

 ance, the latter conspicuously green at this time. The 

 farm management seems pretty orderly. One gets a 

 glimpse of many good stone houses, many of them 

 very neat, and everything about the premises shows 

 order and attention. The people are mainly Germans, 

 who speak bad English and distressing German. The 

 buck-wheat, greatly seeded here after wheat for the 

 second harvest, stood in full bloom and with the penny- 

 royal (Cunila pulegioides) , so common on all the 

 roads, made a strong and pleasant evening odor. 



America is indeed the land of the oak. All the 



