226 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



family, with their cattle, were murdered the last year 

 of the war, probably by the Indians. The dog belong- 

 ing to the family came to a neighbor's house and in his 

 whimpering dog-language bewailed the sad event. He 

 was chased off, but continued coming back to repeat 

 his story, and by flatteries and courteously running be- 

 fore seemed to be asking the neighbor to follow him, 

 until finally some one went with him back to the house 

 and there found the slain. 



Farther on we came over Crossing-hill down to 

 Juniata Creek, its crooked banks shaded by calamus, 

 cephalanthus, rhododendron, Weymouth fir, chesnut 

 and beech. The Juniata falls into the Susquehannah ; 

 it was not deep at this time, but in the spring and 

 autumn swells to the inconvenience of the traveller. 

 The slopes of Crossing-hill showed a red, micaceous, 

 compact sand-stone (cos), iron-bearing, and splitting 

 in half-inch slabs. Towards the summit there ap- 

 peared a fine grey grind-stone which is used for the 

 purpose to good advantage. Beyond the- stream there 

 lives a Colonel in a wooden hut. We kept on over 

 hills not so high, in which there is found greyish or 

 reddish whet-stone (cos) splitting in slabs an inch 

 thick ; in these were to be seen dendrites roughly 

 sketched across. At midday, seven miles this side 

 Bedford, we arrived at Captain Paxton's house. The 

 bread was baking in the pan. The meat had a smell. 

 There was no whiskey. Coffee and tea had just given 

 out. However, the country between these hills is at 

 times beautiful and there is much good land, especially 

 up the Juniata along which runs the road to Bedford, 

 a narrow valley between high steep mountains where 

 warmth and moisture assure a livelier green and the 



