FROM CARLISLE TO THE OHIO 239 



different to all social ties, and do not like many neigh- 

 bors about them, who by scaring off the game are a 

 nuisance besides. They are often lucky on the hunt 

 and bring back great freight of furs, the proceeds of 

 which are very handsome. Uncompanionable and 

 truculent as this sort of men appear to be, and how- 

 ever they seem half-savage and, by their manner of 

 life, proof against the finer feelings, one is quite safe 

 among them and well treated ; they have their own 

 way of being courteous and agreeable which not every- 

 body would take to be what it is. Their little house- 

 keeping is, for their situation, neat ; and their wives 

 and children are content in their solitudes where for 

 the most part they spend the time in idleness.* 



Chesnut-ridge was still before us, which is tedious 

 not for its height but for the stoniness of the road. This 

 ridge appears to be scarcely more than the continued 

 declivity of the Laurel-hill range, its height from the 

 east being very inconsiderable. Indeed there would be 

 no great error in regarding the Alleghany and Laurel- 

 hill (with the Dry Ridge to the east of the first, and 

 Chesnut-hill to the west of the second) as forming 

 together in basis one and the same great range of 

 mountains, near 60 English miles in breadth from east 

 to west. The rock of all these mountains, on their 

 west side, is still the laminated sand-stone; but here 

 commonly more of a greyish tint. On the roads 

 through these immense forests the many fallen trees 

 are every moment a disagreeable hindrance, for no- 

 body removes them out of the way, and one must go 



* For more in this regard, read St. John's Letters ; the 3rd 

 letter. 



