294 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



journey. " To complete a chart of the mountains," 



was his answer. I asked if I might see his sketches 

 for such a map. He promised I might examine them 

 the following morning. I could hardly wait for the 

 morning, and rejoiced at the chance which had brought 

 me to the acquaintance of this singular man. I 

 eagerly reminded him of his promise, and he drew 

 forth from the bed dusty papers, spreading them out 

 before him in a hesitating manner. The course of the 

 Alleghany through Pensylvania and Virginia was 

 pretty exactly set down ; but not without surprise I 

 saw that he had continued this chain of mountains 

 northwards beyond the Hudson, then westwards below 

 Hudson's Bay nearly to the Pacific Sea, and thence to 

 the west of the Mississippi to and through Louisiana 

 and Mexico, and finally had sketched in still another 

 chain through Florida and Georgia making with the 

 first a complete quadrangle, through which the Ohio 

 and the Mississippi spread their numerous branches. 



Upon my question what warranted him in making 

 the mountains of the northern half of America run a 

 quadrangular course, I received the very unexpected 

 answer : " Not I but the Prophet Ezekiel so set 

 ' down the walls of the New Jerusalem," and im- 

 mediately he began, step by step and mile by mile, to 

 expound how the Prophet Ezekiel has delineated with 

 the utmost exactness the geography of America and 

 its future states. Now I knew my man, and his 

 allusions of the day before to walls, masonry, and 

 gates were no longer a mystery, the subject of his 

 extravagances being in this manner revealed. All 

 further objections and questions were in vain, for I 

 was continually referred to Ezekiel the Prophet. With 



