372 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



him so much as their stealing his fat hogs after having 

 in vain offered him money for them. But in an honor- 

 able and upright manner he acknowledged that he and 

 other American militia-men on their campaigns had 

 done as ill, taking cattle when they wanted them and 

 without having offered money, which besides they had 

 none of. In the morning, three miles from our 

 quarters, we passed an iron-foundry lying in ruins. 

 At one time swamp-ore was worked here, which the 

 neighboring marshes furnish in plenty ; the war com- 

 ing on put a stop to the business. One mile this side 

 Gunpowder-Creek the blackish granite began to ap- 

 pear, which, as at Baltimore, receives its color from the 

 mixture of a blackish scale-hornblende. The stream 

 itself, as we afterwards saw, has broken through a 

 deep bed of this stone, and it appears from the rock- 

 walls of the creek that the stone was originally laid 

 in strata. Farther on, at the ferry over the Susque- 

 hannah, there was still to be seen a related species of 

 stone, but of a lighter, greyer color. Only along the 

 deep beds dug out by the streams is there opportunity 

 to observe the underlying rock, which elsewhere is 

 covered with the common sandy soil composing the 

 level surface. Thus, for many miles along these roads 

 and in these parts there is a tedious uniformity of pine- 

 forest and sand. The Susquehannah at this ferry, 

 (called the lowest), is a mile wide, and has many 

 hidden shelves due to the lines of rock striking across. 

 Seven miles beyond this ferry we came to Charles- 

 town, on the North-East-Branch, still in Maryland. 

 It was a church-dedication day. Already we had met 

 on the road a great many country-people, all of them 

 well dressed, on horseback, and all sober although re- 

 turning from the festival. The sun was not yet set 



