66 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 



from the Massonetto ridge, in the vicinity, which, under the 

 names of "fossil toad, and fossil snake," he hugged to his bosom 

 with parental fondness ; no reasonable sum would induce him to 

 part with them ; he at length consented to exchange them 

 for " sea-shells, corals, &c. or any queer thing that comes from 

 the great ocean." Having passed through New-Market, and 

 crossed the north branch of the Shenandoah, at 7 P. M. halted 

 for the night at Pitman's. We have travelled the whole day 

 over roads cut or worn through limestone, uncovered by soil, and 

 in the worst condition ; the limestone is quite black, of the varie- 

 ty called Hydraulic, from the water cement which is made of it. 

 This formation continues nearly the whole length of the Masso- 

 netto ridge, and has evidently been subjected to violent disturbing 

 powers from below, and subsequently, water worn on its surface : 

 the strata are occasionally a foot or two thick, and dip towards 

 the mountain, SE. to the NE., at an angle of 45° ; at other times 

 the strata emerge vertically — again they appear in large irregular 

 masses, sometimes almost comminuted, and frequently resem- 

 bling slate so strikingly, as to be mistaken for it until more close- 

 ly inspected, hammer in hand. In one place they form a narrow 

 pass, over which the public road lies, and which is known here 

 by the name of " the narrows :" it is about twenty feet wide, 

 and displays a perpendicular precipice on each side* nearly eighty 

 feet high, with a small river on either side, unconnected at this 

 place. This " narrow passage" is four miles south of Woodstock, 

 ten miles north of Mount Jackson. On the great valley road, 

 there is another remarkable display of this curious hydraulic 

 limestone rock ; this is a denuded hill, through part of which the 

 public road passes ; on the very summit of which there is yet a 

 small sprinkle of red diluvium — but all the slope is naked, and the 

 faces of the projecting strata are water-worn and smooth. The 

 roots of pine trees, which once occupied this slope, are still seen 

 wedged in the crevices of the rock ; this denudation was oc- 

 casioned, as the neighbours assured us, " by the bursting of a 

 cloud," whose awful consequences they witnessed, to their great 

 loss and terror. 



I could refer their account to no natural phenomenon, unless 

 it be to the bursting of a water spout. The disturbed strata of 

 this limestone, are here well contrasted with it in its natural 

 state. Arrived at Winchester, at 7 P. M. 



