Tin: WAV THAT AMKIIICANS CO DOWN HILL. 30? 



path, obscured by the ravines and forest- trees through 

 which it ran ; on each side were deep, yawning chasms, 

 at the bottom of which the hardy pines sprung upward 

 a hundred and fifty feet, and yet tliey looked from where 

 I stood like creeping plants. The very mountain-tops 

 spread out before me like pyramids. The moon, coming 

 up from behind the distant horizon, shone upon this vast 

 prospect, bathing one elevation of light and unotlicr in 

 darkness, or reflecting her silvery rays across the frozen 

 ground in sparkling gems, as if some eastern princess 

 scattered diamonds upon a marble floor ; then starting 

 in bold relief the shaggy rock-born hemlock and poison 

 laurel, it penetrated the deep solitudes, and made " dark- 

 ness visible,'' where all before had been most deep ob- 

 scurity. 



There too might be seen the heat, driven from the 

 eartli in light fogs by the intense cold, floating upwards 

 in fantastic forms, and spreading out in thin ether as 

 it sought more elevated regions. 



As far in the distance in every direction as the eye 

 could reach, were the valleys of Penn, all silent in the 

 embrace of winter and night, calling up most vividly the 

 emotions of the beautiful and the sublime. 



" How are we to get down this outrageous hill, 

 driver/"' bawled out a speculator in the western lands, 

 who had amused us, through the day, with nice calcu- 

 lations of how much he could have saved the govern- 

 ment and iiimself, liad he had the contract of making 

 the " National Road'' over which we were travelling. 



