[ 261 ] 



THE JOURNAL. 



472. PITTSBURGH, June 3— Arrived here with 

 a friend as travelling companion, by the mail stage from 

 Philadelphia, after a journey of six days ; having set 

 out on the 28th May. We were much pleased with the 

 face of the country, the greatest part of which was new 

 to me. The route, as far as Lancaster, lay through a 

 rich and fertile country, well cultivated by good, settled 

 proprietors ; the road excellent : smooth as the smoothest 

 in England, and hard as those made by the cruel 

 corvees in France. The country finer, but the road not 

 always so good, all the way from Lancaster, by Little 

 York, to Chambersburgh ; after which it changes for 

 mountains and poverty, except in timber. Chambers- 

 burgh is »ituated on the North West side of that fine 

 . ralley which lies between the South and North Moun- 

 tains, and which extends from beyond the North East 

 boundary of Pennsylvania to nearly the South West 

 extremity of North Carolina, and which has Hmestone 

 for its bottom and rich and fertile soil, and beauty upon 

 the face of it, from one end to the other. The ridges 

 of mountains called the Alle^jany, and forming the 

 highest land in North America between the Atlantic and 

 Pacific oceans, begin here and extend across our route 

 nearly 100 miles, or rather, three days, for it was no less 

 than half the journey to travel over them ; they rise one 

 above the other as we proceed Westward, till we reach 

 the Allegany, the last and most lofty of all, from which 

 we have a view to the West farther than the eye can 

 carry. I can say nothing in commendation of the road 

 over these mountains, but I must admire the drivers, 

 and their excellent horses. The road is every thing 

 that is bad, but the skill of the drivers, and the weU 



