SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 247 



I wish my readers to understand that I am no flatterer 

 of persons, and that in speaking of them, I only wish to 

 show what a good, kind, noble feeling exists among agri- 

 cultural brethren, which is forming a "band of brother- 

 hood" that will prove a blessing to this nation. 



I took the Frankfort stage at Madison early in the 

 morning of the 14th, and after being detained waiting 

 for the horse ferry boat till nearly sun rise, we were at 

 length on board, when the cry of "the fog is coming," 

 brought every eye towards a great dark mass that seemed 

 to be rolling down between the high hills that bound the 

 river on each side, like some mighty avalanche, threaten- 

 ing to overwhelm everything in its way. Crack went the 

 whip, and the poor horses had to suffer for the drowsy 

 tardiness of their masters ; for strange as it may appear 

 to strangers, so sudden does the fog come on here, that 

 we had scarcely time to make the passage of the river, 

 which the great drouth has rendered but a diminutive 

 stream, before the fog settled down so thick that no ob- 

 ject could be distinguished across the water, and any at- 

 tempt to make the passage at such a time is not only 

 fruitless, but sometimes dangerous. It not unfrequently 

 happening, that the boat after a toilsome attempt, comes 

 back to the same shore it left an hour before. 



From Madison to Frankfort, 52 miles, the country is 

 extremely hilly, and at present, parched with drouth to 

 a distressing degree. 



The town of Newcastle, which is a large country town, 

 has but one small spring, and no wells, and the stream 

 that usually supplies the town, as well as nearly all the 

 cisterns, is quite dry. Much of their water has to be 

 hauled several miles. The town is situated in a valley, 

 and upon a limestone rock, that as yet has defied all at- 

 tempts to penetrate through to water. In the settlement 

 of a new country, slight circumstances induce the settle- 

 ment of a place that afterwards grows into a town. Here, 

 it was the fine spring, convenient and ample for the first 

 settlers, but insufficient for the present population. 



18—50109 



