4 Runriing jYotes, Agricultural and [July? 



very nose, as it were — of a beautiful mansion! There are more 

 elegant dwellings, with tasty shrubberies, gardens, and out grounds, 

 in Binghamton, than in almost any other village of its popula- 

 tion, in our state. 



From Binghamton to Great Bend, sixteen miles, the road fol- 

 lows the banks of the Susquehannah, the valley averaging proba- 

 bly a little more than a mile in width. It is a pleasant and 

 highly fertile one. When older and cleared of its pine stumps, 

 it will be one of the finest agricultural regions in the southern 

 counties. Near Great Bend is a good exposure of the rocks of 

 the Chemung group, on the banks of the river. They took me 

 by surprise, as from geological maps, I had been led to expect 

 the " old red sandstone " there. 



The Carbondale road leaves the Susquehannah at Great Bend, 

 and bears in a direction a little east of south. Near New Mil- 

 ford the beautiful sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia,) begins to 

 abound. It was in full blossom, — converting many a distant 

 barren steep, apparently into a garden of roses. At one place 

 the road passed the foot of a hill belted with a coppice of young- 

 hemlocks — when young, and especially at this period of the year, 

 when the dark green of each bough is tipped and contrasted with 

 the paler tints of the newly grown foliage of the present season, 

 the finest of our northern evergreens. Every interval of the cop- 

 pice was filled with laurels in full blossom, and they fringed its 

 outer margin, and extended quite to the road side. The efi'ect 

 was singularly unique and splendid. 



Soon after passing New Milford the " old red sandstone " be- 

 gins to crop out in those vast tabular masses, which characterize 

 this group. On reaching the high land at Mott's tavern, and 

 commencing the descent of the creek, which leads off towards the 

 Tunkhannock mountain, these tabular masses increase, and lie 

 thickly scattered over the surface of most of the adjacent slopes. 

 They usually approach a regular quadrangular form, though some 

 are entirely irregular in shape, and others are rounded. They are 

 from five to twenty-five feet square superficially, and rise from one 

 to ten feet above the surface of the soil. It is singular that of those 



