1846.J Geological, of a trip to Carbondale. 19 



and noble view, but I paid rather dearly for it. At a fork in the 

 road, where I had scanned the geology better than the topography 

 of the place, on my previous passage, I was confused, enquired 

 the road, was miss-directed by a young miss standing by a cabin 

 at the junction of the roads, in consequence of which miss-state- 

 ment I took the Dundaff instead of the New Turnpike, and had 

 the " immense satisfaction " of climbing over a series of sharp 

 conical peaks for thirteen or fourteen miles, — decidedly the 

 hardest road for a loaded team I ever passed over! I compensat- 

 ed myself as well as I could with the commanding view from the 

 banks of Crystal Lake, a pretty little sheet of water a mile long, 

 on the very summit of one of the Moosiac Mountains. At its 

 northern extremity, a little way off from Dundaff, the eye sweeps 

 over a circular area, the chord of which is not probably less than 

 thirty miles. Ridge stretches off beyond ridge until their blue 

 outlines blend with and are lost in the tints of the sky. On the 

 other side of a deep valley, Elk Mountain lifts his solitary peak 

 in the north-east, high towering over the surrounding summits, 

 in all this region of Pennsylvania, he 



" is the monarch of mountains, 



They crowned him long ago." 



Both going and returning, I made enquiries, particularly on the 

 rivers, for traces of the Iroquois tribes who once inhabited them, 

 such as forts, implements of war and peace, amulets, ornaments, 

 &c. I could find or hear of nothing which would add any thing 

 to the archaeological information, communicated to our legislature 

 last winter by Mr. Schoolcraft in his admirable report, transmit- 

 ting the " census of the Iroquois." Hatchets and arrow-heads 

 are frequently picked up on Tioughnioga, the Chenango, and the 

 Susquehannah, and these are nearly all that remains to show the 

 present inhabitants that they are not the original occupants of the 

 soil. Indeed, most of them seem already to have forgotten that 

 on their hills, and on their valleys, and on their waters, those 



fierce predatory tribes once lived, hunted, fought, adored and 



perished. 



Cortland Village, June 20th, 1846. 



