THE LAND OF EDEN. '] 1 J 



to circulate. We crossed both the branches of Lowland creek, and sundry 

 other rills of fine water. From every eminence we discovered the moun- 

 tains to the north-west of us, thougli they seemed to be a long way off. 

 Here the air felt very refreshing and agreeable to the lungs, having no 

 swamps or marshes to taint it. Nor was this the only good effect it had, 

 but it likewise made us very hungry, so that we were forced to halt and 

 pacify our appetites with a frugal repast out of our pockets, which we wash- 

 ed down with water from a purling stream just by. My knees pained me 

 very much, though I broke not the laws of travelling by uttering the least 

 complaint. Measuring and marking spent so much of our time, that w^e 

 could advance no further than eight miles, and the chain carriers thought 

 that a great way. In the evening we took up our quarters in the low- 

 grounds of the river, which our scouts informed us was but two hundred 

 yards ahead of us. This was no small surprise, because we had flattered 

 ourselves that this back line would not have intersected the Dan at all ; but 

 we found ourselves mistaken, and plainlj^ perceived that it ran more souther- 

 ly than we imagined, and in all likelihood pierces the mountains where they 

 form an amphitheatre. The venison here was lean ; and tlje misfortune was 

 we met no bear in so open a country, to grease the way and make it slip 

 down. In the night our sentinel alarmed us with an idle suspicion that he 

 heard the Indian whistle, (which amongst them is a signal for attacking their 

 enemies.) This made every one stand manfully to his arms in a moment, 

 and I found no body more undismayed in this surprise than Mi'. Banister ; 

 but after we had put ourselves in battle array, we discovered this whistle to 

 be nothing but the nocturnal note of a little harmless bird, that inhabits those 

 woods. We were glad to find the mistake, and commending the sentinel for 

 his great vigilance, composed our noble spirits again to rest till the morning. 

 However, some of the company dreamed of nothing but scalping all the rest 

 of the night. 



28th. We snapped up our breakfast as fast as we could, that we might 

 have the more leisure to pick our way over a very bad ford across the river. 

 Though, bad as it was, we all got safe on the other side. We were no sooner 

 landed, but we found ourselves like to encounter a very rough and almost 

 impassable thicket. However, we scuffled through it without any dismay or 

 complaint. This was a copse of young saplings, consisting of oak, hickory 

 and sassafras, which are the growth of a fertile soil. We gained no more 

 than two miles in three hours in this perplexed place, and after that had the 

 pleasure to issue out into opener woods. The land was generally good, 

 though pretty bare of timber, and particularly we traversed a rich level of at 

 least two miles. Our Vv'hole day's journey amounted not quite to five miles, 

 by reason we had been so hampered at our first setting out. We were glad 

 to take up our quarters early in a piece of fine low-grounds, lying about a 

 mile north of the river. Thus we perceived the river edged away gently to- 

 wards the south, and never likely to come in the way of our course again. 

 Nevertheless, the last time we saw it, it kept much the same breadth and 

 depth that it had where it divided its waters from the Staunton, and in all 

 likelihood holds its own quite as high as the mountains. 



29th. In measuring a mile and a half farther we reached the lower ford 

 of the Irvin, which branches from the Dan about tv/o miles to the south, 

 south-east of this place. This river was very near threescore yards over, 

 and in many places pretty deep. From thence, in little more than a mile, we 

 came to the end of this course, being in length fifteen miles and eighty-eight 

 poles. And so far the land held reasonably good ; but when we came to 

 run our northern course of three miles, to the place where the country line 

 intersects the same Irvin higher up, we passed over nothing but stony hills, 



