18 



Patowmac ahove tlie junction, pass along its side 

 thn ugh tli^ I a-e of" tlie riiouiitaiii for three miles, its 

 ten ihie i)re •i|)ic<'> hanginir in fragments over yon, and 

 wiihin ahoiit 20 miles reach Fredericktown, and the 

 fine conniry ronnd that. This scene is worth a voyage 

 ncio-5s the Atlantic. Yet here, as in the n(;ighhonrhood 

 of the Natural Jiridgc, aie jxiople who have passed 

 their lives within half a dozen miles, and liave never 

 been to survey these monuments of a war hetween 

 rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the 

 earth itself to its centre. (B.) 



The height of our mountains has not yet been esti- 

 mated with any degree of exactness. The Alleghaney 

 being the great ridge which divides the waters of the 

 Atlantic from those of the Mississippi, its summit is 

 doulitless more elevated above the ocean than that of 

 any other mountain. Jiut its relative height, compared 

 with the base on which it stands, is not so great as that 

 of some others, the country rising behind the succes- 

 sive ridges like the ste[)s of stairs. The mountains of 

 the Blue ridge, and of these the Peaks of Otter, are 

 thought to he of a greater height, measured frou) their 

 base, than any others in our country, an<l perhaps in 

 North America. From data, wiiicii may found a tole- 

 rahle conjecture, we suppose the highest peak to he 

 ahout 4000 feet perpendicidar, which is not a fifth part 

 of the height of the mountains of South America, nor 

 one third of the height which wouhl l»e necessary in 

 our latitude to preserve ice in the open air immeited 

 through the year. The ridge of mountains next beyond 

 the Blue ridge, called hy us the North mountain, is of 

 the greatest extent; for which reason they were named 

 by the Indians the Fndless mountaijis. 



A suhstance, supposed to l)e Pumice, found floating 

 on the Mississippi, lias induced a conjecture, that there 

 is a volcano on some of its Avaters : and as these are 

 mostly known to their sources, except the Missouri, 

 our expectations of veiifying the conjecture would o. 

 course be led to the mountains which divide the waters 

 of the Mexican Gulf from those of the South Seaj but 



