Valley of the Lackawanna and of Wyoming. 317 



south, gives the Susquehanna an exit, and at both places a slight 

 obliquity in the position of the observer presents to the eye a seem- 

 ing lake in the windings of the river, and a barrier of mountains, 

 apparently impassable. 



From the foot of the steep mountain ridges, particularly on the 

 eastern side, the valley slopes away, with broad sweeping undula- 

 tions in the surface, forming numerous swelling hills of arable and 

 grazing land; and as we recede from the hills, the fine flats and 

 meadows, covered* with the richest grass and wheat, complete the 

 picture, by features of the gentlest and most luxuriant beauty. 



People — forts — hattle ground. 



An active and intelligent population fills the country ; their build- 

 ings and farms bear witness to their industry and skill : several villa- 

 ges or clusters of houses give variety to the scene, and Wilkesbarre, 

 a regular and well built borough, having 1000 or 1200 inhabitants, 

 with churches, ministers, academy, able teachers and schools, and 

 with many enlightened, moral and cultivated people, furnishes an 

 agreeable resting place to the traveller. He will not fail to enquire 

 for the batde ground, and for the traces, now almost obliterated, of the 

 forts which were so often assailed and defended; which frequently 

 protected the entire population from civil and savage warfare, and 

 which have been rendered memorable, by events of the deepest in- 

 terest, f 



* As I saw them ia May, 1830. 



t The site of fort Wyoming is now covered by the court house ; fort Durgee was 

 half a mile below the borough near the Shawnee flats ; there was another fort on the 

 eastern bank nearly opposite to Porter's hotel, a little below the bridge ; the re- 

 doubts (an admirable look-out station) are still visible on the hill at the north of 

 the village, and near them the solitary grave, without a monument, of the first 

 clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Johnson, who was buried there by his own request. 



Mill Creek empties into the Susquehanna, at the north of the borough and near its 

 mouth, both on the same, and on the opposite shore, were block houses which were fa- 

 mous in the wars of the valley ; Ogden's blockhouse was here. Two or three miles 

 north of Wilkesbarre, and on the western side of the river, is the site of Forty 

 Fort, near the tavern of Mr. Myers ; a mile or two still farther north, is the 

 creek upon whose southern bank, the little army of the planters, bravely led by 

 Cols. Z. Butler and N. Denison, took their judicious station on the morning of Ju- 

 ly 3, 1778, intending, there to await the enemy ; and two or three miles still farther 

 north, is the plain on and near which, most of them were destroyed, in and after 

 the fatal battle, accidentally and prematurely brought on, in the afternoon of that 

 day. The left wing of the combined army of Loyalists, Indians, and British, under 

 Col. John Butler, rested on fort Wintermoot, whose site near the river is now cover- 

 ed by the house of the late Col. Jenkins, while the right wing extended to the swamp 



