320 CROSSING THE ALLEGIIAXIES. [CiiAP. XXXVIII. 



wards missed it at Philadelphia I wrote to three 

 places to claim it. After five days I found it in my 

 room in the hotel, no one knowing whence it came, 

 and nothing having been paid for it. Before reach 

 ing Philadelphia it must have been transferred to 

 three distinct conveyances, including two railways. 

 I may state here a fact highly creditable to the public 

 conveyances in the United States, that I never lost 

 a package in either of my tours, although I sent 

 more than thirty boxes of geological specimens from 

 various places, often far south of the Potomac, and 

 west of the Alleghanies ; some by canals, some by 

 river steamers, others by coaches or railways. Every 

 one of them sooner or later found their way safely 

 to my house in London. 



On leaving Greensburg we crossed one after ano 

 ther of the long parallel ridges of which the Alle- 

 ghany chain is composed, descending into each of the 

 long intervening valleys, the hills becoming higher and 

 higher as we advanced eastward. The character of 

 the forest changed as we came to higher ground, 

 especially by the intermixture of trees of the fir tribe, 

 and by the undergrowth of azaleas, kalmias, and 

 rhododendrons, for I had seen none of these ever 

 greens since I left Indiana, not even under the oak 

 wood round Greensburg. When day dawned we 

 had reached the highest part of our road, and enjoyed 

 a splendid mountain view, the steep wooded slopes 

 being relieved by the contrast of green meadows 

 bordering the rivers in the bottom of each deep valley, 

 while in many parts of the landscape a picturesque 

 effect was produced by what appeared to be extensive 



