CHAP. XXXVIIL] ABSENCE OF LAKES. 321 



lakes. All who were strangers to the scene required 

 to be assured that they were not really sheets of 

 water ; yet they were simply banks of dense white 

 fog resting on the low grounds, which the heat of the 

 sun would soon dissipate. It is singular that there 

 are no lakes in the Appalachian chain, all the rivers 

 escaping from the longitudinal valleys through gorges 

 or cross fissures, which seem invariably to accompany 

 such long flexures of the strata as characterise the 

 Alleghanies or the Jura. 



In Campbell s &quot; Gertrude of Wyoming,&quot; indeed, 

 we see 



&quot; Lake after lake interminably gleam,&quot; 



amidst the Appalachian ridges ; but such character 

 istics of the scenery of this chain are as pure inven 

 tions of the poet s imagination, as the flamingos, 

 palms, and aloes with which he adorns the banks of 

 the Susquehanna. 



Near the highest summit of the chain I saw two 

 seams of excellent coal, one of them twelve feet 

 thick, in strata belonging to the same series which 

 I had examined near Greensburg. After descending 

 from the highest level, we followed for a time the 

 windings of the Juniata river, the road often bounded 

 by high rocky cliffs, on the ledges of which we saw 

 the scarlet columbine, blue hepatica, and other wild 

 flowers in blossom. 



We slept at Cbambersburg, where, on the roof of 

 the court-house, stands a statue of Franklin, holding 

 a lightning conductor in his hand. A company of 

 firemen were exercising their engines in the great 



