VIRGINIA. 



1500 



700 



The afpeft of the country is diiferent in various parts of 

 it. On the eaftern ftiore it is level, interfperfed with 

 fwamps and meadows. In the middle it is mountainous, 

 with many rich valleys, and on the weft fide hilly. With 

 regard to the mountains, it is obfervcd, that they are not 

 folitary, and fcattercd confufedly over the face of the coun- 

 try ; but they commence at about 1 50 miles from the fea- 

 coaft, and are diipofcd in ridges one behind another, run- 

 ning nearly parallel to the fea-coaft, but rather approach- 

 ing as they advance towards the N.E. To the S.W. the 

 mountains converge into a fingle ridge, which as it ap- 

 proaches the gulf of Mexico lubfides into plain country, 

 and gives rife to fonie of tlie waters of that gulf, and par- 

 ticularly to a river called Apalachicoia. Hence the moun- 

 tains were denominated the Apalachian mountains, being in 

 reality the termination only of the great ridges pafling 

 through the continent. The name, however, has been 

 extended by European geographers ; fome giving it, after 

 their feparation into different ridges, to the Blue Ridge, 

 others to the North mountains, others to the Alleghany, and 

 others to the Laurel Ridge. The veins of hme-ftone, coal, 

 and other mineral, lie generally in the fame direftion. But 

 the courfes of the great rivers are at right angles with 

 tliefe. James and Potomac penetrate through all the ridges 

 of mountains E. of the ylllfghany (which fee), which is 

 broken by no water-courfc, but is in reahty the fpine of the 

 country, between the Atlantic on one fide, and the Miffi- 

 fippi and St. Laurence on the other. The paffage of the 

 Potomac through the Blue Ridge exhibits one of the moft 

 flupendous fcenes in nature. The only remarkable cafcade 

 in this country, is that of the Falling Spring in the county 

 of Augufla, formed by a water of James river, here called- 

 Jackfon's river ; but it bears no comparifon with that of 

 Niagara. In the lime-ftone country, there are fevcral ex- 

 tenfive caverns ; the moft noted of wliich is called Madifon's 

 cave, on the N. fide of the Blue Ridge. It extends into 

 the earth about 300 feet, and branches into fubordinate ca- 

 verns. There are alfo fome others, fuch as that near the 

 North mountain, in the county of Frederick, aiui the 

 Blowing cave, in the ridge which divides the waters of 

 the Cow and Calf pafture ; befides another of the fame 

 kind with this laft in Cumberland mountain. But of all 

 nature's works, the moft fublimc is the Natural Bridge ; 

 lying on the afcent of a hill which ftems to have been 

 cloven through its whole length by fome great convulfion. 



The fiffure juft at the bridge is reckoned to be 270 feet 

 deep, about 45 wide at tlie bottom, and 90 at the top, 

 which is of courfe the lengtli of the bridge, and its height 

 above the water. Its breadth ia the middle is about 60 feet, 

 and the thicknefs of the mafs at the fummit of the arch about 

 40 feet. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge. The 

 ftream paffing under it is called Cedar creek, which is a water 

 of James river. 



The minerals of this ftate are iron, coal, lime-ftone, and 

 fome copper, black-lead, and gold. The ore from which 

 gold was extrafted was found on the N. fide of Rappa- 

 hannock, about four miles below the Falls. On the Great 

 Kanhaway, in the county of Montgomery, are mines of 

 lead ; the ore containing a fmall portion of filver not worth 

 the pains of feparation. A valuable lead-mine is alfo faid to 

 have been difcovered in Cumberland, below the mouth of 

 Red river. A mine of copper was once opened in the 

 county of Amherft, but the difcovery was not profecuted. 

 There are feveral mines of iron, particularly two in the 

 valley between the Blue Ridge and the North mountain. 

 Confiderable quantities of black-lead are taken occafioually 

 for ufe from Winterham, in the county of Ameha. Mi- 

 neral coal of a very excellent quality is abundantly fupplied 

 by the country on James river, from fifteen to twenty miles 

 above Richmond, and for feveral miles northward and fouth- 

 ward ; alio by the weftcrn country in fo many places, that 

 the whole traft between the Laurel mountain, Miffifippi, 

 and the Ohio, has been fuppofcd to yield coal. On James 

 river, at the mouth of Rocklifh, there is great abundance 

 of good marble. There is known only one vein of lime- 

 ftone below the Blue Ridge ; from the Blue Ridge weft- 

 wardly, the whole country feems to be founded on a rock 

 of lime-ftone, which is cut into beds, and range, like the 

 mountains and fea-coaft, from S.W. to N.E., the lamina of 

 each bed declining from the horizon towards a parallelifra 

 with the axis of the earth. Near the weftern foot of the 

 North mountain are imnienfe bodies of fchift, which con- 

 tain impreffions of fhells in a variety of forms. 



Mineral fprings are numerous; but the moft efficacious 

 of thefe are two in Augufta, near the firft fources of 

 James river, where it is called Jackfon's river. One ii 

 called the Warm fpring, the other the Hot fpring. The 

 fweet fprings are in the county of Botetourt, at the eaftern 

 foot of the Alleghany, about forty-two miles from the warm 

 fprings. On Potomac river, in Berkley county, above the 

 North mountain, are medicinal fprings that arc much more 

 frequented than thofe of Augufta. At Richmond there is 

 a weak chalybeate ; and it is faid that there are fulphur 

 fprings, one on Howard's creek of Greenbriar, and another 

 at Boonfborough, on Kentucky. There is alfo in die low 

 grounds of the Great Kanhaway, feven mileu above the 

 mouth of Elk river, and fixty-feven above that of the Kan- 

 haway itfelf, a hole in the earth, capable of holding thirty 

 (T forty gallons, from which iffues a gas or bituminous va- 

 pour in fo ftrong a current, as to caufe the fand about its 

 orifice to exhibit the motion which it has in a boiling fpring ; 

 and on prefenting a candle or lighted torch to it, it flames 

 up in a column of eighteen inches in diameter, and four or 

 five feet in height, and burns for feveral days : there is an- 

 other fimllar to it on Sandy river, with a cohmin of flame 

 twelve inches in diameter, and three feet higli. In tliis 

 country there are alfo feveral fyphon fountains. 



The rivers of Virginia are the Potomac or Potow- 

 mack, Shenandoah, Rappahannock, Mattapony, Pain>niky, 

 York, James, Rivannah, Appomattox, Elizabeth, Notta- 

 vvay, Meherrm, Statmton, Ohio, Sandy, Great Kanhaway, 

 Little Kanhaway, Monongahcla, and Cheat. Several of 

 o t fiofe 



