MOUNTAINS. 



which I have visited, is an aniinoniacal sulphureous 

 water, about 20 degrees {^7 deg, Fah.) of heat. 

 It rises in the bottom of a deep valley, shaped 

 like an inverted cone, which has every indication 

 of having been the crater of a volcano now ex- 

 tinct. 



West of the Alleghanies, toward the basin of the 

 Ohio, there are likewise several remarkable ridges. 

 I crossed one known by the name of Reynick * and 

 High Ballantines, eight miles west of the town or 

 village of Green Briar, and it appeared to me as 

 lofty as Blue ridge, but much broader. From the 

 plain on its summit I saw a number of others to« 

 ward the south-west and north-east. Fifteen miies 

 farther on I entered by a winding road into a series 

 of other chains, eight or ten of which I crossed in 

 the space of thirty-eight miles, till I reached Gauley, 

 the highest and steepest of all, and the narrowest on 

 its ridge. This whole space of thirty-eight miles 

 I consider as one lofty terrace. Beyond the Gauley 

 hills we cross no other high chain, except with the 

 course of the rivers, the direction and often indeed the. 

 bed of which we follow ; but I have observed, that 

 the bed of the great Kanhaway often makes its way 

 through one of the roughest countries I ever saw. 

 . Many of these ridges direct their course to the Ohio, 

 and we shall see, that some must have crossed it. 

 This Gauley ridge commences with the sources of 

 the great Kanhaway to the south-west of the AUe-^ 

 ghany arch, and under the names of Laurel hill and 



* The name of the earliest or principal settler on the road, Almoist 

 all the names of places La the United States have a similar ©r igitt. 



