66 Tour to the Caves in Virginia* 



from the Massonetto ridge, in the vicinity, which, under the 

 names of fossil toad, and fossil snake,^ he hugged to his bosom 

 with parental fondness ; no reasonable sum would induce him to 

 part with them ; he at length consented to exchange them 

 for " sea-shells, corals, &c. or any queer thing that comes from 

 the great ocean." Having passed through New-Market, and 

 crossed the north branch of the Shenandoah, at 7 P. M. halted 

 for the night at Pitman's. We have travelled the whole day 

 over roads cut or worn through limestone, uncovered by soil, and 

 in the worst condition ; the limestone is quite black, of the varie- 

 ty called Hydraulic, from the water cement which is made of it. 

 This formation continues nearly the whole length of the Masso- 

 netto ridge, and has evidently been subjected to violent disturbing 

 powers from below, and subsequently, water worn on its surface : 

 the strata are occasionally a foot or two thick, and dip towards 

 the mountain, SE. to the NE., at an angle of 45° ; at other times 

 the strata emerge vertically — again they appear in large irregular 

 masses, sometimes almost comminuted, and frequently resem- 

 bling slate so strikingly, as to be mistaken for it until more close- 

 ly inspected, hammer in hand. In one place they form a narrow 

 pass, over which the public road lies, and which is known here 

 by the name of " the narrows :" it is about twenty feet wide, 

 and displays a perpendicular precipice on each side, nearly eighty 

 feet high, with a small river on either side, unconnected at this 

 place. This " narrow passage*^ is four miles south of Woodstock, 

 ten miles north of Mount Jackson. On the great valley road, 

 there is another remarkable display of this curious hydraulic 

 limestone rock ; this is a denuded hill, through part of which the 

 public road passes ; on the very summit of which there is yet a 

 small sprinkle of red diluvium — but all the slope is naked, and the 

 faces of the projecting strata are water-worn and smooth. The 

 roots of pine trees, which once occupied this slope, are still seen 

 wedged in the crevices of the rock ; this denudation was oc- 

 casioned, as the neighbours assured us, " by the bursting of a 

 cloud," whose awful consequences they witnessed, to their great 

 loss and terror. 



I could refer their account to no natural phenomenon, unless 

 it be to the bursting of a water spout. The disturbed strata of 

 this limestone, are here well contrasted with it in its natural 

 state. Arrived at Winchester, at 7 P. M. 



