NORTH AMERICA 
475 
fide of the river, about forty miles, in the banks 
of a creek, live or fix feet below the Tandy fur face, 
are to be feen projecting out many feet in length, 
trunks of trees petrified to very hard (tone ; they 
lie between the upper Tandy ftratum and the com- 
mon bed of blackifh vitriolic earth ; and thefe 
ftone trees are to be feen in the fame fituation, 
{ticking out of the perpendicular banks or bluffs 
of the river in this region : there are feveral trunks 
of large trees with their bark, (tumps of their 
limbs and roots, lying petrified on the fand 
hills and Pine forefts, near the road about this 
creek, not far from the faw-mills. 
? Croffed Rock-fifh, a large branch of the North 
Weft, near it smooth or confluence, and at even- 
ing arrived at Crofs-Creeks, another very conii- 
derable branch of the river, flowing in through 
its Weft banks. This creek gave name to a fine 
inland trading town, on fome heights or fvvelling 
hills, from whence the creek defcends precipi- 
tately, then gently meanders near a mile, through 
lower level lands, to its confluence with the river, 
affording moft convenient mill-feats : thefe pro- 
fpeds induced abtive, enterprifing men to avail 
themfelves of fuch advantages pointed out to them 
by nature; they built mills, which drew people 
to the place, and thefe obferving eligible luna- 
tions for other profitable improvements, bought 
lots and ereded tenements, where they exerciied 
mechanic arts, as fmiths, wheelwrights, carpen- 
ters, coopers, tanners, &c. And at length mer- 
chants were encouraged to adventure and fettle: 
in fhort, within eight or ten years, from a grift- 
mill, faw-mill, fmith-fhop and a tavern, arofe a 
iiouriihing commercial town, the feat of govern- 
ment of the county of Cumberland. The leading 
me a 
