Ixviii 
LIFE OF 
commonalty, as he called them, and consequently grossly contrary to 
our republican institutions. I harangued this Solomon of the bench 
more seriously afterwards, pointing out to him the great influence 
of science on a young rising nation like ours, and particularly the 
science of natural history, till he began to shew such symptoms of 
intellect as to seem ashamed of what he had said. 
“ From Hanover I passed through a thinly inhabited country, 
and, crossing the North Mountain at a pass called Newman’s Leap, 
arrived at Chambersburgh, whence I next morning returned to 
Carlisle, to visit the reverend doctors of the college. 
“ The town of Chambersburgh and Shippensburgh produced me 
nothing. On Sunday the 11th, I left the former of these places in a 
stage coach, and, in fifteen miles, began to ascend the alpine regions 
of the Alleghany Mountains, where above, around, and below us, 
nothing appeared but prodigious declivities covered with woods ; 
and the weather being fine, such a profound silence prevailed among 
these aerial solitudes, as impressed the soul with awe, and a kind of 
fearful sublimity. Something of this arose from my being alone, having 
left the coach several miles below. These high ranges continued 
for more than one hundred miles, to Greensburgh, thirty-two miles 
from Pittsburgh. Thence the country is nothing but an assemblage 
of steep hills and deep valleys, descending rapidly till you reach 
within seven miles of this place, where I arrived on the 15th 
instant. We were within two miles of Pittsburgh, when suddenly 
the road descends a long and very steep hill, where the Alleghany 
river is seen at hand, on the right, stretching along a rich bottom, 
and bounded by a high ridge of hills on the west. After following 
this road parallel with the river, and about a quarter of a mile from 
it, through a rich low valley, a cloud of black smoke at its extremity 
announced the town of Pittsburgh. On arriving at the town, which 
stands on a low flat, and looks like a collection of blacksmith’s 
shops, glass-houses, breweries, forges, and furnaces, the Monon- 
gahela opened to the view, on the left, running along the bottom 
of the range of hills, so high, that the sun, at this season, sets to 
the town of Pittsburgh at a little past four. This range continues 
along the Ohio, as far as the view reaches. The ice had just 
begun to give way in Monongahela, and came down in vast bodies 
