1806.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS made during a TOUR 
through the UNITED STATES of AME- 
RICA. 
NO. VII. 
[ Continued from p. 248 of our laf? Number. | 
N the ridge of the Cove Mountain 
there is, to an European at leait, 
an extraordinary profpec&, You look 
down from an high and awful precipice 
upon a long but narrow valley below, 
which, with the exception of a few white 
houles, which are hardly diftinguifhable, 
in Connelfburgh, appears one entire wood, 
fo fmall a proportion do the impraved 
parts form, when compared with thofe 
yet left in a ftate of nature. Yet this 
valley is fuppofed to contain 20,000 inia- 
bitants, and, as we afterwards found, 
many fine farms, well-improved and gcod 
houles, barns, &c. 
In Davis we meet the true American 
charaéter. Heis about the middle heighr, 
rather inclined to be corpulent, with {mall 
fparkling laughing eyes, very active and 
induftrious, and with much of that_kind 
of intelligence requifite to conduét his 
own bufinefs. It is now, I think, he 
faid, more than fixteen years fince he be- 
came the firft fettler in Connelfburgh, 
having crofled the mountain, to ule his 
own words, with his wife, his child, a 
cart and horfe, a bed, a hatchet, ms 
frying-pan ; he foon got others to fettle 
around him, and now lives in a good fub- 
ftantial ~houfe, built of lime-ftone, with 
four parlou:s on the ground-floor ; com- 
pact fervants” offices (as is cultomary in 
Aimerica,) adjoining the dwelling-houle, 
with a good {fubftantial barn, extentive 
ftables, orchards, gardens, and about two 
hundred acres of fine Jand, without tythe, 
poor-rate, or tax of any kind, fave a fmall 
Jand-tax tothe ftate. This lay, J believe, 
is about 33 dollars per annum for every 
hundred acres of land. Davis refpects, 
and is much refpected by, his netghoours. 
He fays he does not believe there isa fingle 
man inthe valley in debt. One would 
naturally fuppofe his comforts would tie 
him to his fituation; but that would be 
anti-American. Davis wifhes to remove. 
The rich fhores on Lake Evie fill his ima- 
pination ; and he looks with anxious bope 
to the day that will hail hima citizen of 
Ohio. This love of emigration forms a 
ftrikirg and curious feature in the Ame- 
rican character. We may perhaps here- 
after more fully examine it : nay, we may 
Montury Mas., No, i42, 
ry, and mountainous country. 
bt 
. Obfervations during a Tour in the United States. 297 
perhaps deduce our glorious revolution 
from the wife order of your Privy-Council, 
prohibiting fettlements on the weft of the 
Alleghany, immediately after the accef- 
fion of your prefent King. Davis is one 
of the principal contractors. for carrying 
the mai} on the weftern road, and em ploys 
excellent. hories for this purpofe rte ye 
deed they had need be good, for they have 
horrible hills to ieount, Davis is, in 
fhort, a very agreeable good- hearted man, 
who treats his friends with much farmer- 
like liberality and urbdanity, 
Co Cpe gs contains about eighty 
houfes, and they affert a population of 
feven toahoufe. Land in its vicinity fells 
for from forty to fifty dollars an acre; 
and town lots, of about the fourth of an 
acre, as high as fifty pounds currency. 
Here for the firit time I met with trout ; 
they are about the fizeof a {melt, andthe 
colour of a falmon; but this nct being 
the feafon for catching them, thofe we ne 
were. fo falt T cou!d not eat them ; but as, 
we had avery nice roatt pig, chjckens, 
ham, and a fine piece of boiled beef, with 
tarts and cutards, I did pretty well; nor 
here let me forget toremark, that at Con- 
nelfburgh it was that I drank the belt 
cyder, and ate the beft bread, I ever 
tafted. 
We left our friend's houfe about feven 
e’clock on the morning of the 23d of 
Apiil, and pafled over a very harfh, drea- 
‘To form 
a juf idea of it, you muft funpofe the 
mountains hurled from the hand of O:mni- 
potence, and eaca left to have its direélion 
and fituation determined by accident. It 
is all mountain vpon mountain, immenfe 
portions of which can never be culti- 
vated. Yeteven in this county (Bedford,) 
we occafionally faw an the valleys good 
land, well cultivated, and farms refpeét- 
able in their appearance. The rocky 
parts have g: nerally been fold to European 
purchalers. Thefe mountains afford 
many fulden and awful precipices, which 
cannot he locked. from without fear and 
trembling, one of which has by fome- 
means acquired the name of Lover's Leap. 
Tradition fays, that a very few years back, 
as an emigrant was driving his waggon 
with hjs family, by its fide, his horfes 
were filddenly frightened, precipitated 
themfelves over the. horrid ledge, and in 
an inftant the unfortunate man’s wife and 
family were dathed to pieces. 
We crofled the Juniatta about (eee 
miles from Connelfburgh, its waters 
Qq then 
