James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

Near the summit of this ridge some change is observed in the aspect of the forest. The deep umbrageous hue of the hemlock spruce, the Weymouth pine, and other trees of the family of the coniferæ, is exchanged for the livelier verdure of the broad-leaved laurel, the rhododendron, and the magnolia acuminata.

Chesnut ridge, the last of those accessary to the Alleghany on the west, deserving the name of a mountain, is[pg054] somewhat more abrupt and precipitous, than those before mentioned. This ridge is divided transversely by the bed of the Loyalhanna, a rapid, but beautiful stream, along which the turnpike is built. Few spots in the wild and mountainous regions {11} of the Alleghanies, have a more grand and majestic scenery than this chasm. The sides and summits of the two overhanging mountains, were, at the time of our journey, brown, and to appearance almost naked; the few trees which inhabit them being deciduous, while the laurels and rosebays gave the deep and narrow vallies the luxuriant verdure of spring.

The Monongahela rises in Virginia, in the Laurel ridge, and running northward, receives in Pennsylvania the Yohogany, whose sources are in the Alleghany mountain, opposite those of the Potomac. This river, like most of those descending westward from the Alleghany, has falls and rapids at the points where it intersects Laurel-hill, and some of the smaller ranges. Along the fertile bottoms of the Alleghany river, we begin to discover traces of those ancient works so common in the lower parts of the Mississippi valley, the only remaining vestiges of a people once numerous and powerful, of whom time has destroyed every other record. These colossal monuments, whatever may have been the design of their erection, have long since outlived the memory of those who raised them, and will remain for ages affecting witnesses of the instability of national, as well as individual greatness; and of the futility of those efforts, by which man endeavours to attach his name and his memorial to the most permanent and indestructible forms of inorganic matter.

In the deep vallies west of the Alleghany, and even west of the Laurel ridge, the metalliferous limestone, which[pg055] appears to be the substratum of this whole group of mountains, is again laid bare. In this part of the range, we have not observed those frequent alternations of clay-slate with this limestone, which have been noticed by Mr. Eaton and others in New England.[006] In its inclination, and in most particulars {12} of external character, it is remarkably similar to the mountain limestone of Vermont, and the western counties of Massachusetts. Many portions of the interior of the state of Pennsylvania have a basis of this limestone. When not overlaid by clay-slate, and particularly when not in connexion with sandstone, the soils resting on the transition limestone are found peculiarly fertile and valuable, having usually a favourable disposition of surface for agricultural purposes, and abounding with excellent water.

The transition limestone is not, however, of frequent occurrence westward of the Alleghany ridge. It appears only in the vallies,[007] and is succeeded by clay-slate and the old sandstone lying almost horizontally. The coal, with the accompanying strata of argillaceous sandstone and shale, are, as far as we have seen, entirely horizontal.

The country westward from the base of the Chesnut ridge has an undulating surface. The hills are broad, and terminated by a rounded outline, and the landscape, presenting a grateful variety of fields and forests, is often beautiful, particularly when, from some elevation, the view overlooks a great extent of country, and the blue[pg056] summits of the distant mountains are added to the perspective.

Pittsburgh has been so often described, the advantages and disadvantages of its situation, and the gloomy repulsiveness of its appearance, have been so often and so justly portrayed, that we should not think ourselves well employed in recounting our own observations. The Alleghany and the Monongahela at Pittsburgh, where they unite to form the Ohio, are nearly equal in magnitude; the former, however, on account of the rapidity of its current, and the transparency of its waters, is a far more beautiful river than the latter. Its sources are distributed along the margin of Lake Erie, and a portage, of only fifteen miles, connects its navigation with that of the St. Lawrence.

{13} About the sources of the Alleghany are extensive forests of pine, whence are drawn great supplies of lumber for the country below as far as New Orleans. On French Creek, and other tributary streams, are large bodies of low and rather fertile lands, closely covered with forests, where the great Weymouth pine, and the hemlock spruce, are intermixed with beech, birch, and the sugar maple. The great white or Weymouth pine, is one of the most beautiful of the North American species. Its trunk often attains the diameter of five or six feet, rising smooth and straight from sixty to eighty feet, and terminated by a dense conical top. This tree, though not exclusively confined to the northern parts of our continent, attains there its greatest magnitude and perfection. It forms a striking feature in the forest scenery of Vermont, New Hampshire, and some parts of Canada, and New York; rising by nearly half its elevation above the summits of the other trees, and resembling, like[pg057] the palms of the tropics, so beautifully described by M. De Saint Pierre, and M. De Humboldt, "a forest planted upon another forest."[008] The sighing of the wind in the tops of these trees, resembles the scarce audible murmurings of a distant waterfall, and adds greatly to the impression of solemnity produced by the gloom and silence of the pine forest. In the southern parts of the Alleghany mountains, pines are less frequent, and in the central portions of the valley of the Mississippi, they are extremely rare.

The coal formation, containing the beds which have long been wrought near Pittsburgh, appears to be of great extent; but we are unable particularly to point out its limits towards the north and east.[009] One hundred miles above Pittsburgh, near the Alleghany river, is a spring, on the surface of {14} whose waters are found such quantities of a bituminous oil, that a person may gather several gallons in a day. This spring is most probably connected with coal strata, as are numerous similar ones in Ohio, Kentucky, &c.[010] Indeed, it appears reasonable to believe that the[pg058] coal strata are continued along the western slope of the Alleghanies with little interruption, at least as far northward as the brine springs of Onondago. Of all the saline springs belonging to this formation, and whose waters are used for the manufacture of salt, the most important are those of the Kenhawa, a river of Virginia. Others occur in that country of ancient monuments, about Paint Creek, between the Sciota and the Muskinghum, near the Silver Creek hills in Illinois; and indeed in almost all the country contiguous to the Ohio river. Wherever we have had the opportunity of observing these brine springs, we have usually found them in connexion with an argillaceous sandstone, bearing impressions of phytolytes, culmaria, and those tessellated zoophytes, so common about many coal beds.[011] It appeared to us worthy of remark, that in many places, where explorations have been made for salt water, and where perpendicular shafts have been carried to the depth of from two to four hundred feet, the water, when found, rises with sufficient force to elevate itself several feet above the surface of the earth. This effect appears to be produced by the pressure of an aërial fluid, existing in connexion with the water, in those cavities beneath the strata of sandstone, where the latter is confined, or escaping from combination with it, as soon as the requisite enlargement is given, by perforating the superincumbent[pg059] strata. We have had no opportunity of examining attentively the gaseous substances which escape from the brine pits, but from their sensible properties we are induced to suppose, that carbonic acid, and carburetted hydrogen, are among those of most frequent occurrence.[012]

{15} The little village of Olean,[013] on the Alleghany river, has been for many years a point of embarkation, where great numbers of families, migrating from the northern and eastern states, have exchanged their various methods, of slow and laborious progression by land, for the more convenient one of the navigation of the Ohio. From Olean downward, the Alleghany and Ohio bear along with their currents fleets of rude arks laden with cattle, horses, household furniture, agricultural implements, and numerous families having all their possessions embarked on the same bottom, and floating onward toward that imaginary region of happiness and contentment, which, like the "town of the brave and generous spirits," the expected heaven of the aboriginal American, lies always "beyond the place where the sun goes down."