The country bordering upon the Susquehannah abounds with deer, and as we passed down we met with numberless parties of the country people engaged in driving these animals. The deer, on being pursued in the neighbouring country, immediately make for the river, where men being concealed in bushes placed on the strand, at the part to which it is expected they will come down, take the opportunity of shooting them as soon as they enter the water. Should the deer not happen to come near these ambushes, the hunters then follow them in canoes: it seldom happens that they escape after having once taken to the water.
Very fine fish are found in every part of the Susquehannah, and the river is much frequented by wild fowl, particularly by the canvass back duck.
The whole way between Lochartzburg and Wilkes-barré are settlements on each side of the river, at no great distance from each other; there are also several small towns on the banks of the river. The principal one is French Town, situated within a short distance of the Falls of Wyalusing, on the western side of the river. This town was laid out at the expence of several philanthropic persons in Pennsylvania, who entered into a subscription for the purpose, as a place of retreat for the unfortunate French emigrants who fled to America. The town contains about fifty log houses; and for the use of the inhabitants a considerable track of land has been purchased adjoining to it, which has been divided into farms. The French settled here seem, however, to have no great inclination or ability to cultivate the earth, and the greater part of them have let their lands at a small yearly rent to Americans, and amuse themselves with driving deer, fishing, and fowling; they live entirely to themselves; they hate the Americans, and the Americans in the neighbourhood hate, and accuse them of being an idle dissipated set. The manners of the two people are so very different that it is impossible they should ever agree.
WILKES-BARRÉ
Wilkes-barré, formerly Wyoming, is the chief town of Luzerne county. It is situated on a plain, bounded on one side by the Susquehannah, and on the other by a range of mountains, and contains about one hundred and fifty wooden dwelling houses, a church, court house, and gaol. It was here that the dreadful massacre was committed, during the American war, by the Indians under the command of colonel Butler, which is recorded in most of the histories of the war, and which will for ever remain a blot on the English annals. Several of the houses in which the unfortunate victims retired to defend themselves, on being refused all quarter, are still standing, perforated in every part with balls; the remains of others that were set on fire are also still to be seen, and the inhabitants will on no account suffer them to be repaired. The Americans are equally tenacious of the ruins in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia.
It was our intention at first to have proceeded down the river from hence as far as Sunburg, or Harrisburgh; but the weather being now so cold as to render a water conveyance, especially a canoe, where you are always obliged to sit very still, extremely disagreeable, we determined to cross the Blue Mountains to Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, situated about sixty-five miles to the south-east of Wilkes-barré; we accordingly hired horses, as we had done on a former occasion, to carry our baggage, and proceeded ourselves on foot. We set out in the afternoon, the day after that on which we terminated our voyage, and before evening crossed the ridge of mountains which bounds the plain of Wilkes-barré. These mountains, which are extremely rugged and stony, abound with iron ore and coal; for the manufacture of the former several forges have been established, but no use is made of the coal, there being plenty of wood as yet in the country, which is esteemed much more agreeable fuel. From the top of them you have a very grand view of the plain below, on which stands the town of Wilkes-barré, and of the river Susquehannah, which may be traced above the town, winding amidst the hills for a great number of miles.
WOODS.
The country beyond the mountains is extremely rough, and but very thinly settled, of course still much wooded. The people, at the few houses scattered through it, appeared to live much better than the inhabitants of any other part of the States which I before passed through. At every house where we stopped we found abundance of good bread, butter, tea, coffee, chocolate, and venison; and indeed we fared sumptuously here, in comparison to what we had done for many weeks preceding.
The woods in many parts of this country consisted almost wholly of hemlock trees, which are of the pine species, and grow only on poor ground. Many of them were of an unusually large size, and their tops so closely matted together, that after having entered into the depth of the woods you could see the sky in but very few places. The brush wood under these trees, different from what I ever saw elsewhere, consisted for the most part of the oleander and of the kalmia laurel, whose deep green served to render the gloom of the woods still more solemn; indeed they seemed completely to answer the description given by the poets of the sacred groves; and it were impossible to enter them without being struck with awe.
About twenty miles before you come to Bethlehem, in going thither from Wilkes-barré, you cross the ridge of Blue Mountains at what is called the Wind-Gap; how it received that name I never could learn. This gap is nearly a mile wide, and it exhibits a tremendously wild and rugged scene. The road does not run at the bottom of the gap, but along the edge of the south mountain, about two thirds of the way up. Above you on the right, nothing is to be seen but broken rocks and trees, and on the left you look down a steep precipice. The rocks at the bottom of the precipice have every appearance, it is said (for we did not descend into it) of having been washed by water for ages; and from hence it has been conjectured that this must have been the original channel of the River Delaware, which now passes through the ridge, at a place about fifteen miles to the north-west. Whether this were the case or not it is impossible to determine at this day; but it is certain, from the appearance of the country on each side of the Delaware, that a great change has taken place in this quarter, in consequence of some vast inundation.