"A little beyond this, I recognised the former residence of a beloved sister, now living in a far distant southern state. It was the same steep hill ascending to the gate, the same grove around the house, as when she lived there, and the same as when I played there in my boyhood. And it was the first time I had seen it since the change of owners. I then saw it from the Peaks of Otter: but it touched a thousand tender chords; and I almost wept when I thought that those I once there loved were far away, and that the scenes of my youthful days could not return.
"Myself and companions had, some time before, gotten on different rocks, that we might not interrupt each other in our contemplations. I could not refrain, however, from saying to one of them, 'What little things we are! how factitious our ideas of what is extensive in territory and distance!' A splendid estate was about the size I could step over; and I could stand and look at the very house whence I used to start in days gone by, and follow with my eye my day's journey to the spot where, wearied and worn, I dismounted with the setting sun. Yet I could look over what seemed so great a space, with a single glance. I could also look away down the Valley of Virginia, and trace the country, and, in imagination, the stage coach, as it slowly wound its way, day and night for successive days, to reach the termination of what I could throw my eye over in a moment. I was impressively reminded of the extreme littleness with which these things of earth would all appear, when the tie of life which binds us here is broken, and we shall all be able to look back and down upon them from another world. The scene and place are well calculated to excite such thoughts.
"It is said that John Randolph once spent the night on these elevated rocks, attended by no one but his servant; and that, when in the morning he had witnessed the sun rising over the majestic scene, he turned to his servant, having no other to whom he could express his thoughts, and charged him, 'Never from that time to believe any who told him there was no God.'
"I confess, also, that my mind was most forcibly carried to the judgment day; and I could but call the attention of my companions to what would, probably, then be the sublime terror of the scene we now beheld, when the mountains we saw and stood upon, should all be melted down like wax; when the flames should be driving over the immense expanse before us; when the heavens over us should be 'passing away with a great noise;' and when the air beneath and around us should be filled with the very inhabitants now dwelling, and busied in that world beneath us."
After the traveller has gratified his curiosity beholding the Peaks of Otter, he may resume the stage at Liberty, and proceed on his route to the springs, via Bufort's, 14 miles; Fincastle, 14 miles; Sweet Springs, 32 miles; Red Sweet, 1 mile; and White Sulphur, 16 miles.
Visiters to the Virginia Springs from the south or west by the Ohio River, generally leave the river at Guyandotte, taking the stage to Charleston, 48 miles. This beautiful town is in the rich valley of the Kanawha, immediately on the banks of the river. About five miles from this place are the Salines, where are to be seen the Gas-Wells. The following interesting account of these is from the Lexington Gazette of 1843:
"These wonderful wells have been so lately discovered, that as yet only a brief and imperfect notice of them has appeared in the newspapers. But they are a phenomenon so very curious and interesting, that a more complete description will doubtless be acceptable to the public.
"They are, in fact, a new thing under the sun; for in all the history of the world, it does not appear that a fountain of strong brine was ever before known to be mingled with a fountain of inflammable gas, sufficient to pump it out in a constant stream, and then by its combustion, to evaporate the whole into salt of the best quality.
"We shall introduce our account of these wells by some remarks on the geological structure of the country at the Kanawha Salt Works, and on the manner in which the salt water is obtained.
"The country is mountainous, and the low grounds along the river are altogether alluvial, the whole space of a mile in width, having been at some time the bed of the river. The rocks are chiefly sandstone of various qualities, lying in beds, or strata, from two inches to several feet in thickness. These strata are nearly horizontal, but dipping a little, as in other parts of the country, towards the northwest. At the Salt Works they have somehow been heaved up into a swell above the line of general direction, so as to raise the deep strata nigher to the surface, and thus to bring those in which the salt water is found within striking distance.