CHAPTER III
RESIDENCE AT FREIBURG AND BETHLEHEM IN PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JULY 30TH TO AUGUST 23RD
View of the Country—Population of German Origin—Freiburg—Residence there—The Rocky Valley—Excursions—The Colony of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem—Residence there—Excursions.
All the members of our party had now joined, and, though our baggage was not yet arrived from Boston, I resolved, in order to make myself acquainted with the interior of Pennsylvania, to take up my abode in the settlement of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem. I had previously paid a visit to the place, and found it very favourably situated for our object. On the 30th of June [July], before daybreak, in the finest weather and bright moonlight, we drove through the long streets of Philadelphia, and passed the churchyards, with their white, ghost-like monuments and tombstones. The day broke when we got out of the city. On both sides of the road were country houses, alternating with fields, enclosures, gardens, and parks; and high trees of various kinds were everywhere planted by the road-side. We passed through Germantown, a scattered village, and, by eight o'clock, arrived at Chestnut Hill, where the passengers usually breakfast. The inn was rather uncleanly, and the coffee so bad, that a portly Quaker in our company would not take this beverage, of which he was otherwise very fond. At table we were molested by innumerable European flies, though a servant girl took great pains to drive them away, by waving a large green bough over our heads.
The whole country, as far as Bethlehem, and much farther, is chiefly inhabited by the descendants of German emigrants, who all speak an indifferent low German, and say that they rather converse in German than in English. The appearance of the country in this part is not particularly pleasing. Fields of potatoes, clover, oats, and maize as high as a man, alternate with meadows and little thickets, and all the fields are surrounded with hedges or wooden fences. At Montgomeryville, the horses are changed a second time, and the road becomes more diversified. 22 The habitations of the country people are generally small, often rather poor, frequently composed of boards, covered with shingles; sometimes they are merely great block-houses, like the cowkeeper's cottage in Switzerland. These cottages are surrounded with little gardens, in which there are various kinds of European plants, such as the hollyhock, hibiscus, larkspur, balsam, &c. The Hibiscus Syriacus was everywhere in blossom, in the greatest beauty. I have never seen this fine plant so high and vigorous, or its flowers so large and splendid, in Europe, as here. They are of three varieties of colour—white, purple, and bright pink, the latter by far the most beautiful. In general, the trees and shrubs in this country are very vigorous. The vegetative power increases the more you advance towards the south, and the prodigious fertility of the soil remains long unimpaired, even after it has been stripped of its primeval forests.
The country, as we advanced, was gradually more and more wooded. We drove through fine young woods of slender oaks, walnuts and chestnuts, ash, sassafras, beech, tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), and other tall trees, all, with the exception of a single spot, without any underwood or young trees, which is a proof that there is no intention of perpetuating these woods for future use. In many parts they are on the way to total destruction, for they contain neither timber fit for felling, nor young plants; and if it is thought fit in future to raise timber in these ruined forests, the country people must be checked in their love of destruction, and forest laws and regulations introduced. It is fortunate for Pennsylvania that the rich coal mines have been discovered. There was a very agreeable succession of woods and meadows, and we saw great numbers of the beautiful red-headed woodpecker, which, when it spreads its wings, displays a large surface as white as snow. It is often seen sitting on the fences where the ground squirrel and the reddish squirrel, with dark lateral stripes (Sciurus Hudsonius), frequently resort. The first, in particular, is seen in great numbers about all these fences, running backwards and forwards on them. The birds which we particularly remarked were the robin, the blue bird, the fox-coloured thrush, the goldfinch, the turtle-dove, &c. The Caprimulgus Virginianus, which the Americans call the night hawk, was flying about in a meadow in bright sunshine. I have seen these birds everywhere, flying about in numbers, in the daytime, like Azaras Nacunda in Brazil. This species, too, shows, when on the wing, the white transverse stripes which are observed in many species in that country. Crows and blackbirds are common, but there are very few birds of prey, which are far more numerous in Brazil. The forests in this part of the country become more lofty; the crowns of the trees spread wider, and afford a thicker shade. Travelling by a road which runs alternately through corn-fields, meadows, and agreeable eminences, we arrived at Freiburg, a straggling village, almost wholly inhabited by descendants of German emigrants. We stopped here a couple of days, to make excursions in the forests, and took up our quarters in a tolerably good country miller's house, close to which a Jew had set up his store.
On the 1st of August, conducted by my obliging neighbour, the German Jew, and some 23 others of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, we made an excursion to the Rocky Valley, which was represented to us as very well worth seeing. We proceeded through meadows and between fences for about half a league, and often saw the large prairie lark (Alauda magna, Linn.; Sturnella, Vieill.), which usually sits on the ground, on the grass, or on the branch of a shrub, and, when scared, often lights on the pines. Its song is short, and not disagreeable. This handsome bird is shy of the sportsman, and flies away betimes, when it may immediately be recognized by its short, outspread tail, the side feathers of which are white. Our path lay past isolated farm-houses, most of the inhabitants of which spoke German, and we then reached the forest, where we shot many fine birds. We next passed by several lonely log or block-houses, before the doors of which the children, many of them very poorly and dirtily dressed, were at play, and seemed to be the only possession of the inhabitants. The sky was overcast, and it rained, while the weather was very warm, which obliged us to visit the cool draw-wells of the peasants. From this place the forest was more and more filled with blocks of primitive rocks, mixed with hornblende and quartz, and these blocks lay about irregularly, some of them very large, and covered with various kinds of lichens. In this wild wooded spot, our guides could not tell where they were, till a German peasant showed us the rather hidden path, which could hardly be distinguished among the many blocks of stone. The Actæa racemosa, with its long spikes of white flowers, was growing everywhere, four or five feet high, like the Digitalis purpurea, in the mountain forests on the Rhine.
The wood now became thicker, and fuller of brushwood. We reached the bed of a stream, now dry, likewise quite filled with blocks of stone, which we followed, leaping from block to block, till we came in sight of the place called the Rocky Valley. Here, on a gentle hill, is a free prospect through the forest up the stream, where prodigious masses of great blocks of stone were so piled up, one over another, that a tract, from 150 to 200 paces in breadth, appears quite covered with them, exactly like similar heaps of stone, especially basalt, in Germany, some of which are found in the countries on the Rhine, where they are called beilsteine. No shrub or blade of grass can grow among these boulders, and the rain, which continued to fall, made them so slippery that it was dangerous to climb over them. No living creature was to be seen in this wilderness, nor, as I said before, was there any vegetation. These blocks seem to have been accumulated and piled up by some impetuous torrent, and it is said that, at the season of the year which is less hot and dry, the sound of water running under the stones is heard.
From this place we returned to the habitation of the German peasant who had showed us the way, where we refreshed ourselves with brandy-and-water. The inmates of the house were, in part, engaged, sitting under the shade of the trees, in cutting shingles, which they sold. They were much astonished at our double-barrelled guns, with percussion locks and safety caps. There are now scarcely any wild animals in these forests; hardly any but the grey fox, the 24 Pennsylvania marmot (ground hog, or wood chuck), the grey and the red squirrel, have escaped the love of destruction of the invaders.
On our return to Freiburg, I found our countryman, Dr. Saynisch, of Bethlehem, whom I had previously met with. He is a naturalist, and, being well acquainted with this part of the country, was able to give me much interesting information concerning it. He stopped a couple of days with us, and we set out on a shooting excursion the same afternoon.