Near this, we saw some mulberry and plum-trees. We then passed a creek, and afterwards some hilly pine woods; soil very barren till near Pew's town, a small place, mostly log houses. Here we saw some buck wheat just come up; we had seen some before equally backward, and {45} we were told, it was common to sow it after a crop of wheat or rye was taken off the ground. The gardens here better kept than most we had seen, but these were far from neat. In the afternoon, we met two droves of fat beasts, from the south branch of the Potomac river, going to Baltimore. The first, a drove of handsome fat oxen and heifers; the other, a larger one, all oxen, young and handsome, but not so fat as the first, some of which were too fat for the hot weather. These beasts only travel mornings and evenings, often stopping to graze, and going but a short distance in a day; they do not lose so much flesh as might be expected in so long a journey. Just as we had passed the last drove, we had a heavy storm of thunder and rain, so that we got wet through, but our clothes were nearly dry by the evening, when we stopped at Mr. Dent's tavern, at a place called, "the Pine Hills." Here our accommodations were excellent; our progress {46} this day was 16 miles; the weather warm in the morning, but colder after the rain.
28. Early in the morning I looked over Mr. Dent's garden. It was pretty good land, though most that lay round it was very barren. This garden was kept in tolerable good order, and had a little manure bestowed on it. There was some fine water-melons, nearly ripe, a few small horse-beans; I had not seen any before, and these were very weak; but there were some turnips, just come up, that looked well.
The evening before, a poor old man begged for a lodging. Mr. Dent ordered him into the house, and gave him a hot supper, and provided a bed for him; and on his going off early in the morning, Mr. Dent seemed to blame himself for not giving him a dram before he started. This was the second beggar we saw in America. After breakfast, we paid 3 dollars 31¼ cents, and left the tavern well pleased with our accommodations and our landlord; {47} and then proceeded through a sterile mountainous country. There were pines and cedars on the hills, and large oaks and chesnuts in the valleys. We afterwards went down a long rocky valley, with a small stream of water running in it, which we crossed ten or twelve times in our progress down. We then came to a more open country, and the stream was lost in a larger one, thirty or forty yards wide; very shallow at that time, and the bed of it full of rocks. In the afternoon, we met a drove of 120 oxen, from the State of Kentucky, for the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets. They were large kind beasts, mostly young, not over fat, except two or three, which were very fat indeed; one was equal to any beast I ever saw, and might weigh upwards of 1200 lbs. weight. But most of them would weigh from 600 to 800 lbs.; they were chiefly red and white, but not all of one breed.
We saw a partridge fly from a tree, the first game we saw, though we had now advanced {48} 120 miles into the country. We were told pheasants, turkeys, and deer, were plentiful in many places, but we had not seen any. We saw many huckleberries, and some fern; this was the first fern we saw, but we afterwards saw much of it on the mountains: some of this fern had stalks of a bright mahogany colour. The fern on the east of the mountains, grew like the English, on poor land; but in the State of Illinois, at least, where I have been, it generally denotes a good soil; and the same may be said of beech trees, on the banks of the Ohio, the richer spots are often covered with a heavy growth of them; and in the western country, beech land is called excellent. In the evening, we reached Mr. Vannosdeln's tavern, in a poor high country; his garden was in a much better state than any we had seen before. He gave us a fine water-melon, but none of us relished it much, as it was the first we had ever tasted, nor was it quite ripe.
29th. We paid at Mr. Vannosdeln's {49} excellent tavern, 3 dollars 33 cents.; and went on to Springfield town,[82] through a barren country, called the South Branch Mountain. We passed the south branch of the Potomac river, forty yards wide, shallow when we crossed it, but sometimes it rises to a great height. After passing the river, we went up its bank close under a ridge of hills, and many fragments of the rocks had rolled down into the river, and large masses hung over our heads that threatened to bury us as we passed. Some large sycamore-trees lined the banks of the river; these trees always grow on land liable to be overflowed, and are the same that are called plane-trees in England. The red or water-maple most resembles the sycamore of England, but scarcely any tree or plant is exactly the same. Cedars and pines grow mostly on the tops of rocky hills; the latter are of several sorts, pitch, spruce, and white; the first a little like the Scotch fir; the last, much resembles the Weymouth pine; but the spruce bore but little {50} similarity to any I had ever seen. There was a large sort of berry that our drivers called gooseberries, but totally unlike the fruit of that name I had been accustomed to; but as they were not ripe, we did not taste them. Leaving the banks of the river, we passed a small mill, and followed the course of its stream up a valley till we reached Springfield town, a place of forty log-houses, and stopped at Mr. Piper's tavern. The weather being extremely hot, the country hilly, and the roads bad, we only travelled 16 or 17 miles.
30th. Early in the morning I walked round the town, and went into a tan-yard; the owner was an old man, 48 years since from Ireland. He told me he was not troubled with excisemen. He bought his bark mostly by the cord, but sometimes by the hundred pounds weight, price half a dollar. Only the body and the large limbs are barked. The bark is shaved, but not chopped, before it is sold to the tanners; it is ground in a kind of coffee-mill.
{51} At this place, I saw a few sheep of the Leicestershire breed, very poor. Mr. Piper's tavern was a neat log-house, lined with pine boards, and ceiled with the same. We left this place for Frankfort, a small place of near forty log-houses. We then passed Patterson's Creek,[83] thirty yards wide, but not deep. The land near it much overrun with pennyroyal, of which we had seen much during our journey, and also a great deal of mint; in many of the small streams which we passed, it grew in a very luxuriant manner; we frequently gathered some of the latter, and put it into the water we drank, to take off its rawness, and found it far more palatable for so doing. Most of the briers we had passed were of the scented kind, and they continued from Baltimore to the Allegany Mountains, a distance of more than 150 miles; but on the mountains, and on the west side of them to Wheeling, and from thence to the Prairies, a distance of 1100 miles, I did not see one scented one, but {52} many that were not. From Patterson's Creek, a short distance, to Crisepsburg's town, a very small place of log-houses;[84] and soon afterwards reached the north branch of the Potomac river, 200 yards wide, rocky, and not deep. The land, on the banks of the river, much better than any we had seen of late. Having crossed the river, we were again in the State of Maryland. The country between this place and Harper's Ferry, which we passed on the 25th, all in the State of Virginia. From the north branch of the Potomac river, we passed a very hilly country, to a new road, called the National Turnpike.[85] This road is to extend from Cumberland on the Potomac, to Wheeling on the Ohio, a distance of more than 120 miles; the first 62 miles, from Cumberland to Union town, on the west side of the Allegany Mountains, was just finished, and is a good road, though hilly. The road west from Union town to Wheeling, was begun in many places, and many men were employed on {53} it when we passed along it. This grand national road is intended to connect all the western country with the seat of government, as there is water communication from Cumberland to the city of Washington, on the east by the Potomac, and from Wheeling on the Ohio, with the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and all the western country, by the means of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Cumberland, Tennessee, and other rivers. This national road is free, as there are no gates on it; for as it was made by the nation, so it is to be kept in repair by it. We entered this road, five miles west of Cumberland, and soon after stopped at Mr. Carter's tavern, called "the Travellers' Rest," at the foot of the Allegany Mountains.
We had lately seen fewer fruit-trees, and much less fruit on them, except on the apple-trees, these being generally well hung. Blackberries had been very plentiful all the way, and so they continued over the mountains. {54} I ate large quantities of them, liking them much better than I did the cherries, of which we often had plenty given us: these blackberries were much better than any I had before tasted.
We saw but few birds on our journey; woodpeckers of several sorts, a handsome yellow bird, something like a goldfinch, a few crows, and some small birds, much like tom-tits. As my youngest daughter was carrying some flowers in her hand, a humming bird settled on them, it made her start, thinking it was a large insect; it was not larger than a chafer, but a beautiful bird.
The country, from Harper's Ferry, mostly rocky to the mountains, generally of slate, but some limestone, free stone, and coarse marble. Most of the valleys had streams of water and good springs. The soil, chiefly poor, but well watered. But little cultivated land, and much of that only partly cleared of trees. They grub up the underwood, and most of the small {55} trees; they then either cut down the large ones, within three feet of the ground, and leave the stumps standing, or else chop them round the stems, and take off a small strip of bark, which kills them, leaving them to decay, and fall down of themselves. It is common to see eight or ten acres of land, in cultivation, with some hundreds of dead trees standing in it. They collect the small trees, underwood, and roots, into heaps, and then burn them; and thus the fire often communicates itself to the standing trees, running up to the top of the highest of them, leaving them half burnt. These trees have a very dismal appearance at first, but people get reconciled to it in time. It is much the quickest method of clearing land for corn, as it enables a man to begin with very little strength of money, men, and horses. The hogs, on the mountains, were not so handsome as those nearer Baltimore, being in general badly kept.