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 and more difficult to ascend. The road that cuts through them is encumbered westward with large, flat stones, which impede the traveller on his route. From the summit of these mountains, which is not overstocked with trees, we discovered an immense extent of mountainous country covered with forests, and at their base only three small places cleared, which form as many plantations, three or four miles distant from each other.

From the Linneville Mountains to Morganton it is computed to be twenty-five miles, where I arrived {257} on the 5th of October. In this interval the country is slightly mountainous, and the soil extremely bad; at the same time we did not find more than four or five plantations on the road. About a mile on this side the town we crossed the northern arm of the river Catabaw, in this part nearly fifty fathoms broad, although the source of this river is only fifty miles. The rains that had fallen in the mountains had produced a sudden increase of water, and the master of the ferry-boat conceiving it would not last long, had not thought proper to re-establish his boat, so that I was obliged to ford. One of his children pointed out to me the different directions that I had to take in order to avoid the immense cavities under water.

{258} CHAP. XXIX

General observations upon this part of the Chain of the Alleghanies.—Salamander which is found in the torrents.—Bear hunting.

Pennsylvania and Virginia the Alleghanies present themselves under the form of parallel furrows, but varying in their length. They are mostly near together, and form narrow vallies; but sometimes the interval that separates them is from twenty to thirty miles in length;