Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/163

 *snake is scarce. Crumps told us that the bark of the root of the poplar, particularly the yellow poplar, made into a strong decoction and taken inwardly, {136} while a part pounded and applied to the bite of any snake, is an infallible remedy: And that it is also a most powerful alterative, and purifier of the blood.

There being no prospect of the rain subsiding, at eleven o'clock we proceeded, sitting under our awning and letting the boat drop with the current, which she did about two miles an hour.

At half past twelve we passed Great Sandy river on the left, four miles below Crumps's. It is about a hundred yards wide, and is the boundary between Virginia and Kentucky; in the latter of which, on the bank above the confluence, are two large houses, one of logs and the other framed and clapboarded, with a sign post before the door—probably the scite of some future town.[103]

Three miles from hence are two small creeks opposite each other, and a good brick house building at the mouth of that on the left. Three miles and a half further is Big Storm creek on the right, a mile and a half below which, we passed on the left, an excellent house of a Mr. Colvin, nearly opposite to which, on the right is a small insulated mountain named Hanging Rock, from its being a bare perpendicular rock, from half the elevation to the top.

This is a very picturesque and agreeable object to the eye, fatigued with the perpetual sameness of the banks below Point Pleasant.

Two miles further on the right, a little way below Ferguson's sand bar, we observed a wharf or pier of loose paving stones, and some mill machinery on the bank above it—*