Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/45

 plenty, Mrs. Wentz assured me that she was seldom gratified with a dish of fish; for though there are many poor people in the town and neighbourhood, who might make a good living by fishing, she says they are too lazy to do any thing more than will procure them some whiskey, in addition to a miserable subsistence, which a very little labour will suffice for in a country where work is so well paid for, and where the necessaries of life are so abundant and cheap.

Was it not that the Susquehannah abounds with {21} falls, shallows and rapids which impede the navigation, it would be one of the most useful rivers in the world, as its different branches from its different sources, embrace a wonderful extent of country, settled, or rapidly settling, and abounding in wheat and maize (Indian corn,) which most probably will always be staples of the large and flourishing state of Pennsylvania.

The road to Harrisburgh leads parallel to the Susquehannah, in some places close to the river, and never more distant from it than a quarter of a mile, along a very pleasant level, bounded on the right by a ridge of low, but steep wooded hills, approaching and receding at intervals, and affording a fine shelter from the northerly winds, to the farms between them and the river; which perhaps is one reason that the orchards are so numerous and so fine in this tract.

I have rarely seen in any country, a road more pleasant than this, either from its own goodness, or the richness and variety of prospect. The Susquehannah on the left about three quarters of a mile wide; sometimes appearing, and sometimes concealed by orchards, groves or clumps of wood. The fine wooded islands in the river. The mountains which terminate the ridge called the South mountain (which crosses part of Virginia, and the southern part of this state) rising abruptly from the margin of the river, in