Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/50

 *cana and Asplenium angustifolium. The dip of the strata becomes now more and more inconsiderable, but organic remains, except those peculiar to the coal formation, are scarcely to be met with, and there is a predominance of slaty and argillaceous sandstone.

13th.] The turnpike was now completed through the last 40 miles up to Pittsburgh, and scarcely any undertaking promises more advantage to the state in general. It will tend to check the competition of the inland navigation of the state of New York, as well as that of the state of Virginia, through which the United States have established a national road[15] as far as the town of Wheeling on the Ohio.

14th.] West of Greensburg, and indeed east of it, from the base of the Chesnut Ridge, the surface of the country is deeply undulated, and laborious to travel. The land upon the height is sterile and thinly populated; still every five or six miles we meet with some poor-looking hamlet, which commonly, out of 12 to 20 log cabins composing it, contains six or seven licensed dram shops, besides three or four stores for the retailing of merchandise. How much is a scattered and independent population like that of the honest and industrious Germans inhabiting the eastern parts of Pennsylvania to be preferred to these towns whose inhabitants are brought together by no prospect of general industry or economy. To say that coal is common throughout this country, and that it is generally employed for fuel, is repeating a fact familiar to every one who has ever visited the western country.

15th.] To-day I arrived again in Pittsburgh, and endeavour as I may to drive away my former prejudices against this very important commercial and manufactur-*