Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/293



HE preceding ſheets having been ſubmitted to my friend Mr. Charles Thompſon, ſecretary of Congreſs, he has furniſhed me with the following obſervations, which have too much merit not to be communicated.

(1.) p. 20. Beſides the three channels of communication metioned between the weſtern waters and the Atlantic, there are two others, to which the Pennſylvanians are turning their attention; one from Preque-iſle, on Lake Erie, to Le Bœuf, down the Alleghaney to Kiſkiminitas, then up the Kiſkiminitas, and from thence, by a ſmall portage, to Juniata, which falls into the Suſquehanna: the other from Lake Ontario to the Eaſt Branch of the Delaware, and down that to Philadelphia. Both theſe are ſaid to be very practicable; and, conſidering the enterpriſing temper of the Pennſylvanians, and particularly the merchants of Philadelphia, whoſe object is concentered in promoting the commerce and trade of one city, it is not improbable but one or both of theſe communications will he opened and improved.

(1.) p. 22. The reflections I was led into on viewing this paſſage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge were, that this country muſt have ſuffered ſome violent convulſion, and that the face of it muſt have been changed from what it probably was ſome centuries ago: that the broken and ragged faces of the mountain on each ſide of the