Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/35

Rh end or termination only of the great ridges paſſing through the continent. European geographers however extended the name northwardly as far as the mountains extended; ſome giving it, after their ſeparation into different ridges, to the Blue ridge, others to the North mountain, others to the Alleghaney, others to the Laurel ridge, as may be ſeen in their different maps. But the fact I believe is, that none of theſe ridges were ever known by that name to the inhabitants, either native or emigrant, but as they ſaw them ſo called in European maps. In the ſame direction generally are the veins of lime-ſtone, coal, and other minerals hitherto diſcovered: and ſo range the falls of our great rivers. But the courſes of the great rivers are at right angles with theſe. James and Patowmac penetrate through all the ridges of mountains eaſtward of the Alleghaney; that is broken by no water courſe. It is in fact the ſpine of the country between the Atlantic on one ſide, and the Miſſiſippi and St. Lawrence on the other. The paſſage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge is perhaps one of the moſt ſtupendous ſcenes in nature. You ſtand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to ſeek a vent. On your left approaches the Patowmac, in queſt of a paſſage alſo. In the moment of their junction they ruſh together againſt the mountain, rend it aſunder, and paſs off to the ſea. The firſt glance of this ſcene hurries our ſenſes into the opinion, that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed firſt, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly