Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/240

 22$ An Account of tie Checrake Nation. .

fowling, and killing of deer, which come in the warm feafon, to eat the faltifh mofs and grafs, which grow on the rocks, and under the furface of the waters. Their rivers are generally very {hallow, and pleafant to the eye ; for the land being high, the waters have a quick defcent, they feldom overflow their banks, unlefs when a heavy rain falls on a deep fnow. Then, it is frightful to fee the huge pieces of ice, mixed with a prodigi ous torrent of water, rolling down the high mountains, and over the fteep craggy rocks, fo impetuous, that nothing can refill their force. Two old traders faw an inftance of this kind, which fwept away great plantations of oaks and pines, that had their foundation as in the center of the earth. It overfet feveral of the higher rocks, where the huge rafts of trees and ice had flopped up the main channel, and forced itfelf acrofs through the fmaller hills.

From the hiftorical defcriptions of the Alps, and a perfonal view of the Cheerake mountains I conclude the Alps of Italy are much inferior to feveral of the Cheerake mountains, both in height and rockinefs : the laft are alfo of a prodigious extent, and frequently impaflfable by an enemy. The Allegeny, or " great blue ridge," 'commonly called the Apalakche- mountains, are here above a hundred miles broad, and by the beft ac counts we can get from the Miflifippi Indians, run along between Peru and Mexico, unlefs where the large rivers occafion a break. They ftretch alfo all the way from the weft of the northern great lakes, near Hudfon's Bay, and acrofs the MifTifippi, about 250 leagues above New-Orleans. In the lower and middle parts of this mountainous ragged country, the In dians have a convenient paflable path, by the foot of the mountains : but farther in, they are of fuch a prodigious height, that they are forced to wind from north to fouth, along the rivers and large creeks, to get afafe paflage : and the paths are fo fteep in many places, that the horfes often pitch, and rear an end, to fcramble up. Several of the mountains are ibme miles from bottom to top, according to the afcent of the paths : and there are other mountains I have feen from thefe, when out with the Indians in clear weather, that the eye can but faintly difcern, which therefore muft be at a furprifing diftance.

Where the land is capable of cultivation, it would produce any thing fuitable to the climate. Hemp, and wine-grapes grow there to admiration :

they

�� �