Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-07-29

Railway Travelling Passage Through Tunnel-Ap-
pearance of the Country y-Accident--Crops, &c.
CUMBERLAND, Nd, July Ia, 1858.
DEAR SIR: The cars wait here one hour.
1t is now $50 P. NJ, and having supped at
the Union Hotel, the landlord of which has
a conscience with other good articles, will
devote ten minutes to I" "jottings from the
car.'' have crossed, since noon, the Ale
ghenies. Our train, like
The King of France, with his twenty thousand men,
Marched up hill, and then marched down again.
Only on the other side. Or rather we roll-
ed up at the rate of sixteen miles per hour,
and went down 'ssfiing.o This Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad is great work-three
hundred and seventy-nine miles long-it
winds around, now through some deep and)
narrow dell, now skirting along the noun
tain side, gradually climbing up, and now,
when some imprudent peak projects its huge
sides in the way, plunging directly through.
[ counted six of these tunnels in the course OF
a hundred miles; one of them occupied us
two minutes and half in getting through.
This plunging, in the noon OF hot July
day. into the bowels Of the mountain has
a singular effect. Suddenly the aif becomes
moist and cool-darkness impenetrable IS
around, save the glimmering of solitary
lamp in the car that every body wonders to
see burning in the day time, and you hold
your breath, listening to the reyerbefations
of the Aying ssiron horse!' Clamp clamp!
clamp! Mazeppa's steed was ne'er SO
rapid, the rider no more helpless, though
he was not so comfor tably seated, than
the modern traveller, at the rate of twen-
ty miles an hour. was delayed between
McConnelsville, Ohio, and Wheeling, con-
seauently | shall be in New York just twen-
ty-fo ur hours too late to witness the opening
Of the Crystal Palace.
Well, have seen among the mountains
greater shog than New York with the
''rest of mankind" !" can get up. The scenery
of south eastern Ohio and western Virgil
MIA is broken, wild and picturesque in the
extreme. Suppose dozen counties as
rough as the most broken region around
Muscatine, then cover the whole with grand
old forests, and you will have something
like the hill country of the Ohio river bor-
ders. Towards the mountains the hills be-
come loftier, and occasionally the scene Is
magnificent. At one point you cross deep
ravine on an iron bridge, l6O feet IN hight;
still farther down the valley flows little
stream, called Cheat river, and across this
rises the twin mountains of the one up
whose sides you are painting. up anu doWn
stream rise other peaks, all clothed in the
deep green robes of midsummer forests,
seeming to hedge you in completely. The
mountains Of the Alleghenies are less rug
ged than the granite hills of my native
State, but more beautiful are the tall
green trees than bare, iutting rocks. Time
from Wheeling to Baltimore twenty-five
hours, leisurely and safely : fare SO 80. The
northern route is the quickest, cheapest and
best for travellers to Philadelphia and all
points north and east Of Baltimore.
melancholy accident oc,urred in Mans
Gcld, Ohio, on the 9th inst. Mr. Jacob
Haumer, the old Z. NJ, was instantly killed
by being thrown from his buggy. He was
riding with his wife, ani it is supposed that
the horse became frightened and unmanage-
able. Mrs. Ii. had not recovered when |
left, from the shock so as to be able to give
any account of the matter.
The crops of wheat il this State and Vir-l
Einia are good; but forty acres of Iowa prai-
'rie are worth more than all the hills in any
one county from Morgan county, Ohio, to
Cumberland, Maryland. At least so thinks
yours, truly, Z. f.