The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-17

agohies OF lie OF ages and multitudes.
TO BE CoNTINUED.I
| From the New York Evening Post
A VISIT TO THE ALLEGHANIES OF
MARYLAND.
The Alpine Plateau-D Description of .Sceuey,,-
Bear Hunting an the Mountains Their r.,
cape an the Laurel Thickets = Meshoc
Browning, the Chief Of Bear Hunters-l
"aFds Gm-Sharp Stooting
WASHINGTON, November, 1858.
To the Editor Of the Evening Post:
Your paper occasionally relieves its reader
OF the monotony of politics and news, by in
PRODUCING pictures OF nature, of countries an,
their products, of people and their employment
and manners. Mr.. Bryant'a letter from abroa,
presents the features Of foreign lands of which
we have read and heard much, but which wer,
never made visible before to the pptrayelled O
our countrymen. would be glad to do some
tnihg IKE TINS Tor magnificent region at home
through which, for the last FIVE years long train,
OF railroad cars have swept in thunder anC
smoke, passing it with such rapid movement
that it remains in almost the same obscurity a,
existed before the vast wall of mountains thai
surround 1t had been scaled, and IFS green sum
mer glades, and island bays, shadow valleys
and breezy promontories, were rendered acces
sible to the traveller. l allude to the Allephan,
portion of Maryland
Dprlng the rage of tho dog star along on,
Atlantic parder last summer, | fed to the
mountain tops for cool air, unaden with yapors
OF our rivers and coasts, and rendered thin
transparent, and buoyant, in having nearly
5000 feet less of superintendent atmosphere
than the murky, stagnant region from which ]
sought ESCAPE,
! This | accomplished in ten hours rid,
from Washington. The railroad ascends tbc
Potomac to Piedmont, the foot of the AlIephany
Thence ascending in slope Of seventeen miles
1t reaches AltaIoa., the eastern summit. From
tnls paint the traveller, who will take leave Of
the cars, may look abroad upon as 6no q pros
pect of bill and dale and vale m-and another
generation will add oas goodly towers "a.
ever iaet the poets eye.
put looking from the car windows. the Bic
BACKBONE Mountain on one hand and the Saw
basin into which the railroad descends, by q
gradual inclination Of some hundred feet from
its lgest elevation of three thousand feet, tc
the Youghiogeny, whence ii again ascends
nearly to the leySi Of Altamont, at Cranbury
sunm.,, swonty miles west. Meadow Mountain
connected with the chain that runs along the
Pennsylvania line, and the range that marks
the boundary between Virginia and Maryland
to the west and southwest Joining, like great
rib, the Big Rack Bone Mouataih) make n cir
Gle Vi mountains, the rugged rim Of an oblong
valley of between thirty and forty miles in
length, and twenty in width. It seems val
10y made on the tops of mountains, their regu.
lar cones being broken down and thrown rou,.d
the circumference to form a frontier anduiating
ridges extending from it, Ike raaii, To the cen.
ire of the valley, anu iorralng lovely glades be-
tween, hse prairies, the gently winding Yough
iogeny formed by multtudes of lucid tributaries
which burst from the sides of every SPUR. The
glades are rich with k;ah waving grasses, to
which the Virginia and Maryland stocks raZiers
beioW the mountains send their stock 10 get fat
during the summer, and from which the sparse
resident population obtain celebrity for their
delicious staple for the city marlsets-the glade
butter.
1t is remarkable that this rich, beautiful,
healthy region, should be so thinly settled, and
so little known. 1t il susceptible Of the most
lucrative cultivation. The ridges which run
from the circle of mountains, and separate the
extensive prairie giades from each other, are
rich, and crowned with the noblest forests.
Some give birth to Titanic white oaks, with
limbs of diameters equal to ordinary trees, con-
torted into elbows, and knees, and crooks, of
every shape, which, when the tops are put in
mQtiSn BY high winds, give them the appear
ance ofan army of giants contending like ath-
letes. Some of the high grounds near the river
and larger creeks are exalted with white pines
Of enormous trunks, ascending more than 200
feet in the air. Others, again, are covered
with sugar trees, probably the largest any
a,ha 40, ha I Ia
between four and five feel Ia diameter. The
boundary mpSn,sins, which fence in this re-
sian, abound with lofty chestnut and the great
red oak.
The valley in its river and large continents
has water power to turn all the forest wealth
into ship timber, lumber for houses, railroads,
and S,idges. The Youghiogeny leaps from
the level plain at the Swallow Falls In n per
pendicular column of height sufficient, with
out dam, 20 move any amount of machinery.
Another fine stream which meets it here has a
perpendicular fall of forty-fve feet, and this is
but one of succession. Deep Creek makes
its way from the mountain valley TO that Of the
great west in headlong steps, hat IN the course
of few miles make the whole stream descend
more shan 800 feet, and It is in the neighbor-
hood of this vast water power that the grand
pine forests have arisen, as if to tempt Northern
enterprise to use it for their destruction.
In addition to this temptation, the hillsides
crop out with coal-beds and o,es, In natural
meadows, as well as wAere the land is titled,
either in the plains or on the ridges, it is prodi-
gal in production. The tame grasses, oats,
rye, buckwheat, and potatoes, and, in some ex-
posures, Indian corn and wheat, do we'll and
through the midst runs one of the best and
best.managed railroads in our country, ,ermi-
mating at tide-water, at BALTIMORE, and meeting
the steam navigation ON the Ohio, at Wheel.
ing and Parkersburg.
Why region so beautiful md healthy and
fertile-a region, taken as fragment, capable
of making a more important State than either
Delaware or Rhode Island--should have re-
manned comparatively wilderness so long,
will take some future occasion to explain. But
this involves the discussion of State policy
which, fatal at home, well deserves considerate
exposure, and the more especially as it affects
deeply the welfare of other States, and the great
principle that underlies all our Governments
1t is a subject which awaits an important epoch
that approaches, and viii then command the
attention of the peapls Of Maryland. Let me
refer Iev Ia matters of less interest
Ihe Alpine plateau which have described
has many attractions IN the hot season for the
people Of the lOwlauds, and particularly the