Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-09-18

Correspondence Of The Star
GREAT FLAT Tor MOUNTAIN,
Mercer county, Va, Sept. 7, 1850.
MouNrAIN GLADEs AND TABLE LAsps-A HARD
RoAD TO TRAvKL-PKDEsTRIAN AND EouKs-
> TRAAN-LocoMorIoN THE ONLY MopB-THE
-UPPKR 6rYANpoTTK-INKxHAUs SuPPLI
OF TINBKR-VARIErrEs OF WooDs SANG
HOUSES.
Dsa, Star: write this at the house Of one Sam
uel Mills, who farms iton the highest southeast
ern bluff Of that singular eminence, the Great Flat
Top Mountain, that you see stretching along the
map Of Virginia, trenching upon the counties Of
Raleigh, Wyoming, and Mercer. The mountains
about the headwaters Of the Guyandotte all bear
this fiattened character, and most of the farming
lands hereabouts is upon these SUBMITS instead Of
following water courses. an lower down the river
From the Guyandotte to this point walked for
IA or rs miles Of the way along one Of these noun
tain tables called Bakers Ridge. From Oceana
struck across to the Guyandotte (main river) and
followed the stream up the country growing
wilder and more sparsely populated at every step.
Such thing a. q carriage-road was newhe seen
The mails, groceries, &c, are conveyed upon
horseback, and that at 20 slow rate that found
no dificulty In keeping In advance Of parties thus
mounted over any distance. The Guyandotte
river districts exceedingly rich in timber which
however, 10 valueless, comparatively, from hav.
ing no access to a market, The difficulties in the
way Of making the upper river navigable have
been heretofore deemed insupefable; but the day
will come, doubtless, when the imperative de.
mand for this supply Of timber will force an
access TO 1t. The variety Of growth here
IL remarkable. Taking note for a single
half a mile along a mountain side met with
specimens Of the white: black and red oak, pin
oak, Spanish oak, chestnut oak, and water oak
he anlr vail and -G~
not plentiful here y black and white ash spice
tree, blackberry blue, black and red haw, white
and yellow poplar, white and black hickory
shell-bark hickory, buckeye, white and yellow
birch, black gum, ironwood, dogwood, horn
beam, cherry, slippery elm, red elm, sassafras
elder, alder, red cedar, hemlock, sycamore, white
and sugar maple wild plum, black locust prickly
ash, beech, black walnut, white walnut (butter
nut, cucumber tree, yellow and white linn, water
and weeping willow, persimmon, holly, laurel
| savin, ivy, quaking aspen, sourwood, sumach
paw paw, &C., &c. Rats Of timber are able 4
get down, now, from point some distance above
Logan Courthouse, and the main dinicultie,
higher up the river cover only few miles at the
foot Of Wyoming county.
I passed many sang houses, t. g. cabin,
where the ginseng 10 dried and clarified for mar
ket. In conversation with an intelligent noun
taineer, who has acted for years as agent for the
sang dealers In purchasing Of the gatherers, h
held that the ginseng has been a curse to the
country, as inducing the people to follow the pre-
carious business Of gathering it, instead u attend
ing to the steady cultivation Of their land, and
also as causing them to run In debt to the trader
with the expectation Of liquidating In the sang
season-an expectation not always realized. to saw
nothing OF the ruinous prices they charged fol
goods on this doubtful credit. They also pe
vitiated and tricky BY the business, and, in retail
alton for the high prices charged them for goods
water-soak and muddy the ginseng to make Il
weigh heavy, and also substitute a variety of spu
rious roots bearing close resemblance to the gen
ulne article. C.S.N