Litchfield enquirer., 1867-08-01

O S
 MR. EDIroR:-Ebensburg the County Seat of Cambria County, Pa., is nearly up- on the summit of the Alleghany Noun tains; in fact, is equally as high, but is not the real watershed between the Allan tic and Mississippi valleys. It is handsome country town, with about the business of Litchfeld. The surrounding country Is mostly wild timber land, interspersed with an occasional small farming section. The country is probably richer in mineral wealth than any other in the Union yet de- veloped. Inexhaustible beds of iron ore, and of bitumenous coal, abound in every noun tain cliff, and are underlying every valley, while little furnaces and forges are abundant, and the immense iron works at Johnstown, the largest in the United States, command the respect and admiration of the world. Ebensburg is connected with the East by the Pennsylvania Genital Rail- road, which. traverses the County from Northeast to Southwest, furnishing every facility for mineral developement.
 From here to Holldaysburg is twenty miles by a good stone pike, passing through watering place, or summer resort, called Cresson, lovely valley, with splendid hotel and cottages for boarders. One mile beyond and all the way up steep hill is ''The Summit" the real watershed of the Atlantic and Mississippi systems. Here IS a magnificent view to the South, West and North. as far as the eye can reach, an end less succession of hills and valleys, long lines of ridges stretching away till lost in the blue distance, little towns dotting the l-tops, large fields of golden grain, black columns of smoke marking some sooty furnace. All is beautiful and lovely; the only fault is too much wildness, too much nature, not enough humanity. But you forget faults in the picturesque grandeur of the panorama spread out at your feet, so bright in the sun, and growing fainter and fainter till lost in the hay distance. We are here twenty-four hundred feet above the valley below. The air is clear, cool and bracing, the birds sing as if on 8 spree, but neither mosquitoes nor flies hum or buzz about It is little too high for them.
 From the Summit to Hoidaysburg it is ten miles, down hill every step, the road winding in gorges among high mountain cliffs, following the headwaters of the Ju- niata, which leaps over a vein of coal, un- der some old parental beech, all the way reminding one of the time,
 "When wild royed the Indian girl,
 Bright Alfarata."
 You almost expect to see an arrow dart af- ter the old gray bald-headed eagle, as he scars above you, or the smoke of wig wam ascending from some secluded glen.
 All of the way down the mountains, we follow the ruins of the "Old Portage. D This is series of inclined planes by which the Pennsylvania Canal Company crossed the mountains. Stationary engines were placed on the top of each incline, and drew little cars up, or let them down. There are about twenty inclines of per- haps fourth of Q mile each, but since the Central Road has been built, they have been mostly destroyed, the Railroad going through the mountains in tunnel, mile long, dug in solid coal veins, at Gillitzin two miles north of Cresson. The Portage was considered as a great feat of engineer ing and mechanical skill, and the ruins will long testify to the spirit of improve ment among the pioneers of the Keystone State. Happy would they be; could they, revisit earth and gaze upon the evidences of thrift and civilization which are daily seenN by Your GUERILLA.