The Cecil Whig., 1867-06-29
The SusIsieisanlla.

| ne loiIowldg interesting historical skecl
OF The Snsqnehanna River is from the lyco
ming pa. SfaHdaTd:
II there be n more beautiful spot on eartl
| than that where the men of Paxton settled
we have never seen it. From its source il,
Olsego Lake. whore the great American nov.
cIist has described it in language that will
never cease to be read; along by its lovely
winnings, where the Chemung intersects the
North Branch. whose beauties have been
cmbalmed lay one Of our most graceful no
cts; by the Valley Of Wyoming, which lives
forever IN the imagination OF Campbell, bnt
which rs ialrcr even than the scni.troncal
fancy of which he was enamored: on by
the bold scenery Of its waters mt Norihum.
berland, to its broad glory, celebrated in the
New Pastoral, aud its magnificent union with
me Chesapeake, every mile of the Susuun-
hanna Is beautiful. Other rivers have
Their points OF lovcliness or Of grandeur.
the Susquehanna has every form Of beauty
or snbilnlly that belongs to rivers. We
have seen them all Connecticut, Hudson,
Delaware, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri
There is nothing like the Susqnehannn ON
this continent. It's peculiar character de
prnds upon its origin in the New Yorl.
meadows, ITS passage through the magnil-
cent Pennsylvania highlands and mountains.
Everywhere its course is DETECTED; it begins
wooded lake; it winds limpid brook by
meadows and over silver pebbles makes it's
way through mountains it loiters, reslinely,
by their bases; it sweeps in broad courses
by the valleys; its vast width, in its mad
spring ireshets, when swollen by the melted
SHOWS, it rushes from the hills with irrissti-
bic force, sometimes causing lrightlul mum
datlons; leaves, with its falls island after
island in its channel, of the richest green,
and most surprising beauty; while those
passes through the mountains afford points
of scenery far finer than any one would be-
lieve them to be from any description, if he
had not seen them.
The Snsqnehanna makes the grandest of
these passages below the mouth Of the .Jun-
alta. Its course there is several miles long.
before 1t entirely disrngages itself from the
rapids, called Hunters Falls, which are the
remains of the rocky barrier which once re-
sisted its way. Entirely at liberty, it pours
its stream, mile wide, along q channel
some fifty or sixty feet. beneath its banks
About seven miles below the mountains, at
a point where they look blue in the distance,
a sheltering wall from the northern blasts
flows III a little stream which the Indians
called Pexetang, Paixtang, or Paxton.-
This mountain is the northern boundary Of
the great valley, which, underlaid with blue
est and noblest forest growth, and nclndine
within it the garden OF all the Atlantic slope,
extends from CASTOR, Oh the Delaware, by
Heading, Lebanon and Lancaster by Har-
rlShurg. York and Carlisle, by Chambers.
burg, Hagerston and Winchester, until it
loo esitScIf in the North Carolina hills The
point OF the greatest beauty in all the valley,
Is the spot where it is cloven by the Susque.
hanna.
hundred and forty years ago, an enter
prising young man, from Iorkshire, in Eng.
land, by descent, probably, one of those
who, under the great Canute,
held possession Of the north OF England
and gave It's main character to it, made his
way to Philadelphia. He married here IA
lady who came over with well known
orksiire family OF this city. lmpeled by
the same enIrrprising spirit that brought him
from til" old world, and using the inevitable
eye that was characteristic of him, he went
To the banks of the Susqnehanna. He set
tied Il brief period at point above Colum.
bia, where the village Of Rainhridue now
stands, pnce much trequentod by the Co.
n"y or Gtwancs" Indians. But he was not
satisfied with tins location. Exploring up-
wards along the eastern bank of the Susu,,c.
hanna, he advanced, until, instead of the
Concwaga hill at his back and ON the opno
site side Of the river, he found the entrance
opposite to him of that most beautiful val
ley, already described, with two fine streams
flowing into the river five miles apart, and
on the eastern side an elevated plateau un
surpassed in lnveliness in the wide world.
with the little Paxton flowing at the base of
an elevated $ lope or ridge Of land. Here
he settled, and the ferry across the river to
the entrance OF the Cumberland Valley was
called after him.
His son, The first white child horn west of
the Concwa"a hills, subsequently laid out Il
town on the spot, and with singular fore.
thought set apart six acres on II noble hill
which rises on the northwest, which he con
yeycd 10 the State, for public pulposrs.-
The capitol Of Pennsylvania is now built
upon it, aud the city Of Harrisburg bears
his name.