The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-12-21
From the Pittsburgh Real Estate Register
VIRGINIA. ,.-...
scenery-Inhabitan Fine Pic.

The scenery Of West Virginia is
worthy of volume rather than the
fragment Of chapter. Under the TO-
fluence of 80 genial a climate, that
semi-tropical forms Of vegetation are
almost native of its soil, its flora may
safely he presumed to equal, il not to
surpass, in variety and magnifcence.
the wealth OF any other State or Cont
nent. In its fauna it is equally distin-
guished. Birds, beautiful in plumage
and sweet in song, give life. and grace,
and cheerfulness to field and forest.
The surface is infinite variety, rills meet
in rivulets and rivulets swiftly swell into
rivers, which leap their mountain bar
riers and quietly subside into the pls-
cidty OF the plains below. Mountains
rise like little Alps on Alps; glades,
those meadows of the N ountain, freshen
the summer atmosphere with delicious
coolness; cultivated slopes, as in Green
brier and other Of the older counties,
move the Imagination, as by wand OF
enchantment; deep, winding, fertile
valleys lie at the loot Of beetling bluffs,
full of the iatness Of fertility. Every
where the vision is greeted with variety
and beauty. Nature has not only been
partial, but prodigal; yet the hand OF
man is needed to direct and to use this
beneficence of benefaction.
European travellers have been enrap-
tured with the every varying scenery OF
the Cheat river region, as seen n trip
by rail; and none have been more i'm.
pressed with it than those who have
climed the Alps, and viewed with awe
their towering heights and darkening
depths beneath. 1t exerts unwonted
emotions thus to wind around the steep
side of spur, and emerge from its
shadows into a sunlit slope that falls
abruptly away, at the very edge Of the
car, hundreds of feet, and reveals at
the bottom long and winding valley,
singularly dark stream, whose choco-
late colored waters contrast, while bar
monizing with the forest growth that
reaches from the golden sunlight Of the
mountain top down to the rivers brink.
4 The sturdIness Of the for
ests, the hardy vigor Of all vegetable
life, the munificence Of all visible nature,
impress the traveller accustomed to see
bare rock and stinted vegetation amid
mountain scenery. There is nothing Of
poverty suggested, and no intimation OF
sterility; lew jutting crags are seen,
unless hewn out Of the mountain side
in cutting the wild pathway OF the rail
road; and no rough rocks, piled heap
upon heap, offend The eye as it sweeps
the gracefully rounded knobs.
Lonely as the vast reaches Of woodland
appear. and bold and varied as is the
contour of the mountain face. there Is
Away. present the suggestion that every
acre is habitabIe-that the hand Of art
may hei ghten the b-auties aud soften
the asperities Of the scene. ..-
The traveller pnrsues his westward
way down the Alleghenian slope,
through scenery similar in its type but
slowly and continually modifying, till it
becomes noticeable only as billy fruit,
ful country, divided into farms natural
ly suited to the diverse uses OF mead.
ows, pasturage and tillage, and watered
with frequent and rapid streams.
In the eastern section Of the State the
lower Shenandoah Valley presents
views of greater beauty, with less OF
widness and grandeur. More than
hundred miles, between Harpers Ferry
and Cumberland, the Potomac, "a flash,
ing thread of silver" runs out wind
ing boundary between Maryland and
West Virginia; and the neigbboring
meadows, and wheat fields, and golden
fruited orchards, aud wild forests make
graceful pictures OF rural qualities and
possibilities that touch the heart while
they delight the eye.
The scenery o. West Virginia is
worthy OF the highest efforts OF the
painter and the poet. The Hawks
Nest" mountain. thousand feet
in almost perpendicular height;
its Hanging Rocks leaning over
he perpendicular like the tower
of Pisa, five hundred feet from
the surface; its Lost River burrow-
ing in the earth, and "revisiting the
glimpses of the moon" in numerous
outlets far away; its caves and falls and
Indian mounds; these and many other
peculiar features of her landscape are
worthy of more accurate delineaton.
This scenery" said the historian Ban
croft few years ago, has character
of grandeur of its own; and In the
wonderful varieties OF forest and lawn,
of river and mountain, Of nature 10 her
loveliest forms, presents series OF pic
lures which no well educated American
should leave unvsited. We cross the
Atlantic in quest OF attractive scenes;
and lol we have at home, alongside OF
the great central iron pathway, views
that excel anything that can be seen
among the mountains of Scotland, or In
the passes OF the Apprentices" and had
the writer visited the beautiful valley OF
the Great Kanawha his rapture, with no
danger OF abatement, might have
warmed into still brighter glow.
The original settlers Of West Virginia
emiyrated principally from the eastern
and valley sections OF the state. ana
from MARYLAND and New jersey. Their
ancestry was generally traced to Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, and
though in several of the mountain coun-
ties a strong admixture Of Pennsylvania
German blood is still perceptible, yet
the blending of races through several
generations has resulted in well de-
fined auglo-saxon type, slightly modl-
fed by that Celtic ease OF manner pecu,
liar to the dwellers of mild and fruitful
climate. The genuine rural West Vlr-
ginian is not much addicted to preclp-
stnns m action. rarely loses his temper or