The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-12-13
The Land of Canaan.


is a scope of territority so peculiar in
its formation and surroundings as to
make it subject of interest to any
one who will, in its investigation,
unite geography and geology. 1t in
cludes and in fact is-the coal field
which the w. Va. C. & P. railway is
now penetrating. 1t is distinct re.
gion. separate from all the other coun-
try round about. For many years,
and as long as the land has been
known, it has been called Canaan:
but there is no real or fanciful re-
semblance to the Canaan of the Bible
on account of which 1t could have
derived It's name. and it is unknown
who named it, or why or wherefore.
1t is the bed of an old lake, drained
dry myriads of ages ago. 1t is twenty
miles long and six wide, and is en-
tirely surrounded by a rim of noun
tains, except in one place where the
Black Fork has cut through and torn
out the rocky battlements of the hills,
thereby preparing a passage way by
which the water of the lake has been
drained off. On the east and south
east the summit of the main Allie
ghenies runs round the edge of the
basin, forming, as it were, a rim for
it. On the other side, the north and
west, the B ,ckbone Mountain forms
the rim. Some tremendous convul-
sion of nature, in volcanic times, up
heaved the mountains and left the
basin enclosed among them. The two
mountains, the Allegheny and the
Backbone, separate at Fairfax Stone
1.-THE cornerstone of Maryland and
West Virginia,) and unite again at
the southern end of Canaan, which is
thus walled in by them on every side,
and is perfect basin of an obIong
shape, nestled among the very sum-
mits of the Appalachian Mountains.
1t is nearly as high as the Alleghe-
MES. A few hundred feet will meas.
ure the difference.
/ There was time in geological ages
when this basin was filled with water,
collected from the rains of summer
and the SHOWS of winter. 1t was then
/ a lake extending north and south
/ twenty miles, and east and west five
or six miles. About it there was
nothing so fast as to make it interest
ing when classed with Superior, Tan
ganyika and the worlds great lakes,
but, small though it was, it must
have been quiet and a beautiful
picture, if there had been in that far
time human eyes to have seen it and
human feelings to have appreciated
it.
The little lake was all alone in its
high mountain bed. Human foot.
steps never marked its shores. The
rain fell, the wind blew, the sum-
mers passed and the winters came
and it was still there, mirroring at
times the blue armament of heaven
in all deepness and purity, and at
other times the storms-for there
were storms there-raged over it,
The breezes and the storms, the win
tiers and the sunshine of centuries and
milennials passed. If wild beasts
came down to drink of or swim. in
the water, they were not such as live
; there now. The huge bulk of the
rhinoceros, the ignandon and the
pterodactyl may then have wallowed
among the mire-bOgs of the shores or
flew roaring through the air.
Ages were no doubt required to
complete the work of draining the
lake after it had oyerflowed lis noun
tain embankments. The point OF
overflow was in the northwestern
corner, where now is the deep, rug
ged canyon of Black Fork. Year by
year, and century after century, the
wearing Of the water cut deeper
channel in the rocks, until it was cut
so deep that the lake was drained
dry, and the valley of Canaan was
left as it now is, Generally it is a fiat
surface; but in places, principally
in the northern part, 1t is fearfully
cut up by flowing water. The beds
of the creeks have worn deep gullies,
or canyons, and through them the
water dashes and rOars among the
cataracts and powders that have
crashed into the abysses from over
hanging cliffs.
North and west of the old Dobbin
hotel the bed of the creek is almost
impossible. The water pitches from
one terrace to another and from one
fall to another, and there are th0us.
and hidden pitfalls and slippery rocks
where one not careful may meet his
death. At one place that l remember
in particular, from a circumstance
which it is not necessary to mention,
the bank of the creek is perpendicu
lar wall of rocks hundreds of feet