The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-10-03

H.,
COnYpondtnec Of The Iileliceaar.
ST. GEORGE, W. Va, Sept. 3O.-At
noon We turned our horses out to cror
grass on q small open space Of ground
surrounded by rocks, on the summit Of
the AlleghGnies in Pendlelon county,
For two hours VIC had been climbing the
mountain, coming up from the river,
now iivo miles below; and rs we had
climbed We had left behind US the fields
and farms, orchards and houses, and
| when We bad reached the summit OF the
%m8aRtRiH, there was not dwelling or d
sign Of human abode near w. Tue
country WA rugged and wild, covered
with heavy broken rocks, piled tumultu.
ously together, and briers and brush
grew in tangled thieke:s among them.
This was oil the east high ridge OF the
Allegheny nounlains-the dividing line
between the rivers that flow into the At
lantic ocean on the one hand and those
flowing into the Mississippi river system
on the other. My companion on the
journey wa Hon. George Hartman. We
had stopped that our horses might rest
and crop grass from the little space OF
open ground among the rocks; and
while our horses picked grass, we seated
ourselves on n great angular rock and
ate our lunch, brought with us.
Few places could equal that for the
grandeur OF the surroundings. have
been on mountain peaks in the western
part OF America four times as high and
the panorama was twenty times as tx.
tensivei but from that summit OF the
AlleghelieB there was something differ.
ent from them all. Just above us, q few
hundred feet away. the last cliff OF the
mountain hung. Beyond it. and along
the crest CT the mountain toward the
south and west, extended q broken pal
isade CT rocks, making the edge of the
great ~treelsss highlands, locally known
As the Roaring rlaIns. These plains are
barren and desolate, without timber,
except here and there q dead trunk OF Il
tree with two or three prongs, like
horns, risin above the d~esolatiop.
EFFECT OF FOREST FIRES.
There was a time when these high
lands, on the very summit OF the ALE.
gheniea, extending for miles, were GOV.
cred with heavy forests, and with tan
gled junSles almost lmpenetrable. But
fires have swept over them, and nothing
is left but rocks, and here and there a
giant tree which the contlagrations killed
but did not consume. In places the
masses Of powders are blackened by
the action Of the fire. In other parts,
the action OF rain and wind has whiteucd
the rocks, and they lie dull gray in the
sunshine.
The briers and the few shrubs that
had found roofing since the fires killed
the forests, rather helped it render the
view mora solemn and melancholy. For
the leavesiad been changed by frost to
various colors, and the beach rocks
blended strangely with the red and yell
low OF the %0uiunlnal foliage.
From where We were, toward the east,
the valley OF the South Branch and the
hills about Moorcfield and Romney were
in sight. The day was remarkably
yetthe valley and the hills were
so far away that Il dull blue mist hung
over them.
Toward the south there was no valley
and no plain. Five miles distant and
neal three thousand feet beneath us the
river rushed down its rocky channel be.
tween the towering mountains on either
side. This stream is one OF the upper
tributories Of the Potomac, and along
its couree is the widest scenery in West
Virginia, The banks oil the river often
arc cliffs OF rocks, hundreds of feet
sheer perpendicular. the road that
leads up the river often has TO wind
round the face Of the mountains above
the ellis. Some fifteen miles from
where We were, are the Cliffs OF Seneca,
rising like a rugged wall III feet above
the river.