Part 5 (1/2)
In some places the wood is thicker, in others the sides of theshoots and soher trees; small streams, here called runs, flow in the defiles and valleys; the bridges of bea 46] and in such bad condition, that horses and carriages could not pass without danger We saw no hus on this road, nor any anis After this rather lad to descend into the Nescopeck Valley, and reached it, at the , of German descent, where we refreshed ourselves with milk and brandy The Nescopeck Creek, a pretty considerable streah this beautiful wooded valley This district belongs to Sugarloaf townshi+p, in Lucerne county
After we had watered our horses, and the miller had questioned us about his native Gere over the stream, ascended the mountain on the other side, and reached an inn on the suhteenfrom this place, we crossed the valley of the little Nescopeck Creek, which is covered with lofty trees, then passed the little Black Creek, and afterwards cah mountain wall, with a beautiful wood of various forest trees, which the inhabitants, who areGerman is everywhere spoken here
Froh a thick underwood of shrub-like oaks, with a few higher trees, and we soon reached the high road fro which we proceeded to Mauch Chunk, where two stage-coaches pass daily
We took this road, and soon came to an inn, kept by a German named Anders, who likewise had a saw-ht an old she-bear in a trap, and in the three following days her three cubs, which he sold to travellers passing that way The point where ere is called the Hasel Swa onwards, we passed Pismire Hill, where rattlesnakes are said to abound We observed, too late, a very large animal of this kind dead in the road, one of the wheels of our carriage having crushed the head of the snake, which was otherwise in a good state of preservation My driver laid it in a natural position by the road-side, and I have no doubt that it was again knocked on the head by soh which the Beaver Creek flows, is called Beaver Meadow, and is coveredbushes It is probable that beavers may have formerly been numerous here, at least the place is quite suited to the since extirpated We ca Mountain, which we ascended, and then rapidly descended, always through a thick forest, where we observed, on both sides of the way, the Grauwacke for Mountain we entered a wide valley, both the steep sides and bottom of which are covered with thick woods, only thinned a little round the habitations
In the middle of the valley, directly before us, six or seven buildings, in a broad street, fore of Lausanne, five or six hundred paces belohich the Quackack Brook flows through the valley A Jew keeps here a public-house and shop, where we47] Beyond Lausanne is a high mountain, called Broad Mountain, up which the road is carried in an oblique direction Trees and shrubs form everywhere a very thick but ruined forest, in which there is scarcely any serviceable timber The view back over the extensive and wild valley of Lausanne was extre One can hardly fancy this subliinal red inhabitants The wide and hollow valley is everywhere covered with dense forests; and the little village of Lausanne is scarcely to be seen aain the salomerate, which I have before mentioned; the beds of coal are at a small distance On the side which we descended the wood is e of the orous and luxuriant Several planters have for whom an Irishman was pointed out to us, who had lately been arrested on an accusation of murder, but had been since set at liberty
The Neskihone or Neskihoning Valley, into whichdescended, is wide, and enclosed by very high, far-extending walls of rock, everywhere covered with thick woods, in which so the right, or southern wall, an iron railroad has been laid dohich forms a communication between one of the coal mines of the Mauch Chunk Company, on the Rumrun Creek, and Mauch Chunk It runs down into the valley of the Lehigh, which it follows to the last-named place The appearance of the valley is very wild and picturesque; the Neskihone, which you pass at a saw-mill, flows at the bottom of it, and then turns to the left into the beautiful valley of the Lehigh, into which the Neskihone eh comes on the left hand, out of a deep, extrelen, the entrance to which is entirely concealed by lofty, steep wooded lassy surface shi+nes, half hid by tall shady oaks, beeches, and chestnuts; and the whole is one of thescenes that I met with in Pennsylvania
The road froh trees, and on the banks of the river there are several dwelling-houses and inns In a quarter of an hour we reached Mauch Chunk, now celebrated as the central point of the Lehigh coal district
FOOTNOTES:
[38] The Lehigh Navigation Coust 10, 1818, was consolidated in 1820 with the Lehigh Coal Coh Coal and Navigation Co opened by 1820, coal was floated down to the Delaware and thence to Philadelphia, where the scoere broken up In 1827 the coan the construction of a canal which by 1829 was completed between Mauch Chunk and Easton A line to White Haven was opened (1835), and to Stoddartsville (1838) In 1827 there was opened the Mauch Chunk (gravity) Railroad, the second of its kind in the United States, being in 1828 extended to Rooh and Susquehanna Railroad was completed by the sa Co year, commenced work on a twenty-mile canal between the Delaware and Newark, New Jersey, and completed it in 1831 Later the canal was extended to Jersey City, a distance of eleven miles--ED
[39] When found by Europeans, the Delaware Indians were living in detached bands along the Delaware River A tribe of the Algonquian family, they comprised three powerful clans--the Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf--see Post's _Journals_ in our volurated to the Ohio, and by 1786 all had settled west of the Allegheny Mountains They had aided Pontiac in his attack upon Fort Pitt, and allied the the Revolutionary War Defeated, they established the the banks of the Huron River in Ohio and in Canada Neutral during the War of 1812-15, they sold their lands to the United States and occupied a reservation along White River, in Indiana By subsequent treaties the Delaere removed to Missouri, Kansas, and Texas; and in 1867 they were incorporated a the Cherokee, and stationed with the latter in Indian Territory--ED
[40] Copious springs issuing from the white sand--MAXIMILIAN
[41] The names of all these rivers, streams, and many places, are, for the most part, harmonious with many vowels, and are derived froe _Tobihanna_ means alder brook See Duponceau, in the Transactions of the Ae 351, on the naes still current in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia--MAXIMILIAN
[42] See Plate 4, in the acco atlas, our volume xxv--ED
[43] The wood of this shrub is extremely solid and hard--MAXIMILIAN
[44] See p 107, for illustration of bear-trap--ED
[45] Wilkes-Barre, seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and eighteen miles southwest of Scranton, was laid out in 1769 and named jointly for John Wilkes and Colonel Barre, members of the British parliament
The town is near the famous ”mammoth vein,” of anthracite coal, nineteen million tons of which were mined in the vicinity of Wilkes-Barre in 1900 The census report for that year exhibited a population of 51,721--ED
[46] The Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal Company was a consolidation of the Susquehanna Canal Company of Pennsylvania, and the Tide Water Canal Coed by both states, Maryland lending it credit to the amount of a million dollars It was opened in 1840 See Henry V Poor, _History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States_ (New York, 1860), p 552
In 1840 the total e of canals in Pennsylvania elve hundred and eighty; of which four hundred and thirty-tere owned by private coe of railroads in the same year was seven hundred and ninety-five See Henry F Walling and O W Gray, _New Topographical Atlas of the State of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1872), p 30--ED
[47] The executive council of Philadelphia presented General Williaallant services of July 4, 1788,”
in rescuing Colonel Pickering froeneral of the militia, and in 1812 elected to the state senate from the district of Northuhty-two--ED
[48] Tomaqua lies in the coal district at the end of the little Schuylkill Valley, near Tuscarora In this country the discovery of the coal has caused agriculture to be neglected, and thousands of people are said to have been ruined by unsuccessful speculations--MAXIMILIAN
CHAPTER V
DESCRIPTION OF MAUCH CHUNK AND ITS COAL MINES--JOURNEY THROUGH THE LEHIGH VALLEY TO BETHLEHEM, AND LAST RESIDENCE IN THAT TOWN, FROM AUGUST 31ST TO SEPTEMBER 16TH