Part 14 (1/2)
This country reht e arrived on the left bank of the Potoed to wait for a considerable length of time for the ferry-boat When this caro; even the ferry-boat itself was very bad; however, we fortunately crossed the shallow river, passing amidst pieces of rocks, and perceived at so in the river, on which the next year, a bridge was to be built Having crossed, we cainia At Harper's Ferry, we took our lodgings in a neat tavern; and I had here the pleasure to see Dr Weise, from Dresden, who, as soon as he knew I had arrived, ca here the following description of this country, by THOMAS JEFFERSON, in his ”Notes on the State of Virginia”
”The passage of the Potoe is perhaps one of the h point of land On your right co the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent On your left approaches the Potoe also In the ainst the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been created in tian to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been dae of mountains, and have for to rise they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base
The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disrupture and avulsion froents of nature, corroborate the iiven to the picture, is of a very different character It is a true contrast to the foreground It is as placid and delightful, as that is wild and tre cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, froh the breach and participate of the calm below Here the eye ultimately composes itself; and that way too the road happens actually to lead You cross the Potoh the base of thein fragments over you, and within about twenty miles reach Fredericktown, and the fine country round that This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic Yet here, as in the neighbourhood of the Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within half a dozen miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a war between rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the earth itself to its centre”
Theafter my arrival at Harper's Ferry, I visited Mr
Stubbersfield, director of the gun manufactory, to whom I was recommended by the secretary of war, and he showed me the establishe stone buildings, of which the interior partitions, with regret be it spoken, are of wood
The buildings stand in rows, four at the foot of the mountain, and opposite to them, three on the bank of the Potomac At the entrance of the street which they form, is Mr Stubbersfield's office, fros The s are two stories high; in the lower part are the forges, and in the higher stories, work of iron I saw nothing new The iron employed for barrels, comes from Juniata, in the state of Pennsylvania, and is in plates, of which each is calculated for one barrel The steel is German, called Halbach's steel, furnished by Mr Halbach, of Philadelphia Every gun h one hundred and twenty hands before it is ready A particular workman is appointed for every part and paid for it separately, when the work has been duly exaent workain two dollars per day
When the workmen have prepared all the parts of a fire-lock, they deliver theether
The barrels are turned by er Theto me, because it was formerly a very laborious work A piece of iron is screwed upon a piece of wood, which has been made in the form of a stock, at the place where the barrel is to be placed After this the piece is screwed into the machinery; in a parallel direction to it a piece of iron is screwed, having the sa is perfore-planes The operation begins with the un-stock ether with the irona parallel direction with the axis of a plain wheel of brass, which is rubbing on the ironall its prominences and cavities This wheel is also put in motion and draards the breech by un-stock off, and gives it the proper form
This operation lasts six or sevenat the saun-stock being duly formed, is taken out of the machinery, and another put in its place; then the iron piece is taken away froun-stock, it is fixed in a craroove to receive the barrel
Thisto the government, furnishes at present in tienerally browned by the process indicated by Dupin, also, the rings and bayonets, the last of which are kept bright by the British
Mr Stubbersfield conducted me also to the arsenal, in which the finished muskets are delivered, and are either here preserved, or packed up in cases by twenty, and sent to other arsenals In the interior of the arsenal, every thing is of wood, notwithstanding the great ie capital
There were eighty-four thousand guns If the value of one be estimated only at thirteen dollars, it makes the sum of one million and ninety-two thousand dollars
From the arsenal, ere conducted to a new manufactory, half a uns are constructed under his own direction He not being present, I was not fortunate enough to find any body to explain the machinery, which appeared not yet in full action Dr Weise, ith us to a mountain above this place, called Jefferson's Rock The prospect frorees with the description, yet I believe I have seen finer landscapes in Germany From that place also, the town can be surveyed, the houses of which appeared to be rather scattered; of its fifteen hundred inhabitants, three hundred are working in the gun overnment, and well recommended persons obtain permission to build upon it On an elevation, near Jefferson's Rock, a large building, three stories high, has been erected The first story was intended for a church, the second for a Lancasterian school, and the third for a free e I suffered very ht with it a little snow
In the evening, Dr Weise caen, who cao as a baker, and then had learned the art of constructing e on the Schuylkill, above Philadelphia, built of a single arch, is of his invention, and the next year he was to build one here over the Potomac
On the 19th of Nove, and set off on a journey to the Natural Bridge, which is one hundred and seventy-five e The ies, appears not yet to have extended beyond the Blue Mountains, because ere obliged to be contented with one, which was in every respect very uncoh a hilly country and was very bad We went for a considerable distance on rocks; on the road, a great , and I was surprised, that our miserable vehicle was not broken to pieces At break of day, we arrived at a shteen miles from Harper's ferry A couple of s, the water of which has the taste of spoiled eggs, like that of Aix-la-Chapelle It seems to be very little known, as there is no enclosure around it, and no houses near A lucky chance will no doubt make it known, and I should not be surprised, were I to coain in fifteen or twenty years, to find at this spot an elegant watering place, soh a forest of oak, chesnut, acacia, and cedar trees; houses were seldom met with We forded many creeks, the most considerable of therist-mills It froze pretty hard, so that the borders of the creeks were covered with a pretty thick ice, and large icicles hung on the sluices of the mills Eleven miles beyond Smithfield, we came to Winchester, a very nice country tohere the houses areprincipal street, intersected by other smaller ones; it has a market-house, and many stores, which appeared to be very well provided Here we changed our stage for a better one, although still very inconvenient The wood of which it was constructed was hickory, which has a great deal of elasticity
Froht , six miles, and at last to Woodstock, twelve ht This place is sixty-one ht-quarters in the evening about six o'clock, in a very cold night and a fine moonshi+ne
The places between Winchester and Woodstock were not considerable, except Strasburg, which is er population The houses are generally of wood and covered with shi+ngles, although a great number of stones are found here The country becae, froe, in a parallel direction with the fore, rose suddenly between us and the Blue Ridge, which soon entirely disappeared On our right there was another ridge of hany Mountains, and ent through a valley at least ten es is very singular, and no instance occurs of it in the other parts of the world The country was pretty well cultivated, and by the exterior appearance of many country-houses, ere induced to believe their inhabitants enjoyed plenty The enclosures of fields are here, for the most part, the above-mentioned old fences, yet next to the houses they are of masonry carefully formed As it appeared, they travel here reat distances between the plantations, almost all the ladies can ride on horseback; we antly dressed, and also black women The race of horses of this country, appears to be a very strong one They use also oxen for drawing; to many carts were put two oxen, and before them two horses On the 20th of November, we left Woodstock at half-past two o'clock in the e, and proceeded to Staunton, seventy-one ed road than that of yesterday; in this place we passed the night The places on our ere , and Harrisonburg, deserve to be ht to nine hundred inhabitants The greatest part of the houses ooden ones, and but a few of inia does not bear comparison with Massachusetts, New York, or even Pennsylvania The great number of slaves in this state, est part of the country is not covered ood, and appears to be well cultivated As for the rest it is very hilly, and on our left hand we had all day the ridge of North Mountains, of which, however, we could not see iness of the weather We crossed many streams at fords; these streams were rather torrents We crossed the Shenandoah near its source About seven o'clock in the evening we reached Staunton, and took our lodgings in an unpleasant tavern This long and uncoe, and upon a very rough way,companion more so, for he seeues
I suffered, however, this want of coreat deal of patience
[Footnote I-34: [”Let it never be forgotten that a part of the quarrel of the Aovernment of Great Britain, arose from the determination of the former not to tolerate the farther importation of slaves; an iland, in consideration of the vested rights of the Royal African Coland upbraid A slavery,--a curse by her inflicted on her colonies” --_London Literary Chronicle, June 7th, 1828_]--TRANS]
On the 21st of Noveoes only every other day to the Natural Bridge, which is on the road to Knoxville and Louisville, and this bridge being too far distant froo there, and return within two days We e the country The town itself is small, has about one thousand six hundred inhabitants, and consists, properly speaking, of but two principal streets, intersecting each other at right angles The greatest part of the houses are of wood, covered with shi+ngles Staunton is the chief place of Augusta county; the court was in session, and on that account a great many lawyers were present The town is surrounded by hills and covered ood, as far as I could observe in the foggy weather, which lasted all day The Shenandoah here is but a s many cavities I was told they were very spacious I tried to creep in, but found the entrance so narrow and low, that I was obliged to give it up I had obtained froton, a letter of introduction to Dr Scheffey, her brother-in-law, and the most renowned lawyer in the place
I delivered it, and received a visit froentle theenerals of militia were introduced Dr Scheffey himself was a major, and almost every inhabitant of distinction is invested with a rank in thehere to call one another by their military rank, one is tempted to believe himself transported to the head-quarters of soentlemen, I observed with astonishinians possess I was astonished to hear theeniture! In the evening I went to see Dr Scheffey, and we spent the tilass of wine, and in rational conversation
The next e in Staunton at half past two o'clock, in a e, upon a very bad road We passed only two decent places, Fairfield and Lexington, the last is the chief town of Rockbridge county, and has a court and high school On account of a fog, which lasted all day, we could see but little of the country, which in soe county becomes very mountainous We forded two small streams, called Middle river and Buffalo creek, over the last there is a wooden bridge, which iscoreeable, it was composed of two Americans, who did not open their mouths, and of an Irish resident, who talked the reeable enough At ti, when he had cheered his heart hiskey We passed by ht large black eagles sitting on a fence, they were fed by the care of the proprietor The inhabitants see, for I saw snipes in Fairfield, which flew even into the yard of the tavern Game is here very abundant, a deer costs about a dollar and a half
In the afternoon we reached a lonely tavern, situated in the e, which is fifty miles distant from Staunton
I availed myself of the short time the sun ree, which is a mile and a half distant froreat a circuit and suffered so ro slave froh roood At last I stood upon a rock whence I could overlook the cleft and the bridge just before ives a description of the bridge, which is as follows:
”The Natural Bridge, the h not comprehended under the present head, must not be pretermitted It is on the ascent of a hill, which seereat convulsion The fissure just at the bridge, is by some admeasurements, two hundred and seventy feet deep, by others only two hundred and five It is about forty-five feet wide at the bottom, and ninety feet at the top; this of course deterht from the water, its breadth in the middle is about sixty feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass, at the summit of the arch about forty feet A part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to e trees