European geographers however extended the name northwardly as far as the moun- tains extended; fome giving it, after their feparation into different ridges, to the Blue ridge, others to the North mounF [ 34 1 tain, others to the AUeghaney, others to the Laurel ridge, as may be feen in their different maps. But the faft I beUeve is, that none of thefe ridges were ever known by that name to the inhabitants, either native or emigrant, but as they faw them fo called in European maps. In the fame direction generally are the veins of lime- ftone, coal, and other minerals hitherto difcovered : and fo range the falls of our great rivers. But the courfes of the great rivers are at right angles with thefe.
James and Patowmac penetrate through all the ridges of mountains eaftward of the AUeghaney; that is broken by no wa- ter courfe. It is in faft the fpine of the country between the Atlantic on one fide, and the Miffifipi and St. Laurence on the other. The paffage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge is perhaps one of the moft ftupendous fcenes in nature. You {land on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to feek a vent.
On your left approaches the Patowmac, in quell: of a paflage alfo. In the moment of their jundion they rufh together againft the mountain, rend it afunder, and pafs off to the fea. The firft glance of this fcene hurries our fenfes into the opinion, that this ea»^th has been created in time, that the mountains were formed firft, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue ridge of moun- tains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that continuing to rife they have at length broken over at this fpot, and have torn the mountain down from its fummit to its bafe. The piles of rock on each hand, , but particu- larly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their difrupture and avulfion from their beds by the moft powerful agents of na- ture, corroborate the impreffion. But the diftant finifhing which nature has given to the pidure, is of a very