General observations upon this part of the Chain of the Alleghanies.—Salamander which is found in the torrents.—Bear hunting.
In Pennsylvania and Virginia the Alleghanies present themselves under the form of parallel furrows, but varying in their length. They are mostly near together, and form narrow vallies; but sometimes the interval that separates them is from twenty to thirty miles in length; again these spaces are filled with a multitude of hills of a lesser elevation, confusedly scattered, and in no wise affecting the direction of the principal chains. On the confines of North Carolina and Tennessea the Alleghanies are, {259} on the contrary, isolated mountains, and only contiguous by their base; they embrace also in diameter an extent of country less considerable, and which is not computed to be more than seventy miles. The furrow that bears more particularly the name of the Alleghany Ridge in Pennsylvania, and that of Blue Ridge in North Carolina, is the only one that, continuing uninterruptedly, divides the rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean from those that swell the current of the Ohio. The height of this chain is still infinitely less than that of the neighbouring mountains. It is here that the Alleghanies, which cross the United States for the space of nine hundred miles, have the highest elevation. This is the opinion of most of the inhabitants, who, from the mountainous part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, have emigrated on the confines of North Carolina, and who know the respective heights of all these mountains. That of the first rank is called Grandfather Mountain, the next Iron Mountain, and thus in succession Yellow Mountain, Black Mountain, and Table {260} Mountain, which are all situate upon the western rivers. On the top of Yellow Mountain, the only one that is not stocked with trees, all the abovementioned may be seen.
We may again remark, in support of the preceding observation, that from the 10th to the 20th of September the cold is so keenly felt upon the mountains that the inhabitants are obliged to make a fire, which is not the case upon any of those in Virginia, although they are situated more northerly by several degrees: and besides I have since seen in my father’s notes that he had observed trees and shrubs upon the Yellow and Grandfather Mountains that he did not meet with again till he reached Low Canada.
As the only ideas given concerning the height of the Alleghanies are the result of observations taken in Virginia, we see, according to that short exposition, that we have but an inaccurate account; this induced me to point out the highest mountains where their true elevation might be ascertained. They are about three hundred and sixty miles from Charleston, in {261} South Carolina, and five hundred and fifty from Philadelphia.
The mineral kingdom is very little diversified in these mountains. The mines which have hitherto been found are chiefly those of iron. They are worked with success, and the iron which they derive from it is of an excellent quality.
In the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia the land, frequently dry and flinty, is of an indifferent nature. Here, on the contrary, the soil far from being flinty, is perpetually moist, and very fertile. We may judge of it by the vegetable strength of the trees, among which we observed the red and black oak, the sugar-maple, the ash, the yellow-blossomed chesnut, or the magnolia acuminata and auriculata, and the common chesnut, which grows to a prodigious height. The side of these mountains that looks north is sometimes covered exclusively with the kalmia latifolia, or calico-tree, from twelve to fifteen feet high. They frequently occupy spaces of from two to three hundred acres, {262} which at a distance affords the aspect of a charming meadow. It is well known that this shrub excels every other in point of blossom.
In the great woods the superficies of the soil is covered with a species of wild peas, that rises about three feet from the earth, and serves as excellent fodder for the cattle. They prefer this pasturage to any other, and whenever they are driven from it they pine away, or make their escape to get to it again.
These mountains begin to be populated rapidly. The salubrity of the air, the excellence of the water, and more especially the pasturage of these wild peas for the cattle, are so many causes that induce new inhabitants to settle there.
Estates of the first class are sold at the rate of two dollars, and the taxes are not more than a half-penny per acre. Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, and peach trees, are the sole objects of culture.
In the torrents we found a species of salamander, called by the inhabitants the mountain alligator; {263} many of which are upwards of two feet in length.[59] It was in Doe river that my father caught the one which is described in The New Dictionary of Natural History, published by Deterville.
The inhabitants of these mountains are famed for being excellent hunters. Towards the middle of autumn most of them go in pursuit of bears, of which they sell the skins, and the flesh, which is very good, serves them in a great measure for food during that season. They prefer it to all other kinds of meat, and look upon it as the only thing they can eat without being indisposed by it. They make also of their hind legs the most delicious hams. In autumn and winter the bears grow excessively fat; some of them weigh upward of four hundred weight. Their grease is consumed in the country instead of oil. They hunt them with great dogs, which, without going near them, bark, teaze, and oblige them to climb up a tree, when the hunter kills them with a carabine. A beautiful skin sells for a dollar and a half or two dollars. The black bear of North {264} America lives chiefly on roots, acorns and chesnuts. In order to procure a greater quantity of them, he gets up into the trees, and as his weight does not permit him to climb to any height, he breaks off the branch where he has observed the most fruit by hugging it with one of his fore paws. I have seen branches of such a diameter that these animals must be endowed with an uncommon strength to have been able to break them by setting about it in this manner. In the summer, when they are most exposed to want victuals, they fall upon pigs, and sometimes even upon men.