to have so
noble an object as public accommodation. Through the whole of
the vast region we had passed, excepting at New Orleans itself,
every trace of the art of man appeared to be confined to the
individual effort of "getting along," which, in western phrase,
means contriving to live with as small a portion of the
incumbrances of civilized society as possible.

This road was made at the expense of the government as far as
Cumberland, a town situated among the Alleghany mountains, and,
from the nature of the ground, must have been a work of great
cost. I regretted not having counted the number of bridges
between Wheeling and Little Washington, a distance of thirty-four
miles; over one stream only there are twenty-five, all passed by
the road. They frequently occurred within a hundred yards of
each other, so serpentine is its course; they are built of stone,
and sometimes very neatly finished.

Little Washington is in Pennsylvania, across a corner of which
the road runs. This is a free state, but we were still waited
upon by Negroes, hired from the neighbouring state of Virginia.
We arrived at night, and set off again at four in the morning;
all, therefore, that we saw of Little Washington was its hotel,
which was clean and comfortable. The first part of the next
day's journey was through a country much less interesting: its
character was unvaried for nearly thirty miles, consisting of an
uninterrupted succession of forest-covered hills. As soon as we
had wearily dragged to the top of one of these, we began to
rumble down the other side as rapidly as our four horses could
trot; and no sooner arrived at the bottom than we began to crawl
up again; the trees constantly so thick and so high as to
preclude the possibility of seeing fifty yards in any direction.

The latter part of the day, however, amply repaid us. At four
o'clock we began to ascend the Alleghany mountains: the first
ridge on the western side is called Laurel Hill, and takes its
name from the profuse quantity of evergreens with which it is
covered; not any among them, however, being the shrub to which we
give the name of laurel.

The whole of this mountain region, through ninety miles of which
the road passes, is a garden. The almost incredible variety of
plants, and the lavish profusion of their growth, produce an
effect perfectly enchanting. I really can hardly conceive a
higher enjoyment than a botanical tour among the Alleghany
mountain