e no doubt that the Baltimore and Ohio, taken
as a whole, is by far the most picturesque and beautiful. The length of
the two roads is very nearly the same; but, while the whole of the
Baltimore and Ohio was beautiful, one side of the mountain being as much
so as the other, the first part of the road to-day, till we reached the
summit level, was very much of the same character as many other mountain
regions we have passed. For many miles the road followed the course of
the Conemaugh, crossing and recrossing the river, but without any very
striking feature. But the moment we had passed through a tunnel, 3612
feet long, and began the descent of 2200 feet, on the eastern side of
the Alleghany chain, the scene quite baffled description. The summit
level of the Baltimore and Ohio is 500 feet higher; but the descent
occupies a distance of seventeen miles, while the descent to-day was
effected in eleven, so that, with all our partiality for the Baltimore
and Ohio, it must be confessed there is nothing on it so wonderful and
sublime as this. One curve was quite appalling, and it was rendered more
so by the slow rate at which the train moved--not more, I should think,
than at the rate of two miles an hour--certainly not nearly so fast as
we could have walked, so that we had full leisure to contemplate the
chasm into which we should have been plunged headlong had the slightest
slip of the wheels occurred. How they can ever venture to pass it at
night is quite surprising. The curve is like a horse shoe, and goes
round the face of a rock which has been cut away to make room for the
road. Another superiority in the road we travelled to-day is the much
greater height of the surrounding mountains, and the extent of the
distant views;--but the greater height of the mountains had the
attendant disadvantage of the trees being chiefly pines, instead of the
lovely forest trees, of every description, which adorned the hills
amongst which we travelled in Maryland and Virginia, by the Baltimore
and Ohio railway.

I must, however, do justice here to the eastern side of the mountains.
For more than 100 miles we closely followed the course of the Juniata,
from its source to where it ends its career by falling, quite a
magnificent river, into the Susquehanna, about twenty-two miles above
this place. After the junction, the noble Susquehanna was our companion
for that distance, this town being situated upon it. The source of the
Juniata is seen ve